49 pages • 1 hour read

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1970

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-6

Chapters 7-11

Chapters 12-14

Chapters 15-19

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Key Figures

Dee Brown (The Author)

Dee Brown (Dorris Alexander Brown) was a writer and historian who also worked as a librarian and professor. He was born in Louisiana in 1908 and grew up in Arkansas, where his love for spending time in the library led toward intertwining careers in writing and library science. Though Brown was not Native American, he had several meaningful encounters and friendships with Native American people during his youth, which transformed his perspective on Indigenous affairs. After studying in Arkansas and Washington, DC, he published his first book Wave High the Banner, a novelized account of Davy Crockett’s life, in 1942. Beginning in 1948, Brown worked as a librarian and professor at the University of Illinois, where he lived until his retirement in 1973. Brown’s last major work released in 1998, just four years before his death in 2002.

Over the course of his life, Brown wrote and published over 30 books, of which Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee remains the most famous and influential. His position as a librarian in a major university system directly benefited the book’s research, as its structure and perspective relied on thousands of archived documents from the late 19th century. Brown’s ability to access, analyze, and compare those archival resources enabled forgotten voices from the past to take on leading roles in shaping the book’s narrative. Many of Brown’s other books also focus on the American West and the period of its gradual conquest and resettlement in the 19th century. Some of his works focus on the Native American perspective (like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee) and others follow the points of view of white settlers. Considered as a whole, Brown’s historical scholarship was instrumental in shifting American public consciousness about Native American history toward a more sympathetic view of Indigenous nations and a more critical analysis of the United States’ expansionist policies.

Black Kettle

Black Kettle was a prominent leader of the Cheyenne nation in the territory that would later become the state of Colorado. He had been born into a group of northern Cheyenne, but married into the southern Cheyenne, where he ascended to become one of the group’s foremost leaders. Black Kettle represents a conciliatory strategy toward US expansion in the West. Convinced of the impossibility of stopping the influx of white settlers, hunters, and miners, Black Kettle tried to ensure friendly relations that would safeguard at least some portion of his people’s land. He agreed to a series of treaties with the government that guaranteed the Cheyenne nation would have a reservation, but each treaty was successively renegotiated or displaced.

Moreover, Black Kettle was exposed to violent assaults despite his attempts to maintain friendly relations with the US. He was a survivor of the unprovoked massacre on a Cheyenne/Arapaho camp at Sand Creek, despite having received promises of security and having personally flown an American flag there as a sign of his peaceful intentions. After the massacre, Black Kettle still chose a route of conciliation, leading many of his followers out of Colorado and following governmental directions to take up residence near a new Indian agency south of the Arkansas River, rather than retreating north to muster resistance with the northern Cheyenne and the Sioux. His continued trust in government intentions, however, would again turn to tragedy, as his band, which had largely been compliant with authorities, was attacked by George Custer’s cavalry regiment in 1868, leading to Black Kettle’s death by gunshot.

Red Cloud

Red Cloud was a prominent leader in the Oglala division of the Lakota Sioux nation, one of the most widely known and respected figures in the Native American resistance to US expansionist aims on the Great Plains. In contrast to Black Kettle’s conciliatory model, Red Cloud pursued both resistance and gradual accommodation at various times in his life. Red Cloud’s most significant period of leadership came in the late 1860s, as his coalition of Sioux and Cheyenne successfully repelled an army-backed incursion of white settlement in the Powder River Country. Reversing a long string of Native American losses, Red Cloud’s resistance forced the US to abandon its plans to open a major new road in the region.

After his successes in the Powder River region, Red Cloud led many Sioux bands in a gradual process of accommodating themselves to reservation life. This transition from resistance to accommodation was driven both by the gains solidified after the Powder River War, which established a relatively large initial area for Sioux reservation lands, as well as by a visit he made to Washington, DC, which convinced him that US expansionist policies were likely irresistible in the long term. Unfortunately, the condition of the Sioux nation under the care of the government’s Indian agencies continued to be tumultuous; failures to deliver promised supplies and the perpetual renegotiation of treaties forced many Sioux back into a state of resistance. Red Cloud did not join the Sioux wars led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, but he continued to advocate for better conditions for his people within the context of the reservation system. He was one of the few major Native American leaders of the period to die peacefully of natural causes in his old age.

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull, like Red Cloud, represented the Lakota Sioux nation (Hunkpapa division), but unlike the former leader, Sitting Bull’s strategy was one of resistance to the point of leaving the US altogether. As Sioux reservation lands were being slowly whittled down even though they had been promised and established by treaty, the spark of a new conflict was lit when rumors of gold emerged from the Black Hills, the most sacred part of Sioux territory. White encroachment on the area increased exponentially, and Sitting Bull, along with the famed warrior Crazy Horse, became the center of a growing resistance. They successfully defeated a large US army detachment in 1876, at a battle known as Little Bighorn, but were unable to make that victory a lasting one. Continued pressure from US army forces eventually forced Sitting Bull and his band to retreat across the northern border, seeking refuge in Canada.

Sitting Bull and his followers lived in Canada for four years; while safe from military aggression, they found themselves unsupported by the Canadian government and the residents of their new home. In 1881, Sitting Bull gave himself up to US authorities. Convinced that the possibilities for resistance were at an end, he started working as a performer with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show before retiring to an Indian agency’s lands in South Dakota. When the Ghost Dance religious movement arose in the late 1880s, Sitting Bull was incorrectly suspected of being a driving influence behind its emergence. When agency police went to arrest him, a struggle ensued, and he died of gunshot wounds.