Customer Reviews

Moon of Popping Trees

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An unbiased, original, creative, compelling mastperpiece, Moon of Popping Trees is a brilliant and "professionally detached" work regarding Native American/European American relations prior to and including the Wounded Knee "incident." Of course, by "professionally detached" I mean amazingly separated from this often times over-emotionally approached subject in American History.

Yet, what is most compelling about this absolute masterpiece, is that despite Smith's own emotional detachment, he by no means fails to draw in the emotion of the reader--a danger which "scholarly reflections" often succomb to. Smith's work is perennial, cautious, and yet fascinatingly marvelous in its ability to "suck in" the reader. A subject I often pay little attention to and have little care for...Moon of Popping trees gave me a desire to study this area of history in greater detail.

When I visited the museum at Wounded Knee, I asked the woman at the counter
what she would suggest as the definitive book on the subject. She told me
she was Lakota and her favorite book so far on the accuracy of what happened there
was this book.."Moon of Popping Trees". I could not put the book down...and was
amazed to find out that nothing has changed much in the dispatch of military
personnel to places unfamiliar with the "American Way". Had the military done
it's homework and left in place the officers that KNEW the Lakota, this tragedy
may never have happened. This is a book of history, told true and told very well.

After corresponding with Rex Alan Smith on line, what ever he had written about the battle at Wounded Knee left little doubt about the careful research that went into this history. Even the weather reports for the day of the battle and the day after present a more clear understanding of what really transpired during these days.
Mr Smith, now deceased, also had written the definitive book about the creation of the mountain sculpture of Crazy Horse which is now used as the source for tourists visiting this monument.
It was a privilege to correspond with this author as his information is not to be doubted.

This book is clearly the best researched and objectively written work ever produced on the, controversial,"last battle" of the Indian Wars.