Product Description

First published in 1970, this extraordinary book changed the way people thought about the original inhabitants of America. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31 million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into ever-shrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint. Accustomed to stereotypes of Indians as red savages, many white people were shocked to read the reasoned eloquence of Indian leaders and learn of the bravery with which they and their peoples endured suffering. With meticulous research and in measured language overlaying brutal narrative, Dee Brown focused attention on a national disgrace.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2873 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
A well-intentioned, weepy account of frontier wars against the American Indian. The scope of the book is more restricted than the subtitle suggests, dealing almost exclusively with the Fate of the Cheyenne and the Sioux between 1860 and 1890. Though amply researched, the narrative is excessively anecdotal and apart from the eloquent testimonials of the Indians themselves concerning their progressive disillusionment with the good faith of American treaty-makers, there is almost no sense of historical development. Every Indian warrior from Black Kettle to Sitting Bull is portrayed as a noble and pathetic soul while the American generals are simply butchers and sadists. Though Miss Brown perceives some differences between the appeasers and the radicals, her treatment of Indian nationalism lacks sophistication - thus for example, the glaring contrasts between Black Kettle, the white man's friend, and the militant Dog Soldiers who broke away from his authority, are neither stressed nor interpreted. Similarly, the crucial role of the half-breed as emissary between two civilizations is not sufficiently explored either in psychological or political terms. Between massacres, Miss Brown provides the background to such immortal American aphorisms as Custer's "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." A good book to read before taking off to see Soldier Blue. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Dee Brown was born on February 28, 1908, in Alberta, Louisiana and died in 2002.