2011 Reading #71: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Aug 15, 2011 15:57

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.

71. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Reading this book is like riding a pendulum between rage and depression. It's one thing to know that the U.S. repeatedly cheated, bullied, or murdered Native Americans, and it's quite another to read the details of case after case of the government--either through its representatives, or through its own remoteness or apathy--doing just that. It's difficult to talk about these things, but that is a very good reason to read about them and to make damn certain that they are not forgotten. I see that Brown's scholarship has come under some scrutiny, and perhaps there's some small justice in this; having researched the Dakota War quite a bit myself, I felt that he may have misrepresented or misunderstood the relationship between Little Crow and Henry Sibley a bit, for example. But that seems a pretty minor matter to me. As to accusing him of bias, that's just laughable, given that we're still steeped in Manifest Destiny; our entire culture is biased in the other direction, so if Brown is biased then he's just a fart in a hurricane.

Although the book is fairly depressing on the whole, there is a lot to admire in many of the chiefs and other leaders, and even the occasional white player who doesn't deserve to be dug up and killed again. (Several times.) And amid all the heartbreak there are great moments like this speech from Sitting Bull, which I could almost imagine coming from Muhammad Ali: "My heart is red and sweet, and I know it is sweet, because whatever passes near me puts out its tongue to me."

books, history, 2011 reading

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