Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown


Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Most people from my generation (X) take for granted that everyone is aware of the atrocities committed against the Native American peoples of the United States in the name of "Manifest Destiny". There was a time, however, not very long ago, when children still played games of cowboys and Indians, pitting the valiant U.S. Cavalry against bloodthirsty savages. This book, published in 1970, went a long way towards correcting 100 years of misinformation and ignorance concerning the plight of the people who lived in this land when the Europeans arrived.



Brown was remarkable because he was not a "trained" academic historian (whatever that means), amassing his wealth of information through years of personal research while a librarian at the University of Illinois. This book is hard to read, mainly because it contains story after story of the deliberate, systematic extermination of tribe after tribe. However, it should be required reading for anyone interested in American History. This book is, to put it plainly, the other side of the story.


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15 January 2009