Voices from Wounded Knee, 1973. In the Words of the Participants

From Publisher's Introduction: "Likely in most 'American History' books, one of the largest uprisings against the Government of the United States on its own turf will be briefly mentioned in an inconsequential paragraph. The occupation of Wounded Knee/1973 is important history, not only for native peoples, but for all who care about this land and life - yet even now few people know why it happened, or even what happened there. The problem is that Wounded Knee doesn't seem to fit what United States people have been taught about Indians - how in the late 1800s they were finally subdued, how happy they are on the reservations, how successfully they are integrating into American life. Wounded Knee doesn't fit the taught concepts of how democracy was brought to this land under the Bill of Rights, how people obtain perfect justice in the courts, how benevolent government agencies are to Indians. Wounded Knee, people say, must be a bad dream - probably done by 'bad Indians,' influenced by 'outside agitators,' and unrepresentative of 'responsible native people,' These distortions of history are not accidental. The people of the United States, by and large, would rule strongly in favor of native demands at Wounded Knee if they could only find out what happened there. But with the press and television personnel moving along to bigger and better and more violent headlines, with the U.S. Government managing the news emerging from the Pine Ridge Reservation, and with even the reports on the resulting trials of the participants absent from the media, the people of the United States will not have the information on which to base an intelligent judgment. That's why this book is so important. It tells the story by the participants themselves. It contains just what the U.S. representatives said in the negotiations. And gradually, the human drama of a suppressed and oppressed people getting themselves together to restore some dignity to their lives emerges...."