Customer Reviews

The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indian

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading the other review calling the book revisionist...I was pleasantly surprised, by this book. I would call it very evenly balanced, presenting both sides of the historical record. Very equally balanced, and also extraordinarily well written. The author was a master of story telling. His historical accounts not only present events I had never heard of, they do it in such a way that you are informed and engrossed in the historical account.

Highly recommended for study of the Sioux, early Minnesota,plus many other tribes and states. (Osage, comanche, etc)

Your obt. servant,

Doc

This book is far and away better than the more widely read book by Dee Brown, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. It goes further in depth, has better pace, lacks a "sentimentality" rampant in Dee's work, and the story telling quality is unsurpassed. I couldn't put it down, I had to order another one because I wore out my first copy.

I had this book as part of a college course in the mid 1970s and just finished re-reading it. It holds up well and will always be a relevant book. Most of my books from my college days are long gone, but I kept this one and refer to it often. In fact, that is why I am here...to purchase another copy since mine is so well worn. It is often referred to as pro-Indian, but, as a previous reviewer noted, it is very well balanced. It should be required reading for any American history student and I highly recommend it. Andrist is a gifted storyteller and prompted me to read other material about this subject. You will not be disappointed.

Ralph Andrist, already in 1964, opened the doors for authors to follow, such as Dee Brown and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

Andrist tells the story facing eastward, part of his overall effort to incorporate the Plains Indian point of view into his story.

Putting the history of broken treaties and broken promises front and center Andrist paints a portrait of Plains tribes struggling to maintain an identity and way of life -- a struggle that continues to today.

The summer of 2010 I drove through 8 Indian Reservations. During my many trips to Montana over the last 60 years I have never heard what I heard this year; that our government had a plan to have all the buffalo killed to deprive the American Indians of their livelihood which depended on the buffalo for food, clothing and animal parts for tools and materials for making useful things. By this means it would render control over the Indians to place and keep them on Indian Reservations.

I asked an Indian from each of four tribes what they thought: "Did the US Gov't plan purposely to exterminate the buffalo so to force the Indians onto reservations?"

1) Mr. Dugan Coburn, Blackfoot & US Ranger @ Great Falls, MT Interpretive Center. 8/10/10
Yes, to deprive the Indians of their survival dependence on the buffalo and to submit to receiving their care and food from the US Government.

2) Ms. Vesta Villalobos, Nez Perce tribe. Lapwai, Idaho. A visitor at Custer Battle field 8/16/10
I don't believe that. Rather White men & Europeans wanted the hides; it was economically driven.

3) Ms. Kaesha; Kills-in-Night, a North Cheyenne on the reservation in Busby, MT 8/16/10
I don't believe in the conspiracy theory. It was about economics and money gained from the buffalo hides. Her Second name: Little Bear

4) Tom War Shield, Sioux. Fort Thompson, SD at gas station 8/18/10
Rubbing his fingers together as a sign greedy for money, he said, "The white man was after the money."

So I bought this book recommended by a docent in an excellent Indian Museum but on Amazon at a used bargin price compared to the museum new book price. I plan to read it and see if an answer or if possible factual research is presented to answer my question. I hope the author satisfies my quest.

Donn G. Ziebell, Ph.D. in Cross Cultural Management