Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Sterling Publishing Co. Inc, New York, 400.p.p
Dee Brown, acknowledged for his writings about the west was born in Alberta, LA, in 1908. He loved reading from childhood just like his mother who brought him up after the demise of His father. He wrote his first story at the age of seventeen and sent it to a magazine. While living in Washington D.C, he met Sherwood Anderson, one of his favorite authors. He published several books such as Wave High the Banner (1942), Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee(1970),Fighting Indians of the West, Trail Driving Days, The Settler's West, Grierson's Raid and Yellow horse.
The book gives a clear replica of the historical tragic experiences of all the American Indians in the whole of the 19th century. At the beginning of the book, Colombus arrives in America and for the first instance sees the Indians. Colombus then takes ten Indians to Spain for what the book refers to as “introduction to white man’s ways”. During the journey to Spain, one Indian dies before arrival but he had already been baptized as a Christian. The death after the baptism was a source of joy to the Spaniards who were happy for having enabled the first Indian to enter heaven. This occurrence would later serve as a good avenue to spread the good news/ gospel across the whole of West Indies. The white settlers had one strong but naïve belief that all Indians needed to be converted into Christians so as to access heaven. Other white settlers just like Colombus start streaming in to America and pushing the Indians out of their land as they took it over. Initially, it was all known that Indians could occupy any part of the region on the West of Mississippi. The white settlers had a monopoly occupation on the land to the right and no Indian would be accommodated on the “white land” on the right. As more settlers continued coming in to America, the Indians were being pushed more to the western Periphery to give room for the new entrants. The historical landmark in the advent of settlers on the American land was the discovery of gold by the white settlers. This led to the forced eviction of more Indians out of their lands. This lad to fury on the part of the Indians and eventually a civil war broke out.
The Indians in the book are depicted as people who could not at any time attain their independence on the American land. They were veteran victims of deadly attacks by the groups of settler soldiers in a bid to contain them to compliance and residential restrictions. The Indian tribes mentioned in the book include Navahos, Santee Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Plains Indians, and Apaches. Occasionally, the Indians waged fights against the soldiers but they would end up as losers. The serial defeats in all wars and battles against the soldiers by the Indians coupled with the massive loss of Indian lives instilled a lot of fear and pessimism in the Indians such that they could not attempt to wage any war against the soldiers but would comply to the reservations dictated upon them by the soldiers.
The vibrant Kiowas tribe was the first to wage a war against the soldiers in the stewardship of Kicking Bird. Even though they never emerged winners, they managed to put up with the might of the soldiers and fought them off for some long time such that they managed to contravene their reservation and moved to a place where they could practice buffalo hunting and enjoy some freedom. This state of temporary victory for the Kiowa did not last long. The soldiers could proceed to identify and arrest some Kiowas members for detention. The soldiers aimed at arresting the great warriors of the tribe including the war leader, Kicking Bird. After the arrests, the soldiers employed a ruthless way of eliminating the great tribe warriors: they could kill them. The killing of the great warriors was a punishment for defying the soldiers and escaping reservation. It was a method of instilling more fear to the Indians so as to ensure they were submissive to the settler soldier rule. Any tribe which launched any quest for freedom was served with similar ruthlessness by the white settler soldiers to ensure that all Indians subscribed to the white rule. The soldiers eventually resolved to shift the Cheyennes people in the North to the South where their counterparts lived. The soldiers used trickery on the Northern Cheyennes to relocate to the south on the promise that they would go back to the North if the conditions in the south were unfavorable. Life in the south was really hard for the newcomers could not practice agriculture. They resorted in to hunting for a living. Their requests to revert to the North were in vain and so they decided to take a brave risky step of reverting back to the North. The white soldiers followed them in a bid to stop them from reverting to the North. The encounter with the soldiers resulted in a battle. The battle ended in disfavor of the Cheyennes who were eventually held as prisoners by the soldiers.
An unusual event transpired in court after an abortive attempt to escape from a reservation by the Poncas. Standing Bear who was their leader represented them and when he was arraigned in court, ironically the court awarded the case in his favor just like the white men. He won the case and secured a release for all Poncas. This was however freedom for Standing Bear but not the Poncas according to the soldiers.
Another tribe, the Utes were also aggrieved by the actions of the settlers in grabbing their land. Instead of waging a battle, they decided to present their grievances against the white men through the mass media. Ouray the Arrow, the chief of the Utes held out when a treaty on land contravened the actual provisions of their entitlement. Nathan Meeker came up with the intention of depriving the Utes of everything they owned. The Apaches enjoyed some degree of independence than the rest of Indians and were free to rule themselves in their reservations. Their freedom was heightened when John Clum, managed to expel the soldiers from the reservation and he appointed an Apache police force alongside establishing a legal system with courts for the apache. Due to the shrewd administration, Clum would absorb the into the Apache reservation. He only managed to win a part of the Chiricahua population while the rest fled to the neighboring Mexico under leaders such as Geronimo. Soldiers were later deployed to the reservation. Clum did not like it and so he resigned. The resignation of Clum was an onset of crises in the reservation, The population in the reservation swollen against few supplies, the Chiricahua decided to quit the reservation but they did not get far before they were hit by the Apache police who confiscated their properties and let go of the people. These wrangles within the reservation drew in more soldiers.
An attempt to end the chaos within the reservation, general Cook was brought in the reservation to take charge. Later, Bear coat took over after Crook was reprimanded after Geronimo and other warriors fled back to Mexico. Bear Coat decided to send his mercenaries to hunt Geronimo and his counterpart warriors in Mexico. Geronimo surrendered eventually and alongside his soldiers they were taken to Fort Marion in Florida where he later died and was buried.
Sitting Bull and his people eventually returned to their reservation in the United States after a failed attempt to secure residence in Canada. Sitting Bull was held as a captive but he remained popular with his people and grew to the level of a celebrity. He later died and the Indians believed that the ghost dance would enable them get peace and freedom from the whites. Eventually, the Indian chiefs moved their people from the reservations an action which saw many of them captured and wounded. The soldiers brought the captives to wounded knees as well as confiscating the weapons to prevent any retaliatory attacks. All the wounded people were taken to the Pine Hill for medication in a hospital made out of a church.
The writer is very elaborate in presenting his ideas in the book. He is for instance so clear in displaying his hate for the discriminatory system of the settlers against the Indians. It is a book of serial tragedies for the Indian tribes who undergo similar experiences of trauma and deprivation by the white soldiers. Every chapter presents a specific tribe as a victim of the white villainy and injustice. The book is a good, clear and authentic representation of the betrayals of the Indian Americans during the 19th century by the US government. All through the story, the author employs several sources to keep a smooth flow of the content. Such sources as the valid council records, autobiographies as well as personal descriptions are used all along in the story. The author relies on such materials almost in every chapter where every leader (chief) and warriors are allowed to express their own bitter experiences with the soldiers in the battles, and all the bloodshed encounters which could eventually leave the tribes smashed down. John Clum, Nathan Meeker, Standing Bear, and Kicking Bird were good examples of leaders who give their personal experiences in the story. Being a story of its own type as well as its potential to spur emotional trouble, it is presented with utmost vigor and audacity to display the western way of ruthless conquest over the Indians. “The tribes could lose many lives in any battle against the soldiers”. This feature makes it a historical and memorable story whose content could persist in the eyes of readers as long as the human race exists. The author, being a human being does not like the oppression and discrimination of the Indians by the soldiers and more so the deadly battles waged by the soldiers against any radical tribe. For instance he does not like the trickery on the Cheyennes and the force meted out on them when they tried to revert to the North. The writer has employed precise and understandable language in the story. It is a complex but readable as well as understandable. The choice of words and grammar foundations form an excellent literary work for the author. He avoids getting into rigid and complex grammar and such styles to leave the story clear to the reader. The story also gives a complete account of the Indian experience during the 19th century. It explains the troubles and injustices borne by the Indians in America over the century of focus.
References.
Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Sterling Publishing Co. Inc, New York,
