The United States of America committed genocide against Native Americans. It was initially piecemeal; as Manifest Destiny took hold in the mid-nineteenth century, it became exponential. The vast plains of the West were conquered by the US in one generation—1860-1890 (the focus of this book). There was nothing the Native Americans could have done to assuage the US. Treaties were made and ignored. Native Americans were left with no choice but to engage in warfare. They fought valiantly, but mostly...

This is one of those books whose great merit was in undermining itself. When it was first published, in 1970, it must have been a shock to the Americans who grew up reading and watching movies about the heroic cow boys, settlers, and soldiers who colonized the West. This was—and to an extent, remains—a key part of our national myth. But like so many national myths, it left unnoticed the people who were repressed, marginalized, or exterminated on the road to the country’s greatness. Books like th...

“I thought God intended us to live,” Standing Bear told Crook, “but I was mistaken. God intends to give the country to the white people, and we are to die. It may be well; it may be well.”- Standing Bear, quoted in Dee Brown's 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'One of the great histories of the United States. Published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a people's history; a history of those who lost, ultimately everything. From the beginning, Brown declares his intentions. He wants to tell t...

Dee Brown takes the reader on a thorough and quite disheartening journey through the military and political journey to settle the Western frontier of the United States of America. There is much within this piece of non-fiction that pushes the boundaries and Brown does not hold back in his delivery. The central premise of the book is to explore many of the Indian (and I use this term, as it is peppered throughout by Brown, though I acknowledge is a derogatory term in Canada) settlements and the g...

I read this book for the Goodreads' book club Diversity In All Forms! If you would like to participate in the discussion here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...I also read this as a buddy read with Matt :)Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was extremely heartbreaking, because it was so truthful. This book is told in story form. However, the author got his information from using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions.The stories range from multiple different tr...

Fair warning, there may be some political views in this review which should not be surprising being that this book is the history of a government slaughtering a native people because they were simply in the way.This book is a comprehensive history of the Native American from the moment when the white man showed up on this continent. It kind of goes a little like this.White guys: “Hey y’all. Love the feathers! Wow its cold and we’re hungry; you wouldn’t be so kind as to help us out.”Native Americ...

This was a remarkably depressing book. It is the sort of book that shows over and over again that there was literally nothing the Native Americans could have done to protect themselves from the all consuming and endlessly veracious greed of the European settlers. Just about every ‘tactic’ imaginable was used by the Native Americans – from treaties to war to abject capitulation – and nothing made any difference. The final result was always the same.This is a tale of genocide. It is a tale in whic...

Written in the 1970s, Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee remains a popular, relevant history of the Plains Indians. This is saying a lot. Aside from vague knowledge of Custer, and perhaps a viewing or two of Dances With Wolves, I'd venture that most Americans don't know or care much about this story. That makes sense, since it's never fun to think about the genocide committed by your ancestors. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee is styled as an Indian history of the American west. It's told fr...

I am FINALLY done with this book. It took me forever to read, largely due to the fact that it is absolutely heartbreaking. Most days I couldn't take reading it for more than 15 minutes. That said, I believe it is one of the most important books I have read in my life. I find it absolutely unbelievable that I grew in Wyoming of all places, where many parts of "Bury My Heart" take place. I was surrounded by Native American culture, I learned about them in school, we took field trips to see places ...

"The "land of the free" is no longer "the home of the brave.""It took me a long while to read this.It wasn't that it was a boring read. far from it. But it was a disturbing read, and the fact that each chapter follows virtually the same pattern made it that much harder to read. You knew from the start how each chapter would end, though you desperately hoped it wouldn't.Dee Brown's book should be required reading for every US citizen and on the book list for anyone considering US citizenship. It ...