Customer Reviews

Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost (Bedford Series in History & Culture)

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

 

 

I was assigned this book as part of a class on the Old West. This is a collection of writings by Native Americans of their experiences of "how the west was lost". More than that, though, it gives an idea, from the Native Americans' experience, of how they felt about white people coming, treaties, their changing way of life, and more. An interesting read and certainly gives a new perspective to the history of the West.

Covering the plains period from around the mid 1700's to the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, this is an excellent collection of Plains Indian essays, mostly taken from oral histories recorded in earlier publications, but very well organized. Each essay has an informative preface that sets the context of the essay and fills in a lot of historical background information, and the essays are followed with an extensive list of bibliographic notes. A non-Indian myself, I learned a number of American Indian terms and concepts I had occasionally come across but never understand before ('counting coup', what's a 'Wohaw', etc.)

I'm not a student though, just a curious reader, and still found this book delightful to read. I didn't sense a pro-Indian (or anti-Indian) political stance, or any idealization of the American Indian. For example, there are essays here covering the constant warfare and hatred (and occasional peacemaking) among the different tribes. It correctly notes that the Buffalo were already in decline due to the introduction of firearms to the Indians well before the white hunters started their own buffalo hunts. However, as you read the essays, it's hard not to sympathize with the Indian essayists, and feel the same poignant loss and bewilderment they felt as their old ways of life disappeared under forces beyond their control. When I was a student, I learned how the West was won from my U.S. History textbook. Now I have a better understanding of what was lost as well.