Brown has found the words of the native peoples of America from journals, court transcripts and from treaties and tied them into an historical narrative.
It's painstakingly researched and incredibly detailed but it's not dull. This is the story of the Sioux, the Apache, the Navaho and the Comanche, the story of Sitting Bull, of Crazy Horse, of Geronimo and Chief Joseph. He wrote it to redress the balance, if you like. He wrote it to put different people in your mind's eye. Is that how you think of it? Do you think of Billy the Kid, of "Wanted" posters, of gunfights? Or of prospecting for gold? Or of pioneers, wagon trains and homesteaders? Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee thirty years ago. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee was published in 1971 - I think before we all became so careful about the terms we use). (I'm saying Indian, not Native American because that is the term used by Dee Brown. It's the story of the American Indian peoples. This is the story told by Dee Brown, it's the story of the people for whom the West was lost. It's long and dense, but eminently readable and a salutary lesson to us all.ĭo you know how the American West was won? Do you think that the American West was won, even? Because, for a lot of people, it wasn't. Summary: A savage indictment of the genocidal policy Manifest Destiny, which effectively wiped out the indigenous civilisation of the US, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee is a sad, sad book.
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