"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, (1970). First edition
“An Indian History of the American West”
The photo on the dust jacket is of a Navaho warrior of the 1860’s by John Gaw Meem. Jacket design by Winston Potter.
From the blurb on the dust jacket flaps:
Traditional texts glory in our nation’s western expansion, the great conquest of the virgin frontier. But how did the original Americans – the Dakota, Nez Perce, Utes, Poncas, Cheyenne, Navaho, Apache, and others – feel about the coming of the white man, the expropriation of their land, the destruction of their way of life? What happened to Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Cochise, Red Cloud, Little Wolf, and Sitting Bull as their people were killed or driven onto reservations during decades of broken promises, oppression, and war?
“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is a documented account of the systematic plunder of the American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century, battle by battle, massacre by massacre, broken treaty by broken treaty. Here for the first time is their side of the story. We can see their faces, hear their voices as they tried desperately to live in peace and harmony with the white man.
With forty-nine photographs of the great chiefs, their wives and warriors; with the words of the Indians themselves, culled from testimonies and transcripts and previously unpublished writings; with a straight-forward, eloquent, and epic style “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” presents a unique and disturbing history of the American West from the Indian point of view.
Dee Brown has written fifteen books on Western American history. Now, a librarian at the University of Illinois, he has spent years researching and writing this important work.
From the back panel of the dust jacket:
“The whites told only one side. Told it to please themselves. Told much that is not true. Only his own best deeds, only the worst deeds of the Indians, has the white man told.” -- Yellow Wolf of the Nez Perce.
“We never did the white man any harm; we don’t intend to . . . We are willing to be friends with the white man. The buffalo are diminishing fast. The antelope, that were plenty a few years ago, they are now thin . . . When they shall all die we shall be hungry; we shall want something to eat, and we will be compelled to come into the fort. Your young men must not fire at us; whenever they see us they fire, and we fire on them.” -- Tonkahaska (Tall Bull) to General Winfield Scott Hancock
“The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was . . . The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man’s business to divide it . . . I see the whites all over the country gaining wealth, and see their desire to give us lands which are worthless . . . The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same. Say to us if you can say it, that you were sent by the Creative Power to talk to us. Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the Creator I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to live on yours.” -- Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perce.
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, (1970). First edition
“An Indian History of the American West”
The photo on the dust jacket is of a Navaho warrior of the 1860’s by John Gaw Meem. Jacket design by Winston Potter.
From the blurb on the dust jacket flaps:
Traditional texts glory in our nation’s western expansion, the great conquest of the virgin frontier. But how did the original Americans – the Dakota, Nez Perce, Utes, Poncas, Cheyenne, Navaho, Apache, and others – feel about the coming of the white man, the expropriation of their land, the destruction of their way of life? What happened to Geronimo, Chief Joseph, Cochise, Red Cloud, Little Wolf, and Sitting Bull as their people were killed or driven onto reservations during decades of broken promises, oppression, and war?
“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” is a documented account of the systematic plunder of the American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century, battle by battle, massacre by massacre, broken treaty by broken treaty. Here for the first time is their side of the story. We can see their faces, hear their voices as they tried desperately to live in peace and harmony with the white man.
With forty-nine photographs of the great chiefs, their wives and warriors; with the words of the Indians themselves, culled from testimonies and transcripts and previously unpublished writings; with a straight-forward, eloquent, and epic style “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” presents a unique and disturbing history of the American West from the Indian point of view.
Dee Brown has written fifteen books on Western American history. Now, a librarian at the University of Illinois, he has spent years researching and writing this important work.
From the back panel of the dust jacket:
“The whites told only one side. Told it to please themselves. Told much that is not true. Only his own best deeds, only the worst deeds of the Indians, has the white man told.” -- Yellow Wolf of the Nez Perce.
“We never did the white man any harm; we don’t intend to . . . We are willing to be friends with the white man. The buffalo are diminishing fast. The antelope, that were plenty a few years ago, they are now thin . . . When they shall all die we shall be hungry; we shall want something to eat, and we will be compelled to come into the fort. Your young men must not fire at us; whenever they see us they fire, and we fire on them.” -- Tonkahaska (Tall Bull) to General Winfield Scott Hancock
“The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was . . . The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man’s business to divide it . . . I see the whites all over the country gaining wealth, and see their desire to give us lands which are worthless . . . The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same. Say to us if you can say it, that you were sent by the Creative Power to talk to us. Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the Creator I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to live on yours.” -- Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perce.