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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, 1908-2002 Published: 1971 J J J J J I I I I I Table of Contents Dedication Preface Introduction & Chapter 1 … „Their Manners are Decorous and Praiseworthy” Chapter 2 … The Long Walk of the Navahos Chapter 3 … Little Crow’s War Chapter 4 … War Comes to the Cheyennes Chapter 5 … Powder River Invasion Chapter 6 … Red Cloud’s War Chapter 7 … „The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian” Chapter 8 … The Rise and Fall of Donehogawa. Chapter 9 … Cochise and the Apache Guerrillas. Chapter 10 … The Ordeal of Captain Jack. Chapter 11 … The War to Save the Buffalo. Chapter 12 … The War for the Black Hills. Chapter 13 … The Flight of the Nez Percés. Chapter 14 … Cheyenne Exodus. Chapter 15 … Standing Bear Becomes a Person. Chapter 16 … „The Utes Must Go!” Chapter 17 … The Last of the Apache Chiefs. Chapter 18 … Dance of the Ghosts. Chapter 19 … Wounded Knee. Bibliography Index * * * * * Illustrations 2 Manuelito, chief of the Navahos [painted by Julian Scott for the United States Census Bureau in 1891] 2 Juanita, wife of Manuelito, as a member of the Navaho delegation to Washington in 1874 [Photo from the Smithsonian Institution] 2 A Navaho warrior of the 1860’s [Photographed by John Gaw Meem and reproduced by permission of the Denver Art Museum] 3 Little Crow, or Tshe-ton Wa-ka-wa Ma-ni, the Hawk That Hunts Walking [From a photograph taken in 1858 by A. Zeno Shindler, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 3 Big Eagle [Photo by Simons and Shepherd at Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa. Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society] 4 Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs meeting at the Camp Weld Council on September 28, 1864. 4 Little Raven, chief of the Arapahos. [Photographer not recorded, but taken prior to 1877. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 4 George Bent and his wife, Magpie [Photographed in 1867. Courtesy of State Historical Society of Colorado] 4 Edmond Guerrier, interpreter [Photographer not recorded, but taken prior to 1877. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 5 Red Cloud, or Mahpiua-luta, of the Oglala Dakotas [Photographed by Charles M. Bell in Washington, D.C., in 1880. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 6 Spotted Tail, or Sinte-Galeshka, of the Brulé Sioux. [From a painting by Henry Ulke made in 1877, now in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.] 7 Roman Nose, of the Southern Cheyennes. [Either photographed or copied by A. Zeno Shindler in Washington, D.C., 1868. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.] 7 Tosawi, or Silver Knife, chief of the Comanches. [Photographed by Alexander Gardner in Washington, D.C., 1872. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 8 Ely Parker, or Donehogawa, Seneca chief, military secretary to U.S. Grant and Commissioner of Indian Affairs [Photographed around 1867. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 9 Cochise [Reproduced from a painting in the Arizona Historical Society] 9 Eskiminzin, head chief of the Aravaipa Apaches [Photographed probably by Charles M. Bell in Washington, D.C., 1876. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 10 Captain Jack, or Kintpuash, Having the Water Brash [Photographed by L. Heller in 1873. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 Satanta, or White Bear [From a photograph by William S. Soule, taken around 1870. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 Lone Wolf, or Guipago [Photographed by William S. Soule sometime between 1867 and 1874. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 Kicking Bird, chief of the Kiowas [Photographed by William S. Soule at Fort Dodge, Kansas, in 1868. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 Ten Bears of the Comanches [Photographed by Alexander Gardner in Washington, D.C., 1872. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 White Horse, or Tsen-tainte [Photographed by William S. Soule in 1870. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 11 Quanah Parker of the Comanches [Photographed by Hutchins and/or Lanney on the Kiowa reservation (for Kiowas, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apaches) in Oklahoma between 1891 and 1893. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 12 Sitting Bull [Photo from the U.S. Signal Corps] 12 Gall [Photo from the U.S. Signal Corps] 12 Two Moon, chief of the Cheyennes [Courtesy of Denver Public Library] 12 Hump [Photographed at Fort Bennett, South Dakota, in 1890. Photo from the National Archives] 12 Crow King of the Sioux [Courtesy of Denver Public Library] 12 Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses [Courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society] 12 Little Big Man [Photo from the U.S. Signal Corps] 12 No photograph of Crazy Horse has ever been authenticated, but Amos Bad Heart Bull made this pictograph of his murder at Fort Robinson [From The Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux, University of Nebraska Press, used by special permission] 13 Chief Joseph of the Nez Percés [Photo from the National Archives] 14 Dull Knife [Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 14 Little Wolf [Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 15 Chief Standing Bear of the Poncas [Courtesy of Nebraska State Historical Society] 16 Ouray [Courtesy of State Historical Society of Colorado] 16 Nicaagat (Jack) [From a group photograph taken around 1874. Courtesy of State Historical Society of Colorado] 16 Quinkent, or Douglas [Courtesy of State Historical Society of Colorado] 16 Colorow [Possibly a William H. Jackson photograph. Courtesy of State Historical Society of Colorado] 17 Geronimo [From a photograph taken by A. Frank Randall in 1886. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 17 Naiche and his wife [Courtesy of Arizona Historical Society] 17 Victorio [Courtesy of Arizona Historical Society] 17 Nana [Courtesy of Arizona Historical Society] 18 Wovoka, the Paiute Messiah [Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 18 Kicking Bear [Photo by David F. Barry, from the Denver Public Library Western Collection] 18 Short Bull of the Sioux [Photo by David F. Barry, from the Denver Public Library] 18 John Grass [Photo by David F. Barry, from the Denver Public Library Western Collection] 19 Big Foot in death [Photographed at the Wounded Knee battlefield. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution] 19 Red Cloud in old age [Reproduced from the collections of the Library of Congress. Photograph by E. S. Curtis] J J J J J I I I I I For Nicolas Brave Wolf Preface AN ANCIENT TRADITION TELLS us that the interval between the birth of the parents and the arrival of their first offspring averages thirty years. We call that a generation. Thirty years ago, early in 1971, this book was born. And so now it is beginning its second generation. As the first generation ends, it is almost a cliché to say that enormous changes have occurred during the time that has passed. Yet vast changes certainly have affected the present-day descendants of the old tribal prophets whose stories are told in these pages. During the past generation, some tribal reservations have prospered, others have not. There are now, and probably always will be, disagreements within tribes as to the direction their people should take. In spite of the many personal frustrations and difficulties young seekers of knowledge experience, it is no longer unusual to meet American-Indian lawyers, physicians, college professors, computer specialists, artists, writers, or members of almost any other profession or trade. Yet on some reservations there is still a shortage of proper places in which to live. And the county with the deepest poverty in the United States is still a tribal reservation. Judging from letters I have received through the years, the readers who have given life to this book come from almost all the hundred or so ethnic groups that comprise this unique and awesome place called America. Small though the comparative number of American Indians is, almost all other Americans seem to have an earnest fascination for their history, their arts and literature, their attitude toward the natural world, and their philosophy of human existence. And this wide interest exists beyond the borders of America into the lands of other people and other cultures. Name a small nation, one whose people have a history of past injustices and oppression, and this book will likely be in print there. We rarely know the full power of words, in print or spoken. It is my hope that time has not dulled the words herein and that they will continue through the coming generation to be as true and direct as I originally meant them to be. DEE BROWN in the year 2000 Introduction SINCE THE EXPLORATORY JOURNEY of Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Coast early in the nineteenth century, the number of published accounts describing the “opening” of the American West has risen into the thousands. The greatest concentration of recorded experience and observation came out of the thirty-year span between 1860 and 1890—the period covered by this book. It was an incredible era of violence, greed, audacity, sentimentality, undirected exuberance, and an almost reverential attitude toward the ideal of personal freedom for those who already had it. During that time the culture and civilization of the American Indian was destroyed, and out of that time came virtually all the great myths of the American West—tales of fur traders, mountain men, steamboat pilots, goldseekers, gamblers, gunmen, cavalrymen, cowboys, harlots, missionaries, schoolmarms, and homesteaders. Only occasionally was the voice of an Indian heard, and then more often than not it was recorded by the pen of a white man. The Indian was the dark menace of the myths, and even if he had known how to write in English, where would he have found a printer or a publisher? Yet they are not all lost, those Indian voices of the past. A few authentic accounts of American western history were recorded by Indians either in pictographs or in translated English, and some managed to get published in obscure journals, pamphlets, or books of small circulation.
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