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Dee Brown: Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

N

Nerubian

New Member
Just finished reading this. Quite an eye opener on how the "land of the free" was founded. Skeletons in the closet dont get any bigger.

Im just wondering how factual and literal it is.
The book contains so much detail and specifics on hundreds of conversations, fights, skirmishes what have you. I dont see how its possible to know the exact movements and activities down to almost the minute of hundreds of individuals over a 100 years ago. Especially from a people with no written language.

What are your feelings about the book?.
 
I've read it and it does seem to be factual, at least that is to say it corresponds to other accounts I've read. If you liked it/found it informative try reading "A Little Matter of Genocide" next...
 
I keep trying to read this book, but it's so boring I fall into switch off.

I believe it to be a true account. The Native Americans had no written language to begin with - I'm sure they managed to learn in the two hundred or so years before they were pushed out.;)

Please encourage me to persevere with my reading.:) I'm so sure it must be worth it.
 
First time I only read it half way through then stopped. Its quite a depressing read.
You should stick with it though.
 
This is a good book to read when you want to get angry and kick things! Well, it's true! I was so angry for awhile after reading this, I wanted to hitch a ride on a time machine and go back to tell the founding fathers to change their policies pdq. But then, I settled down and realized that it wouldn't matter, they'd not believe me anyway.
 
A few years back, I stepped onto the Wounded Knee battlefield in South Dakota two days after I finished reading this book. It's an appropriately stark place and fits the tone of Dee Brown's prose as she descrives the ghost dance and the final battle. Sad heartbreaking stuff. But by far the most depressing passages relate to the peaceful tribes in Florida and up the West coast who offered no resistance and were wiped out with no effort. They subsequently vanished from history. The US tends to only remember tribes that resisted, such as the Lakota and the Cherokee. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" gives a good overview of American Indian history up to the end.
 
I've managed to read it all at last. It's a very sad story. Humans really are the worst animal on the planet by a distance!
 
They've now made a film of this book. I watched it the other day and it's very good. I'm glad I persevered and read the book first, but it's not essential, the film stands up for the truth.
 
My folks have this book but I have never read it. Maybe I'll "borrow" it when I go visit them for Thanksgiving.
 
Sounds enlightening.

Anyone interested in a research book specifically about the treatment of the Mi'kmaq, an eastern Canadian First Nations tribe, should try We Were Not the Savages.

The man my home town was named after gave Mi'kmaw people small pox infected blankets as gifts. And, the British government had scalping proclamations against the Mi'kmaq. Twenty English pounds for a man's scalp, and ten for women and children. There were actual hunting groups that did it as a job because of the lucrative "bounty".
 
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