Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 01, 2022 Erica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2022

What a sad book. As literature, it may be a little lacking. Brown kept his own voice out of this telling. He doesn't even provide a closing. It just ends with the final act of genocide and a quote by Black Elk. There is no summing it up. It leave you feeling empty, unfinished. No background or "character" development is given to any of the players. There are so many names thrown around, it became hard to keep track of who was who. Maybe this was all intentional, I am not really sure. It does giv What a sad book. As literature, it may be a little lacking. Brown kept his own voice out of this telling. He doesn't even provide a closing. It just ends with the final act of genocide and a quote by Black Elk. There is no summing it up. It leave you feeling empty, unfinished. No background or "character" development is given to any of the players. There are so many names thrown around, it became hard to keep track of who was who. Maybe this was all intentional, I am not really sure. It does give the effect of the Indians telling their own story, in a-we don't really have the English language to embellish our story telling-sort of way. In an author's note in the front of the book Brown wrote, "Out of all of these sources of almost forgotten oral history, I have tried to fashion a narrative of the conquest of the American West as the victims experienced it, using their own words whenever possible. Americans who have always looked westward when reading about this period should read this book facing eastward."

I like that idea, facing eastward. And I think it really worked. And what it is that I feel is lacking is probably the white man's narrative, the insertion of meaning of into the events, the interpretation, making something a tidy story. But there is no tidy story here, and a white author has no right to insert narrative into the events. So maybe Brown's telling of this was just right.

Each chapter is the telling of yet another genocidal act upon a tribe. Each chapter feels extremely repetitive, same motives, same tactics, different tribe; same ending every time...drive what little is left of their people onto an ever shifting reservation/concentration camp. Purposely starved, slaughtered, lied to, beaten into submission...what hope could they have? Sad realization, the book could have been ten times longer and still not have covered all the tribes that were driven to near extinction.

The American West has always been my favorite place to read about. I have always looked at it facing west. I am grateful to have read about it now facing east. ...more

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Apr 08, 2021 Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: genocide, american-history, american-indian

Systematic annihilation of a specific race..... from Spanish conquistadors brutally killing every native they met to Hitler eliminating gays, Jews, cripples and retards (their words) this is genocide. Christians were slaughtered in Armenia and Urgyurs are being incarcerated and killed in China

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Aug 24, 2018 Wes F rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A truly sad & depressing account of the slow & systematic genocide of a group of peoples who were spread across continental N. America--the American Indian peoples. Lies, deceptions, & treaties broken time & time again, over & over. What I really liked in this account is the voice of a great many Indian leaders that speak loudly down through all the years since these sad/tragic events took place. Read this book as an audiobook borrowed from our library back in the US.

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