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Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Broke my heart over and over again. The picture of the greatest men of entire races being butchered, often under a flag of truce or a promise of parley, by idiot, drunken soldiers will never leave me. And the white men honestly thought they were superior! We made treaties with Native Americans...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“It is taking me a long time to get through this absolutely maddening history.”
Holly wrote this review 6 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Excellent study of the western expansion of white society and subjugation of the western tribes.”
John H wrote this review 12 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Every Native American should read this book.”
Frost F wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. NY: Holt, 1971.
Elizabeth L wrote this review 2 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Reading Level: Ages 16 – adult
Format: This book is written in a documentary and anthology style, with each chapter focusing on a different group or tribe of Native Americans. To enhance the information in each reading, poems, lyrics, songs, and photographs are included for reference. 449 pages (not counting the notes or Bibliography at the end)
Summary: In this book, the author uses historical accounts, biographies and autobiographies, literature, photographs, documents and records, and personal accounts and narratives to tell the story of the systematic elimination of the Native Americans by European Americans. In the first chapter, Brown explains to the reader how it all began, with Christopher Columbus and other explorers arriving to the Americas and making their own judgments about Native Americans, with additional explorers, settlers, and colonists following suit, coming to America, forming negative opinions, and trying to destroy the natives. In each following chapter, Brown first gives a chronology of the time and place to set the stage for the upcoming narrative and then proceeds to tell the harrowing and haunting story of a different Native American tribe, leader, or battle, detailing the daily lives of those Native Americans, their cultures, their beliefs and religions, their hardships, and their forced assimilation and/or extermination. She reports in a chronological narrative of Native American history their interactions with the settlers, colonists, and soldiers as well as the warfare and mass murder that inevitably follow. In each case and for each tribe, Native Americans were feared, viewed as savages or barbarians, deceived, thoroughly taken advantage of, and then massacred. Brown focuses her writing on the following tribes and groups: the Navaho, Mdewkanton, Cheyenne, Plains Indians, Sioux, Pawnee, Arapaho, Crow, Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Seneca, Blackfoot, Modoc, Klamath, California Indians, Nez Perces, Ponca, Otoe, and Utes. This book even includes the interactions of the Native Americans with such famous figures as General Sheridan, General Custer, Buffalo Bill, and Annie Oakley.
Evaluation: This is a history lesson right here in our own country that many people know so little of or do not want to think so badly of. What happened to the Native Americans was just as bad as – and perhaps even worse than – what happened to African Americans here in the USA, but the horrors of what happened to the Native Americans is often overlooked, viewed with little significance, or forgotten altogether. In that light, this book sheds a new light on a truth that many people know about but do not know about extensively. Yes, many know how the Native Americans were systematically exterminated, but that knowledge is about as sterile and depth-less as surface-level readings of Jesus’ crucifixion. The horrors that Native Americans really endured in their experiences with the European Americans are painted accurately and vividly in this book, depicting genuine intensity of experience without relying on emotional appeal to achieve those results. This is an outstanding work that should be added as a mandatory component to secondary and college literature or Social Studies curriculums nationwide.
Curriculum Use: This is a book that I included in my Native American literature unit in my 10th grade World Literature class. This work can be used in World Literature, Social Studies, American History, Civics, World Cultures, and other curricular areas, but it can also be used to study philosophy, Western thinking, ethics, human rights, indigenous groups, colonization, and more.
Author’s Intent: Dee Brown portrays the truth about what really happened to Native Americans.
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“"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" is about the displacement and horrible treatment of Native Americans in the American West by the big, bad United States Government. I found out that this book was published during a time when the American Indian movement was in full swing, so it was on the bestseller list for over a year.
Madison S wrote this review 11 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I like this book for a few reasons. The first is that I have no problem finding fault in the ways of our government, and the second is that this book was so honest and didn't sugar coat any details about how we treated them.
On a personal level, this book broke my heart. I knew we treated the Native Americans like absolute shit, but it's so hard for me to read about how these beautiful and proud people were violated, humiliated, and nearly annihilated.
I would definitely recommend this book, and I believe that everyone needs to read this.”“Heartbreaking”
Cheryl K wrote this review Sunday, November 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book is fantastic. I am not a history buff per se, but found this book to be well written and insightful. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to learn more about the indigenous people of the Americas, their history, and their psyche.”
Wendy S wrote this review Thursday, November 5 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Sad history of the United States from the point of view of the Native Americans who lived on the land. Brilliantly told and utterly haunting.”
Deepak R wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“an all-time favorite. Can bring tears”
Diane B wrote this review Sunday, October 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
