In The Shadow of Wounded Knee: The Untold Final Story of the Indian Wars

by Roger L. Di Silvestro

At the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation on January 7, 1891, Lieutenant Edward Casey (the last white soldier to die in the Indian Wars) was assassinated by Lakota warrior Plenty Horses. Four days later peaceful Lakota hunters were ambushed by rancher Pete Culbertson and his brothers. According to frontier justice of the day, Plenty Horses would have been summarily hanged and the Culbertsons never brought to trial, but public opinion, inflamed by the massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, led to Plenty Horses and the Culbertsons being tried in civilian courts. In telling the dramatic story of these events and their impact across the nation, In the Shadow of Wounded Knee shows America at the instant it was shifting from a wild frontier country into a modern nation and how the cost of building the country was paid not just in human lives but with the sacrifice of human hopes and dreams and the future of entire native cultures.

Genres: History, American History

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far from my normal genre, but an interesting read on the American/Native American conflicts at the end of the 1800s.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched concerning the trials of Plenty Horses for the killing of Lieutenant Edward Casey, and of the Culbertson brothers for the killing of Few Tails. Very poorly researched account of Wounded Knee relying exclusively on the work of other secondary sources. Disappointing that modern historians so readily accept the work of earlier authors rather than take the time to pour through the volumes of testimony and first person accounts that detail that American tragedy. Rather than study and report on a well recorded historical record, so many authors are satisfied with recording what they have come to believe, and want their readers to believe, a politically correct and socially acceptable version of events.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't exactly an 'untold' story. The first half of the book was told, and with considerably more emotion and detail, in Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". The second half is more original, but no less uncompelling: a typical legal proceeding mixed with some cursory information on Native American culture. Any firsthand account of Native American life from a personal perspective is appreciated, but here, it's not enough to justify this book, especially in light of Dee Brown's earlier work.