Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: Native American Strength
This paper analyzes Dee Brown's landmark book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, examining its major themes of deception, cultural destruction, and Native American resilience. The paper evaluates how Brown weaves Native folklore, poetry, and firsthand accounts into a comprehensive history told from the Indigenous perspective. It discusses key figures such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, and Black Kettle, and considers how the book's portrayal of forced relocation, the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, and the legacy of broken promises illuminates the enduring strength and tragedy of Native American peoples.
- Introduction to Dee Brown's Landmark History: Overview of Brown's scope, style, and significance
- The Wounded Knee Massacre and Its Symbolism: 1890 massacre as symbol of hatred and misunderstanding
- Deception, Relocation, and the Loss of Native Culture: White deception strips Natives of land and identity
- Heroic Figures and the Theme of Resilience: Key Native leaders embody strength and determination
- Native Spirituality, the Natural World, and Survival: Spirituality and nature sustain Native identity after relocation
- Conclusion: A Trail of Blood and Enduring Strength: Book's lasting testament to Native dignity and survival
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its analysis in direct quotations from both the primary text and secondary scholarly sources, lending credibility to its interpretive claims about Native American resilience and white deception.
- It balances literary analysis (examining Brown's narrative style and use of folklore) with historical commentary, demonstrating that the book operates on multiple levels simultaneously.
- The use of multiple Native American voices — Tecumseh, Black Kettle, Red Cloud — gives the argument an evidentiary texture that avoids overgeneralization.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively employs thematic synthesis: rather than summarizing the book chapter by chapter, it identifies recurring themes (deception, cultural destruction, Indigenous strength) and traces them across different characters, events, and quotations. This approach shows how a reader can move from plot summary toward interpretive argument in a book review or analytical essay.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a statement of purpose and an overview of the book's scope and significance. It then moves through the Wounded Knee Massacre as a symbolic centerpiece, the theme of white deception and relocation, individual Native American figures as embodiments of resilience, and the role of spirituality and the natural world in sustaining Native identity. The conclusion returns to the book's emotional core with a final quotation from Red Cloud, tying theme and evidence together neatly.
Introduction to Dee Brown's Landmark History
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown has become a classic of American historical literature because it was the first major work to tell the story of the Battle of Wounded Knee — and the broader conquest of Native lands — from the Native American perspective. The book skillfully weaves Native poetry, folklore, and songs into its narrative, illuminating what Native Americans endured as white settlers took over their lands and upended their lives. It stands as a testament to their strength, character, and pain.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a complex and comprehensive history of Native Americans told from their own point of view, rather than from the perspective of white historians. Brown's writing style engrosses the reader, though the book's length — over 500 pages — may put some readers off. Beyond bare history, Brown incorporates Native American writings, folklore, and myths that deepen the work's authenticity. Throughout, he illustrates how Native American tribes were thriving and vital societies that lived off the land and understood the complex natural world and humanity's interaction with it. One of the book's central themes is the continual deception practiced by white settlers and government officials, and Brown's accounts of forced relocation to reservations demonstrate this deception clearly. The setting is North America — primarily the American West, where most relocations and confrontations between white settlers and Native peoples took place.
The Wounded Knee Massacre and Its Symbolism
The book's title refers to an infamous confrontation in 1890 in South Dakota. The U.S. Army considered the Native Americans gathering at Wounded Knee Creek a threat, intercepted them, and — after a shot was fired — responded with devastating force against largely innocent people. As historian Francis Paul Prucha documents, "Indians were shot down by the soldiers without discrimination of age or sex. A total of 146 Indians were buried on the battlefield, 84 men and boys, 44 women, and 18 children, many of them frozen in distraught postures by the blizzard that swept down upon the scene after the massacre" (Prucha 729). This single tragic episode is representative of thousands of others, but more than that, it is a symbol of the hatred, mistrust, and misunderstanding that defined the relationship between white America and Native peoples.
References
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2001.
Lyman, Stanley David. Wounded Knee 1973: A Personal Account. Eds. Floyd A. O'Neil, June K. Lyman, and Susan McKay. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Mieder, Wolfgang. "The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian: History and Meaning of a Proverbial Stereotype." Journal of American Folklore 106.419 (1993): 38–60.
Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
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