Customer Reviews

In The Shadow of Wounded Knee: The Untold Final Chapter of the Indian Wars

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

 

 

The more you read about American history the more you come to realize the significance that so many obscure and long forgotten events had on the history of our nation. I have read about a great many such events over the past few years and this was a major reason that I was drawn to Roger DiSilvestro's new book "In The Shadow Of Wounded Knee". Certainly I had read about the tragic events that had taken place at Wounded Knee SD in that last week of December 1890. But I was totally clueless about the subsequent assassination of Lt. Edward Casey by a young Lakota warrier known as Plenty Horses and of the ambush and cold-blooded killing just days later of a middle-aged Lakota Indian known as Few Tails by three brothers named Culbertson. Both Plenty Horses and the Culbertson brothers would be accused of murder and be forced to stand trial. The outcomes of these trials were assumed to be a foregone conclusion but events were rapidly unfolding that had the potential to alter the outcomes of one or both of these trials.

There was much at stake for both the Lakota Indians and for the newly arrived ranchers and settlers.
Understanding just what was going on in the Dakotas during these troubled times would be extremely difficult without an understanding of the history of relations between the U.S. government and the Indian nations. In the first four chapters of "In The Shadow Of Wounded Knee" Roger DiSilvestro does a superb job of getting the reader up to speed on this checkered history. And so when these two unfortunate killings occur in January 1891 the reader is abundantly aware of the context in which this violence took place. At the same time you will be much more likely to understand the highly charged climate that surrounded each of these trials. If you are an avid reader of history like I am then "In The Shadow of Wounded Knee" will give you another little piece of the puzzle that will help you to understand just what was going on in the Plains as hostilities between the U.S. Army and the Indian nations were beginning to wind down. Clearly most Indian leaders could see the handwriting on the wall. "In The Shadow of Wounded Knee" is extremely well researched and very well written. My kudos to Roger DiSilvestro for a job well done. Highly Recommended.

The author is to be commended for exploring in the depth and detail that only a book can provide, an incident receiving heretofore scant attention in previous histories of this campaign. Robert Utley's 1960s "American Heritage" article on Plenty Horses and Casey has stood as the best source on Casey's death, until now. As with many such books, the author spends a great deal of time with historical background and context, which, if you are a Sioux Wars student, you may already be familiar with in one form or another. To his credit, these sections are well-written and engaging as well as revealing of some new insight. Clearly, he has done his homework.

The best part of the book lies in the courtroom drama that unfolded when Plenty Horses was put on trial for the killing of Lt. Casey (see background description provided by Amazon) that was held in eastern South Dakota at Sioux Falls, far removed from the scene of conflict. The excitement that pervaded the town is related quite well through the use of contemporary newspaper quotes. The first trial ended in a hung jury; the second trial produced his acquital. The author fully explores how it was established that the U.S. military and the Lakota were at war and therefore the killing of Casey by Plenty Horses was not a murder but a legitimate wartime killing. The defense attorneys for Plenty Horses built a case resting on a number of issues proving that a wartime climate prevailed which impacted on the way Plenty Horses reacted to Lt. Casey's close approach to the the Lakota camp that resulted in his being shot: the large troop deployments, the fights at Wounded Knee and Drexel Mission that preceded the Casey killing, the issuance of army rations rather than Indian Bureau rations to those Lakota who surrendered and the testimony of Captain Frank Baldwin, close underling of none other than General Nelson Miles, who expressed Miles' opinion as to the nature of state of war prevailing at that time. The author makes clear and cites evidence concerning the military's fear that if Plenty Horsees was convivted of murder, the door might have been opened to legally question the nature of the numerous Lakota deaths that occured as a result of Wounded Knee, especially the number of women and children killed.

In the end, Plenty Horses escaped capital punishment, returned to the reservation where he lived until the 1930s. As for Wounded Knee itself, the author wisely states that "the truth of what happened at Wounded Knee is beyond reach."

"In the Shadow of Wounded Knee" is a deftly written account of several trials that served as an epilogue to the better-known events of Wounded Knee. DiSilvestro does an excellent job of setting the stage for the trial of Plenty Horses, a Lakota Indian accused of murdering Edward Casey, the last white soldier killed in the Indian Wars, and a secondary trial in which several low-life cattlemen were accused of killing a well-known and well-liked Indian. DiSilvestro describes the sad state of affairs that led to the massacre of Indians at Wounded Knee, and how reaction to the massacre colored, in particular, the trial of Plenty Horses. DiSilvestro provides a lively account of the uneasy state of affairs between whites and Indians, the specific events leading the two murder cases, the trials, and their aftermath. The influence of politics on both trials says a great deal about that time in history, but also left me thinking more about how politics still influences justice (think of the current debate about our obligations to prisoners in the war on terror). "In the Shadow of Wounded Knee" is a fluid, thought-provoking, even-handed treatment of a fascinating topic that continues to be of great relevance.

Well, of course I give this book five stars. I wrote it. It offers a review of the historical events that led up to the trial of Plenty Horses for shooting an Army lieutenant in the back of the head shortly after the Wounded Knee shoot out. In writing the book, I wanted to cover an incident that marked the end of the Indian Wars but that had scarcely been treated to more than a footnote in most books covering those conflicts. I also tried to show the West as it truly was, which is to say that I was interested in showing how reality differed from the myth of the West that underlies so much of our nation's self identity. I also wanted to give readers a dramatic story that would hold their interest and compete well against other activities. I wish the best of reading experiences to those who do pick up the book.