The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty [Hardcover]

Mario Gonzalez (Author), Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

This account of hope, anger, and the pursuit of honor centers around the efforts, beginning in 1985, of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Associations to obtain legal redress for the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Interweaving entries from the diary of Oglala attorney Mario Gonzalez and historical commentary by Santee/Yankton writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, The Politics of Hallowed Ground traces the Survivors' Associations' struggle to secure from the U.S. government a formal apology and recognition of the massacre site as a National American Monument. Surveying both recent and historical events, Gonzalez and Cook-Lynn address critical issues of cultural bias and collective memory. Their observations expose not only the seemingly unbridgeable gap between white and Native cultures but also impassioned dialogue among various tribes affected by the Wounded Knee Massacre.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If anyone still questions the continuing perifdy of the United States and state governments in dominating their indigenous citizens, they need only to read The Politics of Hallowed Ground to put such conclusions aside." -- Kathleen Chamberlain, South Dakota History

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252023544
• ISBN-13: 978-0252023545
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,600,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars important model for rewriting Indian and U.S. history, November 30, 1999

By 

Rosalie M. Robertson (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty (Paperback)

What first strikes this reader is the very frank and engrossing personal narrative, as well as the description of the on-going political struggle of the Sioux in their battle for the return of the Black Hills in South Dakota. The diary entries of lawyer Mario Gonzales and the commentaries of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn gave me an opportunity to re-think important events in Sioux and American history over the past century (including Custer and the Little Big Horn, the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, and others). The authors also show very clearly how these linked histories continue to influence the actions of individuals (white or Indian) and governments today. Cook-Lynn is especially deft at evaluating the political, economic,and racial motivations of the various stakeholders, from the factions within different Sioux tribes, the governors and congressmen, federal agencies, to the white landowners. The centerpiece of the book is the fight by the Sioux for the return of the Black Hills (preserved for the tribes by treaty in 1868), as well as the related fight for a monument to the Sioux massacred by government troups at Wounded Knee. But as the story unfolds, it became a means for me to understand the treaty rights and sovereign rights of not just the Sioux but other Indian nations in this country. Gonzales relates details of the legal battles and community struggles, and shows an amazing persistence and courage in his pursuit of justice for the Sioux. I hope that other readers come away from this book with as strong a sense as I did: of our need to resolve these ethical and legal dilemmas by recognition of Indian treaty rights and sovereignty. I'm grateful to the authors for their frank discussions of the real difficulties inherent in this task, and for outlining the rewards to all of us if they succeed.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story's power is in its stark truth., April 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty (Hardcover)

Recognition of wrongful death more than just an ache in heart

The mission of Native journalists throughout the nation has been to empower our people by telling our stories and retelling our histories from our perspective. That is why it was with a great deal of pleasure and pride, as well as a heart filled with hope, that I closed the cover on the recently released, "The Politics of Hallowed Ground," written by Santee/Yankton Dakota Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and Oglala Lakota attorney Mario Gonzalez. The story's power is in its stark truth. Many truths, historical and contemporary, are revealed. They lay bare a history that, although it is hurtful, also paves the way to empower tribal people to fight for the future. Cook-Lynn, professor emerita of English of Eastern Washington University, is herself a renowned poet, essayist, fiction writer and founding editor of the Wicazo Sa Review, and Gonzalez, the attorney general of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, join forces as a forceful team tol address many historical and contemporary issues facing our Sioux nations. Daily diaries kept by Gonzalez provide a backdrop for this tale of historical, social, legal and political injustices the people have suffered. Gonzalez was the lead attorney who initiated a civil action in U.S. District Court on July 18, 1980, that enjoined and prevented the federal government from "paying" out the June 30, 1980, Supreme Court award to the Oglala Sioux Tribe for the theft of the Black Hills. Payment would have extinguished Lakota/Dakota title to the Black Hills. He also drafted the proposed Bradley and Martinez bills that would have established a framework for the Lakota/Dakota tribes to get Congress to provide a solution for the Black Hills land claim. This book also is about the Wounded Knee Survivors Association, represented by Gonzalez, and its struggle to get the federal government to apologize for atrocities at Wounded Knee when Big Foot and his band were massacred by the 7th Cavalry and to establish a memorial at the massacre site. The story is told from the Lakota/Dakota perspective, that the massacre took place in retaliation for Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn Battle little more than a decade earlier. . An old adage holds that the pen is mightier than the sword. In this case Cook-Lynn, who narrates the story, carries a mighty big club. She hammers on the colonized mindset of some of our people, the historical, racist ideology and current racist political undercurrents that impede progress of our people. Cook-Lynn not only lays bare the many injustices the people suffered at the hands of the white man and at the hands of fellow tribal members. They retell Lakota-Dakota history from the Native perspective. To quote Gonzalez: "I don't know why non-Indians believe the Lakota are a conquered people. It is just being fought on another battlefield. We now battle the U.S. government in the courtrooms, the halls of Congress and at the United Nations. "The Lakota people won every major military engagement with the United States in the 1860s and signed a peace treaty with the United States in 1868. Although the U.S. Army violated that treaty by attacking Lakota people exercising their article 11 and 16 hunting rights at the Little Bighorn River in Montana on June 25, 1876, the Lakota defeated Lt. Col. George Amrstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry at that battle and we have been residing in peace on their reservations as they agreed to do in 1868. " Lilililililili! Too put it succinctly, as only Cook-Lynn could do, "Gonzalez believes that the conquest of the Lakota people is a state of mind; that the Lakota people will become a conquered people only when they start believing they are conquered and start acting like they are conquered." Powerful words, but this book is about empowerment. It is not only a "must read" to truly understand Sioux history from the Lakota-Dakota point of view, but it is a must for academics in the history and political fields. The appendixes provided by Gonzalez and Cook-Lynn include much-needed research material easily accessed. They include significant dates, historical accounts, congressional testimony, a chronology of events leading up to the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, the Wounded Knee death list, a list of claims paid under the Sioux Depredations Act, a Chronology of Historical/Legal Events on the Black Hills Sioux Land Claim as well as the bill introduced to establish a Wounded Knee National Tribal Park. There is so much information in this book, a mere review would not do it justice. Instead, I encourage all "thinking" people to buy this book and read it. I guarantee you will come away enlightened and prone to ponder for days, truths that will be revealed. In closing, a parting shot from Cook-Lynn: "`The Politics of Hallowed Ground' is a modern accounting of the efforts of ordinary people to make sense of colonial politics in our time and it follows a paper trail as clear and unmistakable as the trail of blood left in the hills of the Pine Ridge Reservation after the killing a century ago. "The expectation of the current effort narrated here is that crimes against humanity can be acknowledged by their perpetrators, that official apologies can ensue, that stolen lands and rights can be returned to tribal peoples, that colonization and enforced assimilation can be identified as among the historical crimes against humanity and that the recognition of wrongful death can be more than just an ache in the heart."

Editor's note: "The Politics of Hallowed Ground" is published by the University of Illinois Press. Call [phone] for more information.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the politics of hallowed ground...., May 19, 2000

By 

allison hedge coke - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty (Paperback)

Wonderful workings of writing the whole truth. A must have, must read, must distribute widely!