A New History of Native Americans Responds to ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’

Too much of what this govt has done in the past and currenlty doing is the opposite of govt of the people, by the people and for the people. (plus back then I think several groups were not necessarily included under "people"!) Of course this will not change until govt has strong enforcable fair campaing laws and strict finance laws. All these acts some of which are buried in accepted "history" or lost in the current chaotic political climate are for the short term profit and benefit of a few. Misinformation of the past and misinformation in the present = illinformed electorate.

The genocide of the indigenous peoples of North and South America, Central America and Canada is a great crime, to be sure, and one of the two original sins of the United States, the other of course being slavery. What is to be done? We now live comfortable, affluent lives because of the murder of these people, and the theft of their land. To state the truth that everyone on earth who lives in a relatively stable and prosperous nation got there by killing or displacing the pre-existing populace is by no means to absolve ourselves of responsibility. Our duty is to help the Native Americans in every way we can, and to firmly resolve to end exploitation that continues to this day. Native Americans are still being driven off their territories, not by muskets and horses but by poisoned water and clever legal maneuvers. This is one area where a pure market economy and meritocracy, with claims to individual initiative, and the myth that America is full of self made men who rose from nothing, have little relevance. We need to go out of our way to give them, and American descendants of slavery, education, and business opportunities.

Didn't see any remarks in the review about the effect that the Indian Gaming Act of 1978 had on Standing Tall. The effects in my opinion are that the ability to game has provided political strength, both tribally and in state/federal matters that were not possible before the Act. As the federal dollars to the BIA continue downward both government and tribally contracted programs are weakened. Gaming dollars are not only spent in a less encumbered manner by the tribes but can help basic tribal government functions such as courts, housing, education, elder needs, not to mention per capita $, etc. Pleasure to comment. My thanks. Former BIA Superintendent, CFR Court prosecutor, Tribal Court judge and tribal member Oklahoma Choctaw. Been some tee pee creepers in the background as well.

"Even before the United States joined the war in 1917, some Indian men had migrated into Canada and joined other Native Americans, like Francis Pegahmagabow (Ojibwe) from Wasauksing First Nation". Way to go, NYT cultural imperialists! Let's annex the entire continent and call ALL original peoples "Native Americans", even when they are from another country. They won't mind - how could they? Manifest Destiny!

Is the point to absolve the US of genocide? Would someone write a book that advocated a view that held that "after the Holocaust the Jews showed tremendous resilience"? Which book's purpose would be interpreted as staying "the Holocaust didn't tell the whole story, so let's trash Schindler's List," etc. That question answers itself.

Folks reading The Heartbeat, might also want to look at King Phillips War, dealing in detail about the first big confrontation of Native Americans and the newly arrived settlers. I came across the book because my first ancestor was killed in one of the battles. But the book is a fascinating account of the friction between the races and how poorly the differences were handled. And continued to be poorly handled up through Wounded Knee into modern times. There is little difference between what the whites did here than the horrific moves by the Colonial powers in India, South America and Africa. The myopic xenophobia of the English settlers in Massachusetts in the 1700's as outlined in King Phillip's War, still resonates.

Look, too, at The First Frontier, by Scott Weidensaul (2012) for more on early native American history. Early native American tribal life had its own dark and violent side, regularly shown in interactions with each other prior to the arrival of Europeans here in the 16th through the early 18th centuries and then in their interactions with the new-comers. It wasn't all sunshine and light. Their raiding, kidnapping, scalping, and torture practices, and betrayals of agreements with each other and with the early Europeans, did not, unsurprisingly, win them a place in the hearts of our early white settlers. They were almost always uncomfortable neighbors. Failure to develop a common language or writing left virtually no real history of their early life in North America. That and failure to discover how to work with metals stunted development of any more advanced culture. Worse, in trading with early Europeans, mostly for weapons, they also acquired decimating disease (small pox), against which they had no natural defense, killing off an unknowably large percentage of their entire population. Native Americans' post stone age, hunter-gatherer civilization was never going to fit comfortably into a land dominated by technologically advancing European newcomers. The tale of how poorly native Americans remnants fared here in the late 19th century cannot totally surprise. What else should have been expected? Surely nothing utopian. Their past wasn't utopian either.

Certainly a book on my to read list. Since I read "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" I have read everything I can find on the history of the American Native people. Our dealing with these people is one of the most disgusting things our country/people have ever done.

Imagine if, instead of destroying the indigenous cultures, Europeans had merged with them. . . . Admittedly, a naive thought. Nevertheless, before we decimated the native peoples, they were not a sick culture on the way to dying.They did not live miserable, soul crushing lives, slaves to a system that dehumanized them. Their political governance was not mad, dysfunctional and actively subverted the 'will of the people.' Religion was not a tool for power and submission, but a cultural celebration lived every day. They were not scourged with depression and loneliness, nor the diseases increasingly infecting us. And we considered them the savages! We will either change our culture or die. Unfortunately, I fear death will be the choice, with too many people being asked to 'give up' too much (which, ironically, would make us freer), hanging on to a zero-sum game. We are arrogantly, foolishly, and lazily relying too much on technology to 'save' us. Some of our answers have been right in front of us all along, but for a sense of racial, cultural, religious, and social superiority we remain in ignorance. We have an opportunity to explore new ways and incorporate the knowledge acquired by a culture in many ways smarter. We need to find ways, and space, to give people from both cultures a chance to come together and live with different options and an alternative life that might even point the way forward. The future of all people living on this land depend on it.

Over the last 20 years, many deeply-researched studies have been published, revealing that since European settlers arrived on this continent more than five centuries ago, millions of indigenous people have been murdered or driven off their land, from the Atlantic states to the Pacific, by Spanish armies or militia as well as American. The details and scale of this documented history are rarely taught in American schools and rarely taken up in the media save for book reviews. What a national service it would be if the New York Times not only recognized this historical disgrace, the impact of which is with us today, but made it a long-term, ongoing reportorial project.

Over the last 20 years, many deeply-researched studies have been published, revealing that since European settlers arrived on this continent more than five centuries ago, millions of indigenous people have been murdered or driven off their land, from the Atlantic states to the Pacific, by Spanish armies or militia as well as American. The details and scale of this documented history are rarely taught in American schools and rarely taken up in the media save for book reviews. What a national service it would be if the New York Times not only recognized this historical disgrace, the impact of which is with us today, but made it a long-term, ongoing reportorial project.

When will Native Americans integrate sufficiently in American life so that the horrors and ills found on so many reservations comes to an end ?

As a young woman In the 70's, I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and it broke my heart. I hate what this government/inhabitants did historically to the American Indian. Then, it was the hungry European immigrants looking to improve their lives at others' expense--not satisfied with a small piece of the pie but wanting the whole pie. Actually, though, not much has changed since then, only now it is the wealthy doing it to the poor disenfranchised (all ethnicities). It seems that continuing greed, especially what we see today, will be America's downfall.

Once again, white America gets it wrong. NYT, your caption" ". . . .their ancestors were buried": Nope. These are relatives. "Ancestors" makes it seems like ancient history. This is family history. Almost within living memory.

Lets not forget Massacre Canyon, a Monument in Nebraska, to the massacre of Pawnee by the Lakota.

The recounting of massacres, broken treaties, racial animus, and the perpetuation of the "victim" brand will only go so far. A lot of (mostly young) white people who are first becoming aware socio/politically, take up the victim narrative in an uncritical, all-good guys vs all-bad guys fashion. Back in 1970, I was one of them. Over the years, I have observed that, outside of the shared identity as victims, the majority of NA people have no unifying identity base. When tribes were intact and running their own show, there was no larger national or global culture to hold themselves in comparison to. Or to repel invaders. Today, regardless of how they got here, every person alive knows that there is this huge world beyond them, going on, with or without them. Generally, in the young, life wants to push ahead of the past, to assert in the present, to race toward the future. One of the things that I have no control over is how people raise their children; with what mindset? Does the average Native kid grow up with encouragement to enable themselves to change beyond their own present circumstances? Carrying the collective sense of self-as-victim; as being forever powerless, cannot lead to a healthy self assertion. And without the idea that, "I will grow beyond the failure of the past, I will be the exception; I will lead my people to a contemporary identity as Native Americans," we'll be mourning the sad history years from now, to no avail. No child is born defeated!

Since we can't be certain of the current truth, what makes any of us believe we can be certain of the past?

About 250 Native Americans died during the Wounded Knee Massacre, in 1890, but it was far from the worst massacre. At least 486 Mandan and Arikara villagers were slaughtered during the Crow Creek Massacre in 1150. The attackers scalped and mutilated the victims before burying them in a mass grave. Anthropologists surmise the massacre was part of competition between tribal groups for land and resources. Today, the Crow Creek Village is a well preserved archaeological site near Chamberlain, South Dakota, not far from Wounded Knee. The 1813 Fort Mims Massacre in Alabama was also worse than Wounded Knee. About 450 died when Creek Indians massacred the fort’s small garrison and hundreds of men, women and children who had fled to the fort for protection.

I'm concerned that by not paying for Indian Health Services during the shutdown, Trump is violating treaties. Sounds like grounds for impeachment to me. I look forward to reading Treuer's book. Thanks for the review.

Who of us can identify our ancestors back seven generations, much less expect to be one seven hence?

As long as Poor Privileged White Men must speak "with forked tongue", this Nation will never heal toward Justice.

I cannot wait to read this book. My eyes were opened to the true history of Native Americans by James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me." It is an amazing history neglected by earlier American history books. Hopefully bringing this history to light will help change the way we all view all our fellow Americans.

The reservation system was created in the 1800s because Native Americans were thought to be genetically incapable of assimilation and acculturation, but today only about one-third of Native Americans live on reservations. The United States should close the Bureau of Indian Affairs and end its oversight of Native American affairs. Native American reservations comprise 52.2 million acres, but there are only about1.9 million enrolled tribal members. Let them decide whether to collectively manage reservation lands or sell the land and divide the proceeds among individual tribal members.

Our government has not honored treaties it made with our Native brothers and sisters!

I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" when it came out. It made me question everything I had been taught or believed. The story I had been told in School was a lie. What else was a lie? I started to reexamine everything I been taught in school. I grew up being told the government would never lie to us. I had just returned from my forced military service. Being drafted against your will can and does radicalize some people. I knew by then that everything the government told us about Viet Nam was a lie. 55,000 Americans had died to prevent the spread of communism. Some were my friends. Americans and Vietnamese were still dying and our President was trying to establish relations with the largest Communist Country in the world. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" changed my whole way of thinking. No book since has had the impact that book did. What we did to the Indians was not what were taught in school. Western movies, John Wayne were all lies. I started reading all I could about what we had done to the Indians. Genocide. Hitler thought we would understand what he was doing to the Jews because we had done the same thing to the Indians. Now we have a President that lies so much that we can no longer know when he might be telling the truth. The book taught me that not only has the government lied, but that it continues to lie.