Matthew McElroy ’s Reviews > The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend > Status Update

This book had taken a turn for the worse, with its military strategy minutiae. The last few chapters have turned around as we are reaching the climax of the story.
Clearly the Plains Nations have put up a wonderful and courageous fight against the invaders. White people wanted the Dakotas so bad they marked half of it off for reservations and national parks. But calling this a war so far seems like a stretch.

This book is due at the library on Wednesday- no more renewals. I'm going to give it an honest effort, but I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to read every page. I could see myself reading the last two chapters and The Epilogue. When the focus was on the culture of the Sioux and their dynamic, it was exciting and engaging. As we get more into the negotiations and war strategy, it just drags.

I don't think military history is my thing. I love history, and I'm always down for a new perspective on history. There is some information about the lives of the Plains Nations here, but much of this is the perspective of the United States, and different military and political strategies. I am big fan of keeping your title/thesis at the core of the book, and the authors don't seem to be doing that.

Like so many things, the cultural differences lead to incredible complications. Apparently, the Native Americans of the Great Plains viewed war as a thing that happened and when it was over, it was over. It wasn't necessarily a thing that required all of society to change its ways or assassination or anything like that. I may be oversimplifying, but I'm raised in the west, as well.

The material is compelling, but there is something about the writing that leaves me cold.
Maybe it's the material itself: the people asking for peace, like the Shoshone and the Omaha are being massacred between the Sioux and the United States.
The Seven Sioux nations are defending their territory, but they have been pretty vicious about it since long before white people/Europeans/Americans showed up.

I am fascinated to see what research the authors did to get this level of detail.
America has done a pretty lousy job with Native Americans throughout history. They were barbaric savages, peaceful naturalists, spiritual guides, but always a single group of people. Clavin and Drury make it clear that even among the Plains nations, there is a wide variety of lifestyles.
The Sioux are not my favorite.

There is some excellent stuff in here and some... eyebrow raising stuff in here. I'm early on, so the good: the hard work at providing Native American history, even before the arrival of barbarian hordes from the east. They do a great job of explaining how there are different cultural groups within larger... ethnicities? If we talk about Plains Indians, there are 30 nations, and those are broken into smaller tribes.