Reviews

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

harlando's review against another edition

4.0

Awesome! This was a great book and really enjoyed it.

I don't think I was taught (public school, midwest, mid 80s to mid 90s) much about the Indian wars outside to the little bighorn and a passing mention of the trail of tears. It probably should have occurred to me that something was going on. The history texts made it seem like there were lots of native Americans around when Louis and Clark crossed the continent and that they somehow disappeared by the end of the civil war.

Clearly, they didn't just disappear. They were harried and harassed in a long series of military and civilian actions that did leave Native American's vastly depleted and dispossessed by the 1860s with those last battles of the Indian wars just around the corner.

I think the colonization of the Americas is the closest real world analogue to a sci-fi invasion from another planet. Cultural differences between Europeans and native Americans were deep. They were the same species, but I think that the two were about as far apart as one could get. The same would be true of European-aboriginal contact in Australia.

booksandquilts's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

cthonautical's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book has a lot of good information and is well written. The problem is that it's definitely an overcorrection from the savage indian narrative.

I know that overcorrection was needed in the 1970s when the book was written

It also seems to imply American nations just ended, which they didn't.

Still. Overall, worthwhile and a good starting point.

kiffy's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

trophywithabee's review against another edition

Not in the right headspace for this

lesserjoke's review against another edition

3.0

A somewhat dense history book, detailing the (mis)treatment of various Native American groups by the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Writing in 1970, white historian Dee Brown gathers from many previously neglected sources and aims to center this narrative in the Indian perspective, emphasizing how the federal government regularly lied and broke treaties in order to push the tribes off their lands. There's a heavy focus on military skirmishes and the overall lessons of the book are less revelatory now than upon its initial publication, but it remains a valuable look at the bloody campaign to seize our western frontier from its original populations.

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jamelchior's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs and Religious bigotry

brighteyed's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

really in depth examination of how different native people grappled with colonialism. but the author definitely acted as if native people all died after these genocides, and also sometimes paternalistic language leaks into his writing

dmaurath's review against another edition

3.0

This is an important book but a unfortunately repetitive one because unfortunately the story of the end of each tribe played out the same way each time. The author could have told fewer stories and let us get to know some of the chiefs and tribes better without hurting its message.

cubanito's review against another edition

4.0

This is the first book I've ever read that made me cry. Incredibly sad and infuriating but I think it's a must read to face the history that is often overlooked.