Heather Cox Richardson
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Of all the events in American history, two are far and away the most troubling: slavery and the near-genocidal war against native Americans. In truth, we’ve dealt much better with the former than the latter. The slaves were emancipated. After a long and painful struggle, their descendants won their full civil rights. Though that struggle is not yet finished, near equality has been reached in many areas of American life. And almost all Americans understand that slavery was wrong. None of this can be said about the campaign against native Americans. Instead of emancipation, the Indians–or rather those left after the slaughter–were “removed” to reservations where their way of life was destroyed. After a long and painful struggle, many of their descendants are still in those reservations and living in poverty. They struggle still, but are not equal to other Americans by most measures. And many Americans refuse to believe that the U.S. was wrong in killing, sequestering, and impoverishing the native Americans.
They are wrong to do so, for we know what happened and why thanks to historians such as Heather Cox Richardson. In her eye-opening new book Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre (Basic Books, 2010) she shows just how calculated, self-serving, and even spiteful the White assault on the Plains Indians was. Despite what they said (mostly to the Indians themselves), the Whites never had any real intention of allowing the Sioux and others to keep their land, maintain their way of life, or even to continue to exist. It was clear to them that the Indians would either become White (meaning would take up farming) or would go. The Whites weren’t exactly cynics; rather they were self-deceiving fatalists. They came to believe that destiny itself compelled them to assimilate or annihilate the Indians.
But destiny didn’t destroy the Plains Indians. The government of the United States of America did.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It wasn’t just in the West, either. Think of the policy of ethnic cleansing that began with Jefferson, I think. Even when groups (like the leaders of the Miamis) wanted assimilate, they were not allowed to.
Great podcast — I really enjoyed listening to it. Any more American Indian coverage in the future would be awesome.
By the way, though — are you sure you want to one of those people who capitalises “Whites”?
Nice brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you for your information.
This podcast reminded me of what President Clinton did in Waco, Texas with a determination similar to that of the “Whites”. His actions resulted in the fiery death of men, woman and children and the destruction of a Christian church. Who could ever have thought that in these modern and enlightened times, the President would not be prosecuted or, at the very least, held responsible for this despicable act of savagery.
People in this country ought to pay more attention to this nation’s history, for the old saying that “history repeats itself” is so very much evident with this book. The same congressional gridlock, the same gerrymandering of election districts, the same strong-arm politics by the people in power and yes, the same corruption and catering to special interests. Back in the 1880′s and 1890′s the Lakota people had to suffer in the great power play of Washington, a people without rights and without voice. Today it is the illegal immigrant. Some just has to be made the scapegoat. Unfortunately, as time progresses, we as a nation become increasingly more ignorant and either don’t see through the schemes Washington comes up with or, worse, don’t care.
Heather Cox Richardson’s book was a great eye opener to me. Previously I had read and studied the Wounded Knee Massacre through the narrow lense taking into the consideration only of local issues that led to this event. Taken a step back and looking at the whole picture is very revealing.
Also praise ought to be given Randy Hines’ feature article in the December 2010 issue of Wild West Magazine “Pressing the Issue at Wounded Knee” that outed media hype as one of the causes that led to the massacre.
President Benjamin Harrison’s presidency can be broadly compared to George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. It is hard not to see numerous similarities between the two administrations and partisan politics.
Thank you Ms. Richardson for providing the reading public with your great work.
Nice passion for her work. However, I most enjoyed the deliciously unintentional irony of hearing “when whites win it’s called a ‘battle,’ but when indians win it’s called a ‘massacre’” segueing to remarks on “the ‘battle’ of little bighorn” (uh, but wait – you just said…) I was saddened that the current anti-anglo zeitgeist precludes any sympathy for perspectives such as Osborne’s in his circa 1959 book about the Sioux uprising in MN.
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