Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Native Americans have become a rare sight in today’s modern society. Their spiritual beliefs and ways of life have been demolished ever since the invasion of the white man. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee composed by Dee Brown is an Indian history of the American west. From the Navajo to the Sioux, this book explains and details the hardships and utter destruction that the Indian tribes of America endured due to the white mans fear and wrath.

No story in this book ends well. Instead of just reading it, the reader is supposed to comprehend the stories from a standpoint of a Native American as if the events were happening to you and your loved ones. With this point of view, the reader quickly becomes touched and angered by the history of Western expansion. As Natives in the east had been forced west of the Mississippi, they were promised those lands as their own where the white man would not interfere with their lives anymore. Assimilating into the tribes of the west, Native Americans believed the white mans promise and lived in peace.

Right off the bat, the story begins with the Navajos and immediately sheds light upon the cruelties and absurdness of what was done to them. Having already fought with the Spanish for centuries, the Navajos felt they were prepared to deal with the Americans coming west. Soon, American soldiers began appearing and creating forts across the Navajo lands of the south-west. With their livestock roaming freely on the unfenced land, Navajo herds entered the pastures where the soldiers livestock had been, and were all eliminated. To get the livestock back, Navajos started to steal the soldier’s livestock. This led the Army to begin attacking bands of Navajo’s. From there it was all downhill. Attacking forts and failing, the Navajo had fled but had been marked from killing. The soldiers were ordered to hunt down all the Navajo’s. Then the massacres began. Soldier’s pillaged and wiped out entire innocent villages. This is only one story in the book, with many others like it. All of which end up in large scale extermination.

This is a book that really appalls and makes you hate your countries history. The voices of Indians had never truly been heard. With lack records composed by the Natives, the majority of their history had been passed down through spoken word, generation from generation. Treaties between the white man and Indians also gave a little insight on their history and beliefs. Dee Brown did his best by compiling news articles, treaties, and stories from victims or relatives of those involved in the atrocities to create a great work or writing that affects our hearts in such a magnificent way. It wasn’t until 1971 that these historical events were brought together and to the attention of the American public. Being such an incredible and touching book, it easily became a best seller and is considered the most important contribution to American history.

As most would say it was how the West was won, it was really how the West was lost. The stories in this book seem almost fictitious because of the utter power and pain it holds within its pages that one would not want to believe true. All of the events will make one feel a deep sympathy for the Indians and their unreasonable destruction. Every tribe has a story, and all of them make the reader hate America more and more. From the first few conflicts to the final massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, these stories touch the reader in ways most books cannot.

This history of Native American in the West is one of great power and influence. It changes readers, and has shined the light upon what should be considered the darkest part of American history. The Indians had experienced a short but brutal annihilation, and those that survived the white mans wrath have been left with deep emotional scars that will affect their heritage for decades to come.