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Lost Bird Of Wounded Knee: Spirit Of The Lakota

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In December 1890 the United States of America massacred an unarmed band of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Most of them were starving and many of them were very ill. They were cut down like prey in the bitter snows of the Badlands and it was a sad day for Human Beings, one of many days I can never get out of my heart. There was a tiny miracle that day. A little baby girl survived unharmed, protected were she fell, by the body of her murdered mother. She was taken in by other Lakota people but Brigadier General and future Assistant District Attorney of the United States, Leonard W. Colby kidnapped and then adopted the baby as a "living curio." This murderous, inhumane and corrupt man wanted a little souvenir so he stole a human being, a helpless infant, and ripped her away from her people and her culture. He exploited her to attract prominent tribes as clients of his law practice. His wife, Clara B. Colby, who later divorced him was a prominent suffragist and newspaper editor. She tried to give this little Lost Bird a stable home and she meant well but she could never replace the Lakota ways or help Lost Bird to fit in to an alien and inhumane world. Lost Bird, whose real name was Zintkala Nuni only lived to be 29 years old and her short life was filled with pain and degradation and tragedy. She suffered sexual abuse, violence, prostitution and rejection. She was a being caught between two worlds and accepted in neither. The author of this book has done a wonderful job of bringing this poignant story to light. She illustrates the atmosphere of the times and offers rich insight into the insidious racism of the America of that time. This is a story of not only the cruelty that was done to the Native peoples of this land but of the misogynous, unscrupulous and socially unjust attitudes and actions of the leaders and people of this country. It is a testiment to endurance, a chronicle of tragedy. In 1991 Zintkala Nuni was returned from her burial place in California to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Badlands of South Dakota. She was buried with respect and ceremony among her people. Last summer I drove past the crowded impoverished homes to pay my respects to the people who died that day at Wounded Knee. I saw the harsh reality of the ancient gray hills of the Badlands with their ghostly beauty. I saw the offerings and prayer bundles in the burial grounds. I talked with two men selling souvenirs, trying to make a few dollars in a place where work is so hard to find. The arrogance and greed that murdered so many people, that stole a little girl from her people, that sought to cripple and defeat a powerful People is still alive and walking in the land but it has not succeeded. This book may help people to feel the injustice in their heart of hearts. It may illuminate our past and open our eyes to the injustice we still condone, many of us, with our silence. It is a powerful and moving story, well told.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 is a shameful piece of our history. This book is a description of what happened to one infant survivor of that horrible day and the woman, Clara Colby, who tried to raise that child, Lost Bird. Readers will shudder at what happened to Lost Bird, including the fact that she had been taken in by a loving Lakota family after the massacre, only to be ripped from familiar arms by General Colby to take home as a prize. One will be torn between what might have been best for the girl and what the well-meaning and kind Mrs. Colby did for her, given the circumstances. Renee Flood tackles the two ideas that it is wrong to raise a child of Native American heritage as a white because of inherent natures and because raising a child of dark skin produces racist tendencies in those of lighter skin who come in contact with the child. For example, Lost Bird did not get along with white children her own age partly because she was so sheltered, but mostly because the children teased her about being Indian. She was not allowed to be with the African Americans either, although this was her choice, because they were "beneath her." This only led her to believe that dark-skinned people, Native Americans included, were "bad." Another facet of this book is that it describes much of the Woman's Suffragist movement and goes into great detail about Clara Colby's role, as well as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Renee Flood has great sympathy for her subject and was instrumental in getting Lost Bird's remains brought from Califonia and reburied at Wounded Knee with a magnificent granite tombstone, where she joins the others buried in a mass grave dating back to 1890. Flood is an excellent and accurate historian who humanizes a sad story.

i gave this book a fair rating because i wanted to learn more about native americans, wounded knee, and lost bird. what i read was more about womens sufferage, the personal life of the colby's, and very little about lost bird. really only the last two chapters went into any detail about lost bird.

Tells the true story of the expioitation of a proud nation of people by those bent on their own desires. Tells of the need of understanding between cultures of people and their need to live their lives peacefully. An outstanding history that everyone should read. Spiritual in quality.

I am Zintkala Nuni, aka Lost Bird. I was given this name by my family in ceremony 1999. I was born and raised on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in North Central South Dakota. I have records to prove my name and my relationship to The Lost Bird of Wounded Knee. Renee never interviewed my family for her book. And from what my family has found out, all of the information about Lost Bird's mother in the book is untrue. I'm sorry for writing this BUT the truth must be known and I WILL be writing a book about my grandmother, Lost Bird, in the future to counteract the fiction that appears in this story. I hope someone reports this to Renee. I would love to speak with her and I'm sure my family would want to do the same.

This sad, moving book is must reading for anyone interested in Native Americans and examining our less than exemplary treatment of them. But there is another audience for this book I've not seen mentioned anywhere--anyone interested in women's suffrage--because Lost Bird's adopted white mother was important in the movement. It was fascinating to read of her relationship with Susan B. Anthony, Clara Chapman Catt and the others, as well as her friendship with Dr. Mary Walker, the woman doctor who received the only Congressional Medal of Honor award to a woman (which was to be recommended for her by President Lincoln in a note to himself on the night he died), only to have it revoked before her death. The author did an excellent job researching this book. Thank you!

I love when a book is so good I can't stop thinking about it when I'm away from it. This book was like that for me. I couldn't wait to get back to reading to find out what happened to these people. It was fascinating to read of their encounters with history, but so sad to learn of their human mistakes. Anyway, I learned much and enjoy the book very much.

I am an avid reader. Few books have had the power to stir my emotions, as much as this one. The tragedy of Lost Bird and all she stood for are so compelling that now, two years later, I can still recall the power that this book had for me.

The story of Lost Bird is not just the biography of an unlucky woman. It also recalls the tragedy of Native American history and the consequences that flowed from it, directly affecting Lost Bird.


If I could find other biographies or memoirs as vivid & memorising as this one, I would like any readers out there to let me know.

For a required history course, my least favor ite subject, Prof. Elizabeth Townsend,PhD., UCLA, wanted to introduce those of who were computer UN- friendly, to the inter-net. She assigned a user- friendly with those like me. My first five minutes were highlighted by the "Lost Bird..." web site. Within thirty minutes, not only was my thesis in process, but the entire class, predominantly female (52:5), was given a whole new attitude on the REAL first Americans. Dr. T. was so impressed that she included the book, the lost bird, and the entire Native American Women issue a dominant spot on her lectures, her mid-terms, and her final exam She then went on to include an essay on this topic into her extra credit and final essay choices list (on which only seven women/topics appeared). The great irony came to fruition when over 70% of the class gave an incorrect response to the test question: ?Who were the first American women? This highlighted to Dr.T., to me, and to much of the class, just how much ignorance still exists on this key part of women in the American experience. This valuable addition to my own personal library has made an especially powerful impact on my life, as well as my academic career. Being a third generation Celtic male, in my 40's, whose own grandparents came from Scotland (pater) and Ireland (matre) so as to escape late 19th, early 20th century injustices in our home countries, it was very painful to read the names of the perpetrators of the Wounded Knee genocide, and recognize surnames which must have matched those of many of the townsfolk in my grandparents' towns What a traumatic, rude awakening for me, and especially during my last semester of my undergrad work as a Womens' Psych. major, with domestic violence, rape, and incest counseling as my field; add to that my recent licensing as a CAADE, CAADAC and NAADAC student chemical addiction counselor, and the info. regarding the "nite before" which a majority of the Celtic soldiers had imbibed, and the image of the "brave Celtic warrior" bearing down on the fleeing, panic stricken mother of the Lost Bird...well, ?you get the picture, right? So, my personal recommendation, from "James George Arthur Mulcahey-Michaels-Marshall (aka: Jay-Bird), of Clayton, Alexandria Bay, New York, to all my Celtic sisters and clansmen is this: "As you sit and tap your feet to the river dance, and raise your spirits aloft in tribute to the lords of the dance, as your heart rate and respiration elevate to the haunting tunes and enchanting melodies of our ancestors, add the salt of tears of sorrow to your saline tears of pride as you recall all that we, as a people, have endured in our journey to our new homeland. As you weep for the lives lost in clan feuds, and potato famines, and wars of our lands to free "all" humans, tip your lager to Renee Sansom-Flood and her victory of helping to re-unite a mother & daughter whose separation weighs heavily and squarely on the broad Celtic shoulders with which we pride ourselves. May we as a proud and noble culture, take the lessons of the "Lost Bird..." and vow to do what we can to erase the intolerance which fostered such an atrocious act of barbarism, to avoid any participation in any such act against "any" race or gender, and to strive to show due respect from cultures which differ from our own,...and especially if they arrived BEFORE our very own grandparents. As we fought for and demand(ed) fair treatment from conquerors to our island homes, may we, by our treatment of other indigenous peoples, show that we practice towards others that which we espouse as our inalienable right. I highly recommend this book for any who wish to have their eyes and their hearts opened to a piece of history from which ignorance there-of can only foster fertile ground for repetition. We Celtic people, who are drawn to and love the light thank you Ms. Renee Sansom-Flood, for introducing us to "Zintkala-nuni" and her noble people, and for your subtle way of showing us, the Celtic American, the great debt we owe to a race who has suffered in ways very similar to our own; we, too, were one despised, hated, maligned, and unwelcomed in this place we now call home: "...the land of the free, and the home of the brave".

Words not enough to decribe this book: the true review manifests itself as a bruise to your heart and soul.
Heartbreaking and eye-opening - A MUST READ!