Review: LONG OVERDUE
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
Like many of the tribes in the United States, the Shoshone have had their tribal lands taken from them and their rights thrown out the door. Would you be surprised to know the name of one special Shoshone is taught in schools all across America and is on a piece of jewelry I own? Still some people find this remembrance to be a slap in the face.Her name was Sacajawea. The Lewis and Clark expedition would have been impossible without her. Why then are some people insulted?She wasn't really her husband's wife; she was his property.Originally HE was hired as translator for the group. Then it became obvious the young woman knew not just the language, but the land. So what if she was pregnant? Off they went.When her son was born it actually made the situation safer for their group; how could anyone traveling with a woman and an infant be out to cause trouble? That child practically insured safe passage.Sacajawea is only a blip in the history of the Shoshone. There are four major tribal divisions. There are two basic religions.And there is one really sad story. The Shoshone became caught up in a Lakota Sioux movement called the Ghost Dance. This book describes how the movement originated and says it ended at Wounded Knee, but gives no details about Wounded Knee.Wounded Knee was a massacre. The men who were able to hunt had left to do so. That left a camp of women, children and old men.The soldiers attacked these unarmed people at dawn. Women tried to shield their children with their bodies. It didn't matter. Some people made it as far as a ditch where they played possum, but soldiers are taught to glean the battlefield. Even infants on their backboards were slaughtered.The soldiers took scalps and other body parts. Then, for their needless horror, the department of the Army awarded medals of honor to each soldier.Don't believe me? Amazon sells Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.For years the tribes involved have been trying to get those medals rescinded.How would you feel?As I said, this book doesn't go into detail about Wounded Knee, but there are plenty of other things to read about, some good, some not.There are so few of us left we shouldn't be stuck in a hole just studying our own history. I don't just read the history of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, though I do study that most. I could study till Doomsday and still not know all of it.But I like studying it anyway.