Most of his characters are pure heroes, they speak entirely in riddles, and he pours on emotion like it was a John Williams soundtrack. In telling his tale exclusively from the other side, Brown weaves a manipulative, overly literary tale. The most chilling massacres that Brown describes often occur simply because a few individuals decided - in a moment - they didn't care to be civil with these fellow human beings.īury My Heart is perhaps the pinnacle of pop history. Unlike the oligarchic genocide of the Nazis (where one feels as if removal of a few key figures would destabilise the structure), or the hereditary problems that plague, say, Israel and Palestine, this crime seems one of brutal, individual hatred. It seems gauche to qualify levels of genocide, but this remains a particularly insidious one. The freaking Emancipation Proclamation! Yet here, in the very same country, an entire race - nay, many dozens of races - were being wiped out. The publication of all the great works of Romantic literature and art. With a pointedness approaching black humour, Brown opens each chapter with a detail of the more commonly-known 'great' events that occurred around the world concurrently with that particular act of one-sided warfare.
Yet, it's easy to forget how marginalised this culture remains - in social understanding, in cultural portrayals, etc. Nowadays, we're more aware of the graphic nature of the treatment of the Native Americans, and so the book's heavy-handedness is particularly evident. Using transcripts, interviews and evidence from the time, Brown creates a moving portrait that shatters many myths which still resonate, and reminds us of the sins of such ground-level intolerance.Īdmittedly, the book would've held more sway when first released, for a generation raised on WWII and '50s-era patriotism.
Without resorting to extensive flashbacks or appendices, Brown manages to create a sense of the West's treatment of Native Americans from colonisation to the particularly brutal 1800s, when genocide was effectively carried out. Each chapter chronicles a particular battle, people, or plight, in rough chronological order.
To get the positives out of the way first: Dee Brown's immense wealth of knowledge and research contributes to make Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee a detailed-yet-well-paced experience. Heartbreaking, mindset-shattering, eviscerating.
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