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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West |
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
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by Dee Brown
Sales Rank: 14206
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List Price: $16.00
$14.11
At Amazon
on 6-20-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 512 pages
Published by: Holt Paperbacks; 30th Anniversary edition January 23, 2001
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0805066691
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0805066692
Book Dimensions:
8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Review
First published in 1970, this extraordinary book changed the way Americans think about the original inhabitants of their country. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending thirty years later with the massacre of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31 million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into ever-shrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint. Accustomed to stereotypes of Indians as red savages, white Americans were shocked to read the reasoned eloquence of Indian leaders and learn of the bravery with which they and their peoples endured suffering. With meticulous research and in measured language overlaying brutal narrative, Dee Brown focused attention on a national disgrace. Still controversial but with many of its premises now accepted, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has sold 5 million copies around the world. Thirty years after it first broke onto the national conscience, it has lost none of its importance or emotional impact. --John Stevenson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This 1970 volume greatly changed the view of pioneers' westward advancement. Based largely on primary source materials, this volume details how white settlers forced Indian tribes off the plains, often simply by killing them. Though Hollywood and penny dreadfuls portrayed Indians as red devils who launched unprovoked attacks on innocent homesteaders, Brown's research shows that the opposite is closer to the truth. The text is buttressed with numerous period photos. An essential purchase. (LJ 12/15/70)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Reader Reviews
Since its publication in 1970, Dee Brown's well-documented history of American Indians from 1860 to 1990 has sold more than 5 million copies. Mr. Brown quotes from original documents, including translations of the actual words of the Indians as they made their eloquent pleas for justice in the many councils they attended and where they were deceived again and again by white men who robbed them of their land. Even though there's a certain sameness to the outcomes, each tribe had a different experience. The Indians didn't have a concept of ownership of land. To them, it belonged to everybody. As they couldn't read, they didn't know what they were signing, but even when they did understand, it was just a matter of time until new laws took even more land away. And then there were the massacres. I had tears in my eyes while reading about them, especially in the descriptions of the cruelty to women and children. The Indians fought as best as they could, but they were no match for big guns and well-equipped armies. It was an awful time in our history, one of shame for Americans. Throughout the book I couldn't help thinking about the real stories it contained that would make great movies. There's the story of the Seneca Indian who took the name Ely Parker and studied to be a lawyer. Because he was an Indian, he was not allowed to practice and so he became an engineer. During the Civil war he was Military Secretary to U.S. Grant. Later, he was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs. How that all played out is a fascinating story. And then there is the story of the Ponca Indian, Standing Bear, who left the reservation in the late 1870s with a small band of people. Because of some helpful white men, his case was argued in the courts. The issue was whether or not an Indian could be considered a "person" and thus be able to live where he chooses. He won his case. But, alas, the outcome was ruled to just apply to his band and not to all Indians. There was often dissention within the tribes themselves. And deception and intrigue. In one case, a chief was bullied by his people into murdering a white man. Later, the very people who had forced him to do this turned him in to be hanged. And then there is the story of the white man married to an Indian and their half-breed children. The children all were able to read and write and there is a lot of documentation about what happened to all of them. I just wish that somebody would write these screenplays. Surely they would be better than some of the make-believe hogwash about Indians that we've all seen. It seems they're either depicted as savage villains or subjected to too much political correctness. And talking about political correctness, I'm not sure about whether the term "Native American" is appropriate. As Mr. Brown's book was written in 1970, he referred to them as "Indians". Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is a well written and worthwhile book. It's upsetting of course, but I am glad for the perspective it gave me. I think it should be required reading in American History classes in high school. Recommended.
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
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Updated on 6-20-2008.
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