The truth about the war on the American frontier

books:

	• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Dee Brown Holt Paperbacks, 2001 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 168 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

It's been over 3 decades since Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was first written and it remains an authority on the history of the Native Americans in the American West.
Written from the native americans point of view, Dee Brown, an incredible historian, documents the conflicts and issues that eventually led to the settlement, forced settlement that is, of indians on reservations between 1860 and 1890. While describing these issues, Brown does not fall into the pattern of historians of exalting the white man while portraying the native Americans as savages. While sympathetic to the Natives, punches are not pulled about actions of either side. The history is much more complicated than a string of broken promises and broken treaties. The stories of different tribes as the Navajo, Apache, Ute, Cheyenne/Sioux, Kiowa/Puna have similar conflicts that these nations had with whites. Yet the side stories of the inter-tribal conflicts within nations and the different circumstances between the federal government and Indians are what make this book good, which are definitely explained with detail. The only bad things I have to say about the book are the lack of maps to explain the areas written about and the continuous, unchanging style of the book. It is a history book of course and therefore lacks the spunk of fiction novels.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an outstanding history explains many misconceptions caucasians have about the settlement of the west. I recommend it for anyone interested in the real history of the U.S.A., how the real American west was won, from the point of view of the people who lived it. All in all, I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars
Brian

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The truth about the war on the American frontier

I am no authority on the subject, and therefore am in no position to discuss the significance of this work in terms of American historiography, but on a personal level this book is one that has led to some soul searching, if you will. If read with an open and objective mind, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee leads one to question the legitimacy and manner in which Europeans "settled" this continent, not to mention how the original inhabitants have been treated since that time. Sadly, circa 125 years after the events in this book transpired, and some 30 years after the books was published, we see parallels in the modern world.

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The dark side of Manifest Destiny

America is legitimately a beacon of freedom to a weary and war-torn world. Really. What America has wrought serves as a shining example to all peoples for all time.

But when the Chinese, for example, chide us for our criticism of their treatment of the peoples of Tibet and Xinjiang by saying that we ought to get off our high horse, thay make a painful point.

Somehow, just after America finished spilling the blood of a million of its own people to preserve the Union and free the Negro slaves, the same people (Sherman, Sheridan, Custer, et al were heroes of the Civil War) took it upon themselves, as the instrument of a whole nation, to exterminate the Indians.

Why would a country emancipate and enfranchise its Negro slaves at such a staggering cost and almost simultaneously deny freedom, franchise and life itself to the Indians?

This book makes it pretty plain that the vast majority of the Plains Indians were no threat to anyone. For the most part they were pitiful and starving, and completley overwhelmed by the advance of our forebears. Most of the attacks by the US Army on Indian encampments caught the occupants completely by surprise and resulted in the deaths primarily of women and children.

But we already knew this, didn't we? What this book lays out is just how outmatched the Indians were and just how predatory the White Man was. No punches are pulled, but this is no polemic.

So what was the difference, in the late 1800s, between the Negro and the Indian? Why were they treated so completely differently? The only conclusion can be that the Negro didn't own anything of value at the time, whereas the Indian had the great misfortune to be living on land that a much stronger people wanted to occupy.

America can still serve as a beacon of freedom and rectitude to the world. But we did not come by this without some shameful behavior.

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Masterpiece forever

This book is, and will continue to be the authoritative thesis on the effects of the 'opening' of the American West in the late 1800s from the perspective of American Indians.

You can not understand American history if you haven't read this book. I know of no other book that could make this claim. Quite simply, no one has crafted what Mr. Brown has crafted in regards to communicating the effects the opening had on Indians, including their perspective on how this effected them personally, spiritually, and culturally. The lessons these people teach us have stayed with me for years; I try and emulate their dignity, their love for their country, and their love for each other, and easily admit their bar is set too high for me.

This book is also a great lesson that reading history only by the victors insures you really don't understand history at all. A great re-affirming lesson to me.

Besides its incredible impact on American history, its also an easy forthright read, if you don't mind crying about 20 times. Thus, I believe it should be a reading requirement for all high schoolers, especially in this day and age when many of our churches and politicians preach and condone bigotry and hatred of the "other".

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Heartbreaking

This is a heartbreaking tale of how the United States destroyed the native civilizations of North America. Dee Brown tells this story from the Native Americans' point of view. He details how Americans used a series of treaties to swindle the natives out of their land. Time and time again, these treaties were broken. Land was continually stolen from the natives, and when they tried to stand up for their rights as outlined in the treaties, then the U.S. army was there to murder and torture the natives until they could no longer resist. This book will prove to be an eye-opener. As an American, I was spoon-fed the theory of Manifest Destiny in American high school. I think it would be better to call it what it really is -- genocide. If you would like to read about "how the west was won," then I would recommend that you pick up this book, so that you can learn the real truth about American history.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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