The politics of hallowed ground : Wounded Knee and the struggle for Indian sovereignty
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The politics of hallowed ground : Wounded Knee and the struggle for Indian sovereignty
University of Illinois Press, c1999
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-416) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780252023545
Description
This riveting account of hope, anger, and the pursuit of honor centers around the efforts, beginning in 1985, of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Associations to obtain legal redress for the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Interweaving entries from the diary of Oglala attorney Mario Gonzalez and historical commentary by Santee/Yankton writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, The Politics of Hallowed Ground traces the Survivors' Associations' struggle to secure from the U.S. government a formal apology and recognition of the massacre site as a National American Monument. Surveying both recent and historical events, Gonzalez and Cook-Lynn address critical issues of cultural bias and collective memory. Their observations expose not only the seemingly unbridgeable gap between white and Native cultures but also impassioned dialogue among various tribes affected by the Wounded Knee Massacre. Heartbreaking and inspiring by turns, The Politics of Hallowed Ground reveals the bitter and ongoing struggle of a Native people to recover its history and its sacred lands -- and to achieve justice once and for all.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780252066696
Description
This book is the powerful story of the ongoing struggle of indigenous
Americans in the twentieth century United States and of its shift in focus
from traditional battlefield and massacre sites to federal courtrooms
and the halls of Congress.
The Politics of Hallowed Ground includes excerpts from the diary
kept by Mario Gonzalez, the attorney for the Sioux Nation in its struggle
for recognition of the Wounded Knee Massacre site as a national monument.
Gonzalez's personal record of the struggle is coupled with commentary
by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a Native American writer who places the work in
its historical context. Together, the two voices will draw the reader
into far more than the continuing struggle of the Sioux people to achieve
justice.
The book covers Sioux history from before the Wounded Knee tragedy to
modern times, through the Sioux Nation's long and often rancorous dialogue
with the U.S. government over control of South Dakota's Black Hills, traditional
Sioux lands recognized by treaty in 1877 and never forfeited or sold.
After reading a 13-year-old survivor's narrative of what happened at Wounded
Knee and the list of the dead and wounded, readers will find it difficult
not to share the Sioux perspective.
"Provocative and compelling with its raw incisive written commentary
by a man who is trained as a lawyer but still views his world through
tribal lenses." -- Leonard R. Bruguier, Director of the Institute
of American Indian Studies, University of South Dakota
"By far the most moving, most compelling book I have read about
the Sioux and their ongoing struggle to come to grips with history. Gonzalez
and Cook-Lynn let us see the gut-wrenching realities that people who work
to make a difference face." - Robert Allen Warrior, author of Tribal
Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions
by "Nielsen BookData"
