Even when he treads familiar ground-Red Cloud’s War, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Nez Perce flight and fight, the epic pursuit of Geronimo, Wounded Knee, etc.-he relates all in surprisingly fresh and insightful fashion. In short, the author achieves what he set out to do-bringing historical balance to the story of the Indian wars.Ĭozzens covers lots of ground, much of it bloody, thus he skips lightly over certain events, but in doing so he doesn’t gloss over anything. “Although massacres occurred and treaties were broken,” he adds, “the federal government never contemplated genocide.” In his exceptional book Cozzens in no way ignores injustices done to Indians, but he insists we not ignore the white perspective, either. That elegantly written book served its purpose but made no attempt at historical balance, Peter Cozzens contends. By the 1970s, though, many people viewed the whites as conquerors, even villains, and the Indians as victims-thanks in no small part to Dee Brown’s influential Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. In subsequent decades most of America came to view the brave Indian fighters and equally courageous settlers as heroic. The tragedy at Wounded Knee in 1890 marked the end of these wars, if not the end of American Indians’ traditional way of life. This sweeping narrative gives one plenty of reason to weep, considering the misjudgments, confusion, delusions and loss of life that occurred on the 19th-century frontier. The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West, by Peter Cozzens, Alfred A.
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