May 2025: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

This month we will be reading and discussing, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West" by Dee Brown.

First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. It was the basis for the 2007 movie of the same name from HBO films.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes, revealing in heartwrenching detail the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of freedom. A forceful narrative still discussed today as revelatory and controversial, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee permanently altered our understanding of how the American West came to be defined.

DETAILS ABOUT OUR MEETING: We are starting at 6:00 PM for a general greetings and a potluck supper. The book discussion will begin at about 6:45 PM. At the conclusion of the discussion, we will elect the next Fiction book to discuss at the July 2025 meetup. The candidate books will be:

1. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
2. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, by Heather Cox Richardson
3. Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people, by Tracy Kidder

Hope to see you there.