Wounded Knee by Heather Cox Richardson Book Report

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Wounded Knee by Heather Cox Richardson

Heather Cox Richardson covers a number of salient aspects of the massacre at Wounded Knee in her work of non-fiction, Wounded Knee. Aside from detailing the events that directly led to this wanton waste of human life, the author spends a good deal of time explaining the zeitgeist prevalent at the end of the 19th century. As such, she keeps the reader fully informed of the events that substantially contributed to the deaths of approximately 300 Native Americans, many of who were unarmed and attempting to run for their lives. Her expertise is based on the fact that she has written three other historical non-fictions works, and is a professor of history at Amherst University.

The principle thesis of this work is that the massacre was the result of partisan politics of then-presidential incumbent Benjamin Harrison. The author propounds the notion that Harrison was elected largely on the strength of his ties to big business, which he had rewarded with high tariffs. However, there was a correlation between such tariffs and rising domestic prices that alienated some of his supporters, a fact which Harrison attempted to rectify by distributing land in the Western section of the United States (and in South Dakota in particular.
As such, the massive show of federal troops that ruthlessly murdered members of the Sioux tribe at Wounded Knee were essentially looking for any reason to remove the Native Americans, to reward the partisan affiliates of the president.

The strength of this work of literature is in the author's ability to fully portray the political situation that was actually responsible for the deaths of these innocents. Other reviewers have acknowledged this fact as well (McCaskey, 2010). The book was meticulously researched and a lot more comprehensive than just the massacre at Wounded Creek. Other significant Indian battles are explicated, as well as the history of laissez faire politics that contributed to the situation. The latter is particularly noteworthy and a long neglected aspect of chronicles involving Native American affairs.….....

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