Native Americans and today

Last Book portfolio

I read the book Bury my heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown which is an oral history about the struggles of Native Americans during the civil war. Life is the constant struggle to survive. During the 1800's the Native Americans struggled to maintain peace even though the white men were taking their land away from them. Also, they murdered many to get what they wanted from them in many massacres like Wounded Knee and Sand Creek.

Life is hard and we all want to live as long as we can, so we would fight to survive. In the book all of the Indian Chiefs try to make peace first but when treaties are broken and their people are killed they fight back. But sometimes you can't fight back and have to submit and move like in the Cherokees situation with the Trail of tears. The theme is significant because it is true and it is seen throughout the book.

To live is to survive and to survive is to live. This is true because for the Indians they lived of of the land by hunting and foraging. Which was made harder by white men invading their land and forcing them away to have barely enough to survive. This is very personal and historical because it tells the story of events through someone that was actually there. It's historical because it shows the affects of Manifest Destiny it tells about Wounded Knee and the Trail of Tears. It is important to know how hard it was back then for them and compare it to how hard it is now for us. So we comprehend how different it was then.