Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown - 1970

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown - 1970

Introduction

When Dee Brown's history of the American West, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, was first published in 1970, it was unlike anything readers had seen before. For a century, legends and stories about the Old West had told of events from a strictly white perspective. According to popular belief, heroic men such as General George Custer bravely battled savage Indians to open up the American landscape and spread the light of civilization from coast to coast. It was seen as the "manifest destiny" of white Americans to take control of the land. In the history that was written by the victors, the Indians were cast not only as treacherous and violent, but also as an outright threat to freedom and progress.

Brown's exhaustively researched history shattered those myths. Events once seen as sources of pride for Americans, such as Custer's last stand at Little Bighorn and the "battle" at Wounded Knee, were suddenly recast as the shameful consequences of decades of mistreatment of American Indians. To support these views, Brown pored over countless historical documents, including official government reports and personal eyewitness narratives; a surprising amount of the book's text consists of direct quotes by both American Indian chiefs and white government officials.

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