Rating: 
Summary: Tough Read: The History You're Never Told
Review: I'll keep this short. The fact that Mr. Brown uses quotes and accounts from soldiers' own court testimonies lends a great deal of credibility to the book. Although the negative reviews here seem to slip into dramatic instance (ex: Well, my great-grandmother didn't experience that, so the book is flawed.) and selective observation, I would counter that this book presents history that McGraw-Hill is likely to never put in their textbooks.It's a tough, slow read and rather dry which, again, lends somewhat to the credibility of the information.
Rating:
Summary: A good place to start to learn more
Review: I read this book way back in 1977 when I was a student. I'm half English and knew little of American History. It was a very profound read then and I felt an enormous amount of sympathy in reading it for a culture that was doomed by the arrival of Europeans. I have looked at some of the reviews and those that criticise it seem to dislike the one-sided approach that portray's Indians as Good and White man as Bad. To them I would point out that for a long time we have had the image of Indians as Bad thrust at us by movies and TV shows. I don't think I'm wrong in believing that there was already a stereotype that potrayed Indians as murderous savages, and that is from looking at it in England. So, I thinks it's ok to have something that discriminates so postively in favour of a race that was vilified at so many levels. However, nobody should rely on just one source as the whole story. If you really care, you will read more than one book and find out as much as possible. I'm sure doing so will show that as with everything it is never a simplisitc black and white picture, there is always good and bad on sides and there is always something right and wrong in both too. Whatever your views, I think it would be hard to deny that their culture and race was overwhelmed and almost completely destroyed by the immigration of Europeans. We will never know if the cultures could have co-existed peacefully and the fact they didn't probably proves they couldn't. That doesn't make either side right or wrong. It does show that we find it easier to go to war with foreign cultures than embrace them and that has been a fact throughout history. It seems that in human relations one side has to be defeated and broken rather than respected and equal. The book made me sad way back then when I was young and very idealistic. Today I have had a lot of reality woven into my views but I still believe in ideals and I haven't forgotten how I felt when I read the book. However it seems that nations, cultures, races and religions still don't know how to live in peace. My mother is Armenian and my granparent were refugees from Turkey in 1914, I learnt of their history first hand. My family lived in Cyprus when the island experienced war and division. What I have seen and learnt is that we all lose through war and hatred. What I don't understand is how we can read and learn about the past and then repeat it so often again.
Rating: 
Summary: Humbug
Review: I completely agree with the negative reviews here. Anyone who has had any contact with "Treaty" Indians in their lives or anyone with relatives who migrated west to settle the American frontier from the mid 1700's to late 1800's will immediately recognize this book as being full of false information. I think that this author is just feathering his nest by profiting from the spending habits of the ignorant types in our society who are suffering from an education provided by a lot of movies and TV specials, and by this type of book too. These people really do make easy prey for those who choose to produce books that connect to today's fad of racial self hate and personal self hate in some way or other.
It so happens that my grandparents ventured out on the plains in a wagon and my mother was born in a little town that had the misfortune of being located right next to the three largest Indian reservations in the territory. What she experienced and saw while near these Plains tribes was nothing like the content of this book. There were no philosophers. There were no grand chiefs. There were no "noble redmen". Instead, there were very primitive and always violent types who loved an alcoholic stupor like nothing else on earth and who delighted in murdering one another when in a sober state. At that time they had barely been pacified and rounded up, and their behavior showed it in many ways. But if you read this book, you must conclude that their behavior at that time should be excused because it was a result of their way of life being taken from them. The problem is, this book doesn't mention a lot of things that were part of that way of life, like the torture of captives or the enslavement of enemies or the slaughter of enemy women and children in the tribe against tribe sense. Such things would give people nightmares today, but to wild Indians they were as natural as can be. Well, being a senior citizen for quite a while myself, I can truthfully say that I've seen quite a few things including a lot of Indians, and I can say that there are good ones and bad ones, nice personable ones and miserable ones, but as a whole they certainly don't match up with what is in this book and as a people who made up a number of tribes, they never did. Even elderly Indians who I know today have had a good laugh about all the movies and TV programs they've been seeing. They joke about the White Man's imaginary Redskins and they of all people should know. They also know their own tribal histories and are aware of inter tribal conflicts that were very brutal and savage, but they are the first to admit that the only Indians who match the descriptions like the ones you'll find in this book are the Indians in Hollywood movies and they aren't even pure Indians, but mere halfbreeds who play prewritten roles. No, there's history and then there is this sort of thing. One is worth looking into and the other is just humbug. Try and find other sources of information about Indians instead of this book. That is what I would recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: in regards to the reviewer from lubbock, texas
Review: Maybe, instead of spending your time becoming an "expert" in abororiginal linguistics, you should have studied english. If you did, you wouldn't have so many run on sentences in your review. It is a great accomplishment that you have become such an "expert" in the field of aboriginal linguistics. It is unfortunate that more native americans haven't become "experts" in red neck linguistics. I am sure that you received your degree in aboriginal linguistics from that fabulous institution of higher learning, TheUniversity of Lubbock, or Lubbock State University, home of the "Fighting Inbreds". It is nice to know that people in Lubbock are spending their time bettering the world by becomming "experts" in aboriginal linguistics. It is also amazing that people in lubbock have the time to become experts at anything considering most of their days are filled by combing their mulletts, swilling warm beer, and going to Klan rallies. So my advice to anyone who wants to read this novel, please do. Even though it is historically inaccurate according to the "experts" in lubbock , texas.
Rating: 
Summary: Fiction as History
Review: It is sad that this work has become the most popular, certainly on college campuses, of the many histories of the conflicts between the settlers and the indians. Dee Brown was a very talented writer and he wrote some valuable histories. This volume, although well written, is not an accurate historical account. Like many "histories" that appeared in the seventies it is a polemic disguised as a work of scholarship. The book may be summarized as "red man good, white man bad". Such a simplistic morality fable does not do justice to either the settlers or the indians who were engaged in a great struggle that deserves an accurate retelling.
Rating:
Summary: Do Not Read, A Waste of Time
Review: I haven't read this book yet. I'm just trying to read other reviews so i know what it is supposed to be about.
Rating:
Summary: Read it to know.
Review: If you're looking for a narrative of the struggles between the various native tribes of North America and european settlers, there probably isn't a better place to go. I read this book on my way to Wounded Knee this summer. There was so much I didn't know about the expansion of the United States (and much I still don't know, I'm sure) that my mouth gaped with horror throughout every chapter. The account of how the very laid back friendly tribes of California were mowed down by settlers without a second thought was particularly chilling. As the book itself says, no one remembers these tribes of California because they didn't put up a fight. They were simply swept aside. Reading this book also filled gaps in the stories I had heard: Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, The Trail of Tears, the Lakota Uprising, Little Big Horn and of course Wounded Knee. All of these and other stories you probably haven't heard before are put together in chronological order. It is a very comprehensive and readable book, but it does tell of an unreconcilable tragedy. When I finished this book, one day before arriving at Wounded Knee, I was overcome with the feeling that europeans can never make up for what they did to the people who were here before them. What happened is forever unreconcilable. But self-flagellation and reproach will not undo anything, nor help either side as they currently stand. What most european descendants can do is read this book to know what happened, and then visit Wounded Knee to see where it all ended and observe. Only then will one be on the road to understanding, as inevitably incomplete as that understanding must be and remain.
Rating:
Summary: Embarrassed to be an anglo
Review: I just finished Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I'm astonished and disgusted. I can't believe this topic is not covered better in school. We spend all this time on the Civil War and then gloss over the native american wars. I'm fairly disgusted with the federal government right now. The native americans were astonishing people. Think what they could have taught us. It is very sad to know the fate of their great leaders, either assassination or death by mental defeat. They were incredibly smart men. You would have thought that some of our religious leaders would have been more brave and active in quelling the genocide. This is very recent history for us, it occurred in my backyard here in Colorado, and yet it does not seem to be on our conscience. This is a great book. I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Proud People
Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a profoundly moving book. It takes you back to a time of new beginnings, when things could've been done right, but were inevitably done wrong. And the original people of the American land who were done wrong by. Wounded Knee is a place, where spirits live, Indian's do the "ghost dance" and inevitably people lay in passing, from war and slaughter. Dee Brown's novel is a must for anyone who wants insight and understanding into an indigenous culture. Wounded Knee tells the tale of the "American West" form the other side - the American Indian's perspective. With quotes and chants from famous names that appear synonymous with the "Cowboys & Indians" culture of the American frontier. An accurate and emotional journey is what the reader will undertake as they take on the naive understandings of these proud people who are inevitably fighting a culture and system of prejudices they can not win. Chieftains like Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, will inspire and bring feelings of admiration and the sense of oppressing injustice to the forefront of your emotions. If you are able to read this book without being truly stirred on some emotional level, then you would appear to be super human or perhaps a little more in human than most. If you seek inspiration and motivation, understanding and sense of being or purpose, I believe you will find these things in Dee Brow's book when you look at and read about the lives of these amazing people.
It is my favorite book!
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: A great book, but actually rather depressing.
Anyone interested in Native American History should make this book a must. I am now rereading the book, and probably will return to it again, and again.
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