To Have This Land: The Nature of Indian/White Relations : South Dakota : 1888-1891

In the preface to this book, Philip Hall explains the two-fold purpose of this book. It is an effort to tell a story of the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 from the standpoint of local frontier history, rather than the more common efforts that treat the event as an episode in American Indian history, or in Western military history. Hence he tells the story of white settlers and ranchers in the area. The second purpose is to contribute to a deeper and more meaningful effort at reconciliation between Indians and whites in western South Dakota.Hall does a good job of the first goal, orchestrating the views of participants on the settler side of the Indian-white encounter around the time of the massacre. He shows that these views were more complicated than readers of other histories might suspect. In putting forth these views, he also lays out some perspectives that could, with a focused and committed political effort, stimulate the possibilities of mutual understanding between Indians and whites in South Dakota, as well as other areas in the West. He shows that participants in the crisis of 1890 found themselves caught up in events beyond their control. They were faced with choices in which all the alternatives failed to satisfy their priorities. In the choices they would have liked to make they might have found the basis for peaceful coexistence, rather than the violence and oppression that became the mode of interracial relations.Hall does a good job of orchestrating a narrative that evokes these possibilities. However, his approach often seems too much that of a journalist who conceals his stake in the outcome of the events. His second objective--racial healing--might be served better by stronger analysis and the commitment throughout the text that is put forth in the preface and the author's bio.