The American West

Dee Brown is best known for his paradigm shifting best-seller, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," first published in 1972, written with such intensity and emotion that it is hard for a white American to read it without at least once the eyes watering up, in shame. Prior to that book, I, and many other Americans saw the settling of the West by the white man as one glorious enterprise. We had seen all too many "Westerners" on TV, with the wagon train filled with "innocent" white settlers being attacked by "savages," for no apparent reason. As is now revealed in narratives about the coming-of-age experience of many real Indians, the propaganda was so effective that EVEN the Indians who watched these shows would root for the cowboys. After his book, and much too late (and perhaps that is the real reason) many Americans realized there were numerous flaws in this mythology, which include a long string of broken treaties. For no other than the above reasons, Brown's "The American West" deserves much consideration. The book is not "scholarly," which could be a recommendation for many, since that particular genre has its own flaws. Does it have an Indian "bias," as one reviewer charged, without giving a specific example? Well, if raising the issue of shredded treaties is "bias," Brown is guilty. And there is no unifying theme; it is a series of vignettes that focus on portions of the settlement experience, and include `whites only' stories, such as "The Saga of Dodge City" and "The Myth and its Makers." Simply the pictures and the maps make the book a worthwhile purchase. The maps clearly show the various territories allocated to the Indians, with their changes over time. Many of the significant Indian-US Army battles are represented with their own maps. As for the pictures, they range from an evocative one of Sarah Bernhardt in the Opera House in St. Joseph, Missouri, to the baseball team in eastern Oregon in the late 1880's to the twisted corpse of Big Foot, the Sioux leader, frozen in the snow. As one might suspect, it is the stories about the Indians in which Brown excels. There are a couple on the Sioux, there is one on the "Lords of the Plain," the Comanche, as well as the Kiowa and the Cheyennes. There is also one on Geronimo, and his surrender and life thereafter selling buttons from his coat. Naturally there is Sitting Bull, and most deserving of his fate, General Custer, and the battle at the Little Bighorn. The author also briefly covers the essence of his more famous book, which was the Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee. But of all the stories, the most heart-breaking is the story of Joseph of the Nez Percés, and his eventual submission to the authority of the white man. "The earth is our mother," said Joseph. We cannot sell you our mother." "When he fell suddenly dead on autumn day in 1904, his friends said that he had died of a broken heart." The book also includes an excellent time line of the major event in the West, primarily after the

With these words the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to the U.S. Army, having fled from Idaho across country, through Yellowstone and north to Montana, only to be cut off just miles from the Canadian border. This and other spectacular stories will quicken the pulse of any red-blooded history buff. We also visit cow ranchers down in Texas and learn the true, unvarnished story of Dodge City and other pestilences. The real thing.

Brown's American West book can be difficult to follow at times. But it was worth wading through to read the in-depth details of folks who lived back then. I believe this was such a fascinating era in our history that reading new details is worth the price of the book (which was very nominal). If you like the Old West, you will find more than enough to satisfy you.

"The American West" provides readers with an excellent overview of the colorful history of its namesake. Brown exposes the myths behind western legends like Geronimo, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickock and many others. Perhaps most interesting are the chapters on the trailblazing of the cowboys and the perils they faced on their long cattle drives. Photographs are interspersed throughout the book and add to the story. I highly recommend this book to readers who are not terribly familiar with our western history and would like a nice primer.

The audio set of Dee Brown's The American West brings to life the characters and personalities that made the wild west an exciting and at times dangerous place to live. Although the book is very good there is nothing like listening to Mitchell Ryan's rich voice as he almost waxes rhapsodically about the adventures of Wild Bill Hickok or Big Nose Kate or Billy the Kid.