No epoch in American history is so steeped in myth that the era of the Indian wars of the American West. Much of the academic and popular history, film and fiction has depicted the period as a struggle between absolute good and evil, reversing the roles of heroes and villains as necessary to accommodate the changing national conscience.

For the first eighty years after the tragedy at wounded Knee (Which marked the end of Indian resistance) the nation romanticized Indian fighters and white settlers, and vilified the Indians who resisted them. The cavalry appeared as knights in shining armor dedicated to conquering the wilderness.

In 1970 the story reversed itself, and the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme. Americans were awakening to the countless wrongs done to the American Indian. Dee Brown's elegantly written Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee shaped a new age and articulated the nation's feelings of guilt. The government, and the army were seen as willful exterminators of the native peoples of the West.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee still stands as the standard popular work on the era. It is both ironic and unique that so crucial a period of our history remains largely defined by a work that make no attempt, and offered no pretense of historical balance.

The Earth is Weeping aims to bring balance and a deeper understanding to the story of the era of the Indian wars, and the tragedy that befell the native people.

It is a useful single volume history, But it is a bit dry.
MJF
 

Last edited by Goose (1/07/2017 1:01 pm)