“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is a heartbreaking, but a truthful account of the war that was triggered off by Americans against the Natives. In this book, the readers get to know what the wars on the Natives really looked like. It is known that Native Americans had lived here long before the new people from the distant lands stepped on the continent. It is believed that when Europeans first arrived, they were greeted by the Natives with warmth and provided with all the essential goods that were needed. But the newcomers didn’t manage to answer in the same way. Instead, they triggered off war over the land, willing to move the natives further and set up new towns and villages. There were many books written on this topic. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is one of them. Its importance in the history of Native Americans cannot be denied, because it shows the policy that was applied by Americans and the responses it got. It also shows how bravely and desperately the Natives struggled for what used to be their homes. This paper proves the significance of the book in the history of Native Americans by focusing on several chapters and looking into what was going on during the war.
Chapter ten in the book seemed the most horrifying and hard to read. It emphasized what American soldiers did to the Natives on everyday basis. It’s scary to understand that at some point, their deeds became something normal, and the heads of the army didn’t even try to prevent what was going on. American soldiers were constantly killing the civilians, including the elderly, burning their houses and even shot a child in front of his mother (p. 225) It’s surprising that Americans fought in the places where the civilians lived and didn’t even move the armed forced someplace else, where the two sides could equally struggle. Native Americans reacted differently on such behavior: earlier in the book (and up to this page, although it was not directly indicated) they were outraged. But right now, they are already missing a lot of people. They are forced to give this battle up, turn around and leave, because they simply don’t have anything to answer Americans with.
Another thing that was pretty striking was the way the Native American soldiers were treated (p. 241) During the trial, after which Captain Jack and the others were to be executed, the American general insisted on hanging the Natives. It’s known that for many years after this war, African-Americans will be hanged too, but that will happen without any trial. Historically, hanging was considered the “dirtiest” death of all. Thieves were hanged on the streets to “teach” other people not to steal, and that was a huge shame for the thief and his family. Now, the Natives were a very proud nation, and we can only imagine how hard it might have been for them to undergo hanging. Not only did Americans ignore all the rules and ethics of war, but they also took away the chance from Captain Jack to at least die as an honorable human being. The Natives, so proud in past, kept quite during the trial, and after it ended, they secretly stole the body of Captain Jack. It was clear that they didn’t have enough strength anymore to fight the newcomers. To me, at this point in the book, although it might seem pretty early and the war is not over yet, the Natives look devastated and defeated. They don’t seem to want to fight anymore. Their reaction is more conformable than rebellious.
Apache resistance is described pretty vividly in the book. In the end, when the Natives lost and Joseph asked for freedom at the court, the attitude towards Native Americans becomes even clearer (p. 330) The man swears that he will follow the law, and the only thing he goes for is freedom to do whatever he wants, believe what he wants and live wherever he wants. But, of course, no one listens to him, and his request is denied. American soldiers showed themselves as the people who were unable to feel any compassion and guilt whatsoever. This chapter of the book also states that there were many cases when the Natives died of heartbreak (p. 329) That can be viewed as their ultimate reaction to a complete destruction of their sense of community, their pride, their history and heritage. Of course, as the government was now purely American, they couldn’t resist anymore, and so they conformed. They were sent away to the distant places, where they died of malaria or heartbreak.
While reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”, I found myself to be deeply disturbed by the events that were described in the book. All the wars that were fought against Native Americans will always remain a shame and dishonor of the American society. Those wars didn’t follow any rules and were nothing but a huge genocide. In this paper, I have given several examples of how the Natives were treated by Americans and how they reacted on such attitude. Today, Americans do a number of things to make things up between the two nations. They grant the Natives and their descendants with study scholarships and grants in order to help them gain something Americans took away from them some couple centuries ago – dignity and a proper life.
Works Cited:
Brown, Dee Alexander. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Chicago: Dramatic Pub., 1973. Print.
