Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.: An Indian History of the American West (Picador Books)

by Dee Brown

The American West, 1860-1890: years of broken promises, disillusionment, war and massacre.

Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos and ending with the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee, this extraordinary book tells how the American Indians lost their land, lives and liberty to white settlers pushing westward. Woven into a an engrossing saga of cruelty, treachery and violence are the fascinating stories of such legendary figures as Sitting Bull, Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo.

First published in 1970, Dee Brown's brutal and compelling narrative changed the way people thought about the original inhabitants of America, and focused attention on a national disgrace.

• ISBN10: 0805010459
• ISBN13: 9780805010459
• Publish Date: 15 January 1971
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Henry Holt & Company
• Edition: Owl Books ed.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 487
• Language: English

Reviews

[gmcgregor]

History is written by the victors, which makes you wonder how many more of the things we learn about have a completely different narrative from the other side. Like Manifest Destiny, for example. From what I recall from my K-12 history classes, this was a largely positive event, stretching the US from sea to shining sea. There's some token acknowledgment that it meant "resettling" the Native Americans, but it's not dwelled upon. Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, though, tells the story of the settling of the American continent from the people who were there first.

Since he focuses on the era of Manifest Destiny (there's some information about how European arrival in the Americas played out, but it's a small portion of the book), Brown confines his focus to the West. It's heartwrenching to read about from the perspective of now, because you know that each chief that tries to negotiate in good faith with the white people will eventually be cheated and that each warrior who tries to fight back against the people who were eroding their way of life will eventually lose. Brown uses as many Native American sources as possible to show how the westward march of white settlers progressed from the point of view of the people who were pushed away from the land and lifestyle they'd always known in order to make room. With each passing year, restrictions on their territory become tighter and tighter, but their inability to safeguard even the small promises that they were able to extract is just relentlessly sad to read about.

I think it's important to wrestle with all parts of American history, and remember that many of what we think of as gains come from losses by someone else. As such, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who's interested in how this country has treated its original residents.

[remo]

Historia de la conquista de los EE.UU. desde el punto de vista de los nativos americanos. Era lectura obligatoria en mi instituto de los USA, y me parece perfecto. Cuenta muchos episodios, que son todos muy similares entre sí. Desde el "te compro tierras o te mato" repetido mil veces hasta expulsarlos de sus lugares hasta el genocidio directo y por la espalda, pasando por las guerras, siempre perdidas por los nativos americanos, por supuesto. Es duro de leer, pero muestra que los USA que van tirando estatuas de Colón en realidad hacían lo mismo, si no algo peor (el tema del mestizaje en la Nueva España, las universidades creadas por España en los primeros 1500, casi 400 años antes de algunos de los hechos que se relatan en este libro, etc es de mucho debate pero lo obvio es que los americanos mataron a mansalva y no pararon hasta llegar al Pacífico, y ni entonces). Wounded knee alude a una de las muchas masacres, en las que en 1890 un regimiento (el famoso 7º de caballería) rodeó a un grupo de unos 300 Lakotas (hombres, mujeres y niños) y tras intentar arrebatarles las armas los acribillaron con fusiles y cañones, persiguiendo luego a los que huían desarmados y matándolos también. Una más de tantas, vaya.