Customer Reviews

Voices from Wounded Knee, 1973. In the Words of the Participants

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I was fortunate to be at Wounded Knee in 1973 and onward through the trials of Dennis Banks and Russell Means in Minneapolis.

This book is the truth of what happened and the wonders (spirits and spiritual events) that occompanied the liberation of Wounded Knee. The stories told in this book capture the event more than any book I have read relating to an event like this. I had the fortune to work with all of these people and was inside Wounded Knee during the liberation. My picture is located on page 73 (I am on the left sweeping the clinic).

Gladys Bissonette, Ellen Moves Camp, Lou Bean, and many other women were the strength many times that helped us all to go forward. Many a time we dealt with death (Pedro Bissonnette) in very dangerous situations but their strength, dedication, and love never stopped.

Sarah Thunder Hawk and a medicine man by the name of Hard Heart were instrumental in helping me undrstand why I must stay and help even though egos within the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/ Offense Committee were more interested in themselves that the struggle at hand.

This struggle and the people I worked with changed my life forever and since that time I have continued working to ensure that all people are recognized and that the idea that we all are inter-connected is known.

Please read this book and see the strength, the compassion, the love, the idea that people who had nothing could for a brief time create a situation in which thier lifes were exposed to the world, as well as why things needed to be changed.

Thank you.

I am one of the four people who produced the book, Voices From Wounded Knee 1973 for Akwsasne Notes, Mohawk Nation. The other authors were Joanna Brown, Johnny Lerner, and Barbara Lou Shafer. We have all split to the wind and are no longer in contact with each other. Maybe they will see this and we can contact each other. Hi team.

This book has been out of print and should be archived someplace as it is the only documentary that was produced of the 1973 uprising. We thought another edition of the book would come out after the trials were over, with more and better photographs and stories but there was a fire apparently at Akwesasne Notes later that destroyed much of the material, and Notes seems to have folded and the photographers have dispersed too. Kevin McKernin continues to get his 16 mm video out for public use, thankfully. I know of one photographer who has some photos, and Al Cooper here in Albuquerque, NM is writing a biography (this is 2010) with some new photos and material.

The event itself is one of the most successful acts of armed resistance to the U.S. empire's westward expansion and will probably never be rendered in full visual media because it is so extrodinary in its story and imortance for resistance. The people and what we all did there and level of brutal violence the federal government unleashed on the liberated village is not easy to grasp from photographs. I have tried several times to get movie producers (Oliver Stone, Redford) to do a good visual media of it but it is passed over.

Many of us there were Vietnam veterans, fresh from the war. Native American Indian Movement had a lot of Vietnam vets and I think this itself along with all the other groups and issues played a moral and physical role that made the uprising successful. Some of us who came from outside were active at the time in building the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (my group was from New Mexico). We saw it as natural to bring the war home and stand in solidarity with another oppressed people. The VVAW has disowned us who took part in the armed struggle and want to emphasise the medical role some VVAW supporters did play. There is much of the history of the event still missing from our national history.

It would be nice if Amazon included the names of us authors of the book. Only the first edition of the book contains our names, we did not want the Feds to find out who we were, at the time. All other printings of the book do not have names. We did not make any money off the book, we gave the rights to Akwesasne Notes. Not sure how that stands these days for copyright issues. Some libraries in the southwest have original copies of the book, I have a few left.
I am in several photos of the book. Cooper's book should be a real addition to this one.

If anyone from the uprising at Wounded Knee sees this, in February 2010 and wants to contact me, my email is citizen@comcast.net. I live in Albuquerque, NM and teach political science at the community college here. Hi to Patrick. Glad you are around too.

This book provides a great view on the situation in Wounded Knee in 1973, from the eyes of the Oglala Sioux. You really get a feel for the nwhole situation and you learn about the revolutionary acts of Indians to get justice from imperialist America. Read this book if you are learning about native struggle in America.