Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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   jamie-wheeler Teacher
   College - Sophomore

   The answer is that well-worn but accurate adage, "history is written by the victors."  The treatment of Native Americans, as Brown so vividly depicts, is not a very palatable episode in the history of the United States. 

   The Sioux Tribe were to be relocated to a reservation by force but they refused to give up.  The resulting battle, known as the Massacre of Wounded Knee (1890) left over 300 men, women, and children dead. 

   Broken treaties, mistreatment, and ghettoization of Native Americans has been the norm.  Chief Joseph, one of the Lakota Sioux whose words Brown captures in his text, explains the discontent and dismay of his people.  He writes:

   “I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and broken promises…. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. …I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.”

   Along with slavery, the treatement of Native Americans remains one of the most closeted and uneasy subjects in our nation's history. 

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/bury-heart

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   Posted by jamie-wheeler on Sunday March 23, 2008 at 7:02 PM