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  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

  • An Indian History of the American West
  • By: Dee Brown
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (667 ratings)
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

By: Dee Brown
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Summary

Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century uses council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions. Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won - and lost.
©1970 Dee Brown; Preface 2000 by Dee Brown (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking....Impossible to put down." ( New York Times)
"Shattering, appalling, compelling....One wonders...who indeed were the savages." ( Washington Post)

What listeners say about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

'The Only Good Indians I Ever Saw Were Dead'

Even though, 40 years after this book was first published, we are now familiar with the events that took place in the American mid-West in the nineteenth century, listening to this was both shocking and saddening.

It is one long tale of continually broken treaties, of moving the native Americans out of their homelands to poor land, and then on to even worse land, again and again, where they would be unable to sustain themselves and become dependent on government handouts from corrupt agents. Any who didn't want to move would just be annihilated without compunction or conscience. There were a few brave stands by the native Americans along the ways, temporary victories, but these just proved to be short lived stays of execution.

Dee Brown's telling of the tale is well-researched, beautifully written and the narration by Grover Gardener is excellent. Despite the anger and sadness that the book provokes I found it compelling and hard to stop listening.

I note amongst the reviews by our American cousins that some readers seem genuinely surprised by learning of these events in their country's past but then I guess that I didn't learn much about the sordid history and atrocities in Britain's colonial past when I was at school either.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful inspiring history

Beautiful book read very well. Full of irony and pathos. The famous names jump out to inject life into the words whilst the reminder of so many thousands of anonymous brave men and women who were simply trying to live their lives in their country!

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11 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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What an awesome story

Where does Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is probably the best book I've read this year and I'm now searching to know more about the history of the native Indian Americans.

What did you like best about this story?

The book knitted together many different parts of the varied history of the push west, the treaties, the broken treaties, the bloodshed, the desire for peace and living together which never truly appeared until the Indian was virtually wiped off the map.

What does Grover Gardner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Grover Gadrner's reading was very effective and told a story rather than just read the book. It made for really good listening.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I couldn't listen to the book for more than an hour at a time it was so dreadfully sad but it fully engaged me each time and I wanted to listen to more, I didn't want the story to end. One of the sadest parts of the story was when soldiers hanged 38 Indians in one execution and they went to their deaths as if horrible and early death was an expected part of their lives. How horrible that we let this happen because of our greed.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

I learned so much

Great yarn with lots of nuggets of interesting information. Loved the narrator too. Whilst it was great entertainment I found it very educational too.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

How greed killed a peoples

Amazing story from the true Americans. How through "rascally" ways white settlers and successive government ignored treaties and broke promises to steal Indian land and lives. To hear the voices of those Indians who's names have become legends as evil savages and how they where in fact great leaders pushed to extremes.

I could not stop listening to this book and spent long nights listening to it.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome

The united states treatment of its indigenous people....surely must rate as the most grevious crime in all of humanity
This book...beautifully read incidently...will make your heart weep.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The Sad Path to Wounded Knee

A gripping and harrowing telling of man's inhumanity during the theft of tribal lands from native Americans. We must remember this.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Genocide, betrayal, extortion, theft, deceit & bigotry

Possibly the saddest history I’ve ever read. Shockingly frank, it tells the story of a noble people, outgunned, overwhelmed and mistreated. The settlers rapacious greed and sense of entitlement is ugly beyond belief. The government and their agents behaved despicably. The Native Americans innocence, trusting nature and ability to forgive shames so called Christian invaders

A pitiful tale, painful to hear but an important work that is well worth reading. Highly recommended

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Harrowing but important

This book has the ability to outrage, horrify and instil guilt.
The near extermination of native Americans was truly a genocide (an over-used and much misused term these days - but not, I think this time). It was every bit as disgusting as those perpetrated by the Spanish in central and South America. Evidence for it being a genocide is that every opportunity was taken to kill the women, children and babies of the native tribes, not just the ‘warriors’ (most of whom only wanted peace, so were not really warriors in a true sense). The fact that American government soldiers delighted in raping and mutilating the women and children before and after killing them is deeply depressing. What was it about the white settlers that allowed them to do this without conscience?
A great reading from Grover Gardener.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sad, sad story

The litany of Indian names give haunting beauty to this sad and illuminating story of their demise. Something everyone especially the Americans should know about.

Probably best not to read this book at a time when you need cheering up.

The author often quotes what the Indians said in conference with the US officials. But also what they said to one another, when no stenographer would have been present. So as a piece of history it would have been interesting to know more about the sources the author drew upon.

Similarly, more about the politics between the Indians would be interesting to know. They weren't always on good terms with each other, to put it mildly.

But I guess these are subjects for a different book.

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2 people found this helpful