Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown; narrated by Grover Gardner | 2009; originally published 1970 | Blackstone Audio | Audiobook $ 24.95

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown’s classic, eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the series of battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them and their people demoralized and decimated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was won — and lost.

My Classics Club list isn’t just for novels; nonfiction works can be “classics”, too. I am particularly drawn to history books. I know that there is so much that I don’t know, if that makes sense, about the uncountable events that have occurred over 5,000-some-odd years of recorded human history. Of course, it’d be impossible to learn everything about anything that happened over the entire course of the history of humankind… but a gal can give a good try!

What’s actually a little concerning to me – perhaps even a tad bit embarrassing – is all the gaps in my knowledge of the history of my own country. The U.S.A. is only about 2 ½ centuries old after all, which is fairly young for a nation-state, and yet there are so, so, so many things that have just slipped past me. One regrettable gap in my knowledge is the history of Native Americans. I remember briefly learning as a child about the First Thanksgiving and making a little model adobe house after learning about Puebloans; later, in college, I learned about some of the historical tribes of my home state during a class on the natural history of the local area. I picked up a few bits of info about various tribes when my family went on vacation to or through their ancestral lands, and I’ve seen plenty of artifacts in museums. But all that piecemeal content still hasn’t added up to much in the way of detailed knowledge.

When I learned that one of our local museums, the Houston Museum of Natural History, was redoing their Hall of the Americas, I suddenly felt compelled to go ahead and tackle this particular title from my list for Classics Club.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee covers the history of various native tribes in the western states (or states-to-be) in the late 19th century. Now, obviously, there was a lot of stuff that happened before that time and in earlier-colonized areas of the country, but the scope of this particular book is the last significant struggles of the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and westward against the violent extermination efforts of an expansionist government.

I listened to this book twice daily on my commute and never once needed to switch to the radio because it wasn’t holding my attention – which I often need to do, even with books that are ultimately enjoyable – but not because it was pleasant to listen to. Quite the opposite. This is a story of tragedy after tragedy, no less than a gradual but unstoppable genocide, perpetuated by a combination of even-more-dishonest-than-usual politicians with pet military bullies, and land-grabbing civilians of varying degrees of purposeful maliciousness emboldened by their support. 

It’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend a book that is so disturbing, but the subject matter is important and not nearly as well-known as it ought to be; I do feel that most of my fellow citizens should learn more about the true history of this land that we now call America, but I’d also caution potential readers about the brutality of the story. It’s an uncomfortable but important tale; pick it up when you’re feeling ready to confront some unsavory truths about our nation’s foundation.

That said, I also have to recommend to anyone in or visiting the Houston, Texas area to see the renovated Hall of the Americas at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. One of the major themes of the exhibit is “we are still here”; it features contributions from contemporary members of tribes from all over the continent, including interviews and special purpose-made items such as an Inuit inuksuk and a Tlingit Chilkat-woven blanket, as well as more traditional dioramas and artifact displays. The exhibit was designed with input from representatives of an Indigenous Advisory Council and everything is presented from a sensitive yet honest perspective; from this exhibit, I found some sense of hope for the future of native cultures, which made it an appropriate chaser to the 100 % tragic content of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Links:

• Entry for Dee Brown in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas
• Obituary for Dee Brown in the New York Times
• “Books that Shaped America” exhibit at the Library of Congress, incl. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
• “8 Ways to learn about Wounded Knee” article in Indian Country Today for the 125th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre

Publication information: Brown, Dee. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio, 2009. Audiobook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.