First - I'll admit this book took me a lot longer to finish than I thought it would, granted it is 445 pages, but I still thought it wouldn't take me as long, and I admit that this was a hard book to read. There were a lot of names, a lot of dates, basically just a lot of information to digest and it sorta felt like I was reading a textbook and I am glad it is finished. Now - that being said - I loved this book. haha! This book is the Indian history of the American West. I am aware that all history books are a bit slanted and in favor of whoever the author supported, so I have taken that into account with this book. This book tells the story of the different Indian tribes and what happened to them when the white man came to America. The author cites many different sources (also includes pictures of the different Indians - I loved that). Brown shows how unfair and cheeting the white man was with the Indians. I am sure the Indians weren't all loving, they did their own stealing and killing and Brown includes that in this book, which makes me appreciate it even more because he didn't try to hide anything in order to make you in favor of the Indians. I think this is a book everyone should read, it really shows you the Indians story, something that you don't get in school (or at least I didn't).
Here is an example of one of the things I found interesting. On page 359 he starts talking about how some white men tried to helping Standing Bear keep some of his land, they actually went to court and won. This was the case of Standing Bear V. Crook. The judge on this case ruled the Indian as a "person" and therefore could not be forced to leave their land by force. Of course it was later determined that this case was only for Standing Bear and his tribe, so it helped them but no other Indians.
Here is an example of one of the things I found interesting. On page 359 he starts talking about how some white men tried to helping Standing Bear keep some of his land, they actually went to court and won. This was the case of Standing Bear V. Crook. The judge on this case ruled the Indian as a "person" and therefore could not be forced to leave their land by force. Of course it was later determined that this case was only for Standing Bear and his tribe, so it helped them but no other Indians.
Here is a funny story for you too. One of my co-workers was having back problems and his doc realized he wasn't sitting up straight and that can cause some back ache, so my co-worker was advised to sit up staight. So he stuck a post-it on his PC that says Sit Tall. Well, because I was reading this book with all the Indian names such as Sitting Bull and Old-Man-Afraid-of-Horses, etc, I started calling my co-worker Sitting Tall. lol! He is very happy I finished this book.
1 comment:
I loved this book. It was beautifully written and so moving.
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