Andrew University Affiliation and Extension Programs University of the Southern Caribbean Maracas Royal Road, St.

Joseph, Trinidad

A summary reaction of the film call Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Course

HIST205: American Experience 2 (Tue, Thu)

Instructor: Hayden McKenna By: Andre Prescott

Due: 5th March, 2009

Summary

Firstly this assignment is a summary for Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, which is a compilation of accounts covering a period in American history which should be basically remembered as straggles and hardship for these Indians in which they had to endure. It mainly focuses on the understanding of the Indians or Natives in America, it also reveal the perspective of the injustices and betrayals by the U.S. government in its relentless efforts to destroy their culture, pride and the way of life of this race of people, there was also an underlying prejudice against Indians, their skin color which made it easy to identify their race along with their culture. The movie begins around the year 1876 when most of the nations American Indians had been forcibly relocated to reservation lands. In the Dakota Territory Red Cloud had settled with his people on the great Sioux reservation, becoming wards of the government, but other Sioux leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse saw this as defeat and continued to live in the traditional way. The Sioux Indians was divided into four fractions and they were the Wdewkantos, Wahpetons, Wahpekates and the Sissetons, it is important to note that the Sioux Indians were more famous because they had the permanent Indian Frontier. We must realize that the main factory that caused this problem was when the economic depression struck the country and gold was discovered in the Black Hills on Sioux Land resulting in the outbreak of war which took place on 25th June 1876 when there was an attack on the Little Big Horn Valley which was later known as the massacred, and the purpose of this war was to drive the Sioux out of the Black Hill onto the Reservation so they could acquired the land for the gold. The Sioux resisted because by the 68 treaty it state that the land was theirs, but truly that was not going to prevent the Indians from losing their land since the white man was determine to believe that by setting

the Indians on the course of civilization was the best mean of survival and acquiring the land. One of the well known reservations was Red Cloud camp which was the great Sioux Reservation, but Red Cloud was threaten into joining the reservation since they wanted to stop feeding his people and would kill the rest of remaining leader who wishes to resist like sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and all those who continue to fight, thus with all these threats being made Red Cloud touch pen to paper because he wanted peace for his people and by only signing a treaty he could of gotten his wish. In Cedar Greek Valley in Dakota Territory on October 21st 1876 and attack was lead by George Armstrong on the Indians, and they Indians who live there came out of the Minnesota woodlands and they were the Kiowas. With Crazy Horse serenading it was only a matter of time before and all attack took place on Sitting Bull since he was the only remaining chief that was resisting the whites, but eventually he was force to leave America since the white men had attack and burn his village to the ground. He led his people to Canada, where they were welcome to stay but with restriction such as they cannot use the land to lunch attacks on U.S. soldiers and they cannot attack other tribes in the area otherwise they would be force out from Canada. Also there were buffalo to be hunted from the East and West of Canada also harsh winters, but eventually members from Sitting Bull tribe left the reservation in Canada because of health purposes and conflict from other tribes such as the Crow who accuse the Sioux of hunting on their land and staling their horses in the night, and the members of his tribe did so because they wanted to leave the Canada reservation. We must realize at this point it may seems that Sitting Bull was alone in his resilience but he wasnt as Charles Eastman who was studying medicine and was a Indian himself along with Henry Dawes was seeking the best interest for the Indians without involving violence. For Henry Dawes the survival of the Indians was his deepest concern

which was recognize by the Great Father himself President Grant. Charles and Henry later spoke out at a convention at the White House to fright for the rights for the Indians. They wanted the Indians to have full citizenship instead of having the faith of simulation or extinction. Charles and Henry had developed a plan which was to be a model for Indians and this plan was to help the Sioux Indians. The plan requires a series of steps with the first step starting with the division of Sioux land into six distain reservation and they were Pine Bridge, Crow Creek, Standing Rock, Rose Front, and Cheyenne River. The second step was to divide each new reservation into individual tribes and giving 160 arches to the head of the house which was the man, enabling him to farm, market his crops to earned a living and feed his family. The last step was acquiring the excess land to be sole to the white man, and with white man settling in central Dakota it would result in construction of rail roads straight through the Pine Bridge reservation to Black Hills and finally contributing the Northern Pacific completion. The Sioux would be able to travel and the white settles would have an influence on the Indians even converting them into Christianity, but before this could take place In Dakota Territory Charles and Henry had to get a bill pass in the senate. They had convinced the palliation to vote on it by suggesting that America would be built. Eventually the bill was passed and in the Pine Bridge Sioux Agency in Dakota Territory they hell a meeting were the white man introduce the bill and had discussion on it, but huge emphasis was made on the selling of their lands to the white man giving the Sioux 5.5 million dollars, but they did not except it. At the Standing Rock Sioux Agency in Dakota Territory Sitting Bull had turned himself in to live by the white man rules, but Sitting Bull saw this as captivity, not only did they have to suffer from captivity but also from poor health care resulting in the suffering of diseases, thus resulting in the creation of the a new bill which offered more money up to 12 million dollars to the Sioux if they sell their lands to the white man they

would be able to take care of themselves, but the bill had gotten the same decision as the last one rejection. After witnessing the harsh treatment of the Indians at Standing Rock Charles had change his mind on the bill as he saw it as taking away their pride. With all the bricking taking place between Charles and Sitting Bull against the white man conflict broke out between Sitting Bull resulting in his death along with a lot of Indian at Wounded Knee Creak because they accuse the Indians of having more Winchesters and Henrys weapons hiding, the attack each other resulting in the massacred of Indians. The War at Wounded Knee was so tragic that the Sioux Indian almost suffer from extinction. They say that the soldiers attack Sitting Bull because he did not put pen to paper he chose his pride. As for Henry he turns out to be a witness to this destruction but he never intended to be one. After this aftermath Charles Eastman devote the rest of his to the advocacy of Sioux rights. Sitting Bull remains the iconic symbol of American Indians resistance, as for Red Cloud he continued to devote his life to his people welfare and fought every government that attempt to violate the agreement he had signed. As for the Sioux Indians they finally got their justice when in 1980 the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the 1876 seizure of the Black Hills violated the treaties signed by the Sioux Indians.

Reaction Upon looking at the film it portray a seemingly inaccurate view of Burry my Heart at Wounded Knee. There was a lopsided favoritism for the Sioux Indians, because basically the Sioux Indians was not the only set of Native Americans to endure hardship and face betrayals from the U.S. Government time after time as if it was like a wild spread contagious diseases. The destruction of these Indians would be echoing into the feature forever, but even though some of these tribes were not mention in the film they all shared the same hardship like the others. The movie was lacking in certain areas like for instance it did not cover from the existence of theses Indians and how they came to acquire their name and these are all very important parts that should not be left out because it justify from the start that the Indian was living peacefully and the White man was the one who discovered them. These are very valuable information that should be in place into the movie and also they did not give sufficient information about the Navaho Indians. They also over predict Sitting Bull Character since in my personal research he was not that brave. Other than a few inaccurate information the film had meet my standards of research, but in my opinion they should have made the longer resulting in covering every event of Burry my Heart at Wounded Knee instead of studying on time restriction as Historical events have not time restriction when explanation of events should be our main concern.

Bibliography

1. Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970, reprint, Owl Books, 2001. 2. Gilder, Joshua, "Who's on First," in New York Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 14, April 7, 1980, pp. 76-77.

3. McNeil, Helen, "Savages," in New Statesman, Vol. 82, No. 2115, October 1, 1971, pp. 444-45.Momaday, N. Scott, "When the West Was.