Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake

 

Dances With Wolves

Micheal Blake

Published 1988

American Novel

⭐⭐⭐ 

Dances With Wolves could be considered an adult "coming-of-age" story. 

The main character, Lieutenant John Dunbar, had been transferred out West to the U.S. Army's most remote post, which had been deserted during the Civil War. He spent weeks in solitude, expecting the army to send more soldiers and supplies. While waiting, he began to see the world with different eyes. 

"Loo Ten Nant" John Dunbar on the prairie

For one, he fell in love with the prairie. 

Lieutenant Dunbar had fallen in love. He had fallen in love with this wild, beautiful country and everything it contained. It was the kind of love people dream of having with other people: selfless and free of doubt, reverent and everlasting. His spirit had received a promotion and his heart was jumping. 

His only kin were a trusted army horse, Cisco, and a curious, friendly wolf, which Dunbar named Two Socks; that is, until one day he was visited by a few of his nearest neighbors belonging to a Comanche tribe. Numerous failed attempts to steal Cisco prompted Dunbar to make an initial visit to their village, and in doing so, he met a white woman who lived with the Comanches. She eventually became the liaison between Dunbar and the tribal leaders.  

The story of Dunbar's transformation was told through his narrations and journal writings. Relationships developed between Dunbar and the Comanches, as well as with the white woman, Stands With a Fist. Over time, both parties learned the other's language and how to better communicate. Dunbar introduced his neighbors to American inventions and the tribe invited Dunbar on a buffalo hunt. They trusted him enough to build him his own dwelling within the village to accommodate him during his visits and also asked him to help defend the woman and children, which was a great honor, while the warriors were away on a war party with their enemies, the Pawnee. 

Wind in His Hair and Kicking Bird trying to communicate with Dunbar

The more time Dunbar spent with his neighbors, the more he resembled them, in dress, behavior, and ideas. Whenever he returned to the fort for a few days, the loneliness was too much to bear and he had to return to the village. 

Eventually, it was evident that the army post had been completely abandoned and forgotten, prompting Dunbar to officially meld himself into the community of Comanche family he had naturally become a part of. After all, he and the white woman were ultimately married. (You saw that coming.)

As time went on, Dunbar transformed into Dances With Wolves

Unfortunately, the story regressed drastically when Dunbar returned to the soldier fort one final time to retrieve the only piece of evidence of his existence: his journal. If you are not familiar with the story, I won't say anymore. 

The good news is that it does not end there for Dunbar, who then went by his Comanche name Dances With Wolves; however, it was not a hopeful future for the native people in general. Not long after the Civil War ended, the United States used its military to removed the majority of remaining native tribes onto reservations in the American West and Southwest. 

About the book vs. the movie

If you do not know already, Dances With Wolves was made into a movie in the early 90s. The author, Michael Blake, had written a screenplay for a movie that Kevin Costner was starring in, and when Costner read Blake's book, Dances With Wolves, he asked him to write a film adaptation. Then Costner directed the film version, and it won countless awards, including best picture, director, screenplay, and actor. 

The movie was and is epic. It is far better than the book, in my opinion. I am assuming either Blake or Costner added humor to several characters and scenes that the book did not. There were many chapters from the book that were left out. You could say the film deviated occasionally from the book, and I am soooo thankful. 

Plus, the music score, by John Barry, is also glorious in its own right. If the wide rolling prairie could have a soundtrack, this is what it would sound like: romantic and grandiose.

Should you read this book?

The book has good parts, and technically, the movie follows most of the plot from the book. It also fills in some spots that the movie does not have time to tell. But over all, if you are curious, definitely see the movie. It is a great story and well done for the big screen. 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: 

An Indian History of the American West

 Dee Brown 

Published 1970

American Non-Fiction   

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was an emotional read. I could not read it without empathy, compassion, heartache, or vexation.

Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, which covers American history, 1860-1890, from a collective perspective of the American Indian. Brown utilized interpreted documents from treaties, interviews, and eyewitness accounts to tell this comprehensive story that had never been told before this publication.

Brown suspected that what he had learned about American Indians was false, and in his investigation he sadly found that his initial supposition was correct. He collaborated his sources from government documents, no less, and produced a very shameful account of the U.S. government's confiscation of the West from the American Natives.

I was not very surprised by the conclusion of the book because in my years of reading history with my children, I, too, learned that the United States government took everything from the Natives and what they didn't "take," they pushed whatever Indians were remaining onto reservations to live out their lives as they could, which was nothing like what they did before the Europeans came. The U.S. government disarmed them, seized their hunting grounds, travel routes, and access to natural resources.

Many of the Natives did not want to adopt the European or American way of life, living stationary lives, building a home, or learning agriculture. They were nomads and travelled to hunt. Yet, some of those who did eventually assimilate were removed and forced onto reservations anyway. Furthermore, reservations were traps, and over the years, the boundaries were redrawn tighter and tighter, giving the survivors less land to live on.

What did astound me was how consistently trusting the Indians were to be fooled into signing treaty after treaty. It wasn't that they did not know about the tricks; it was that they continued to believe the U.S. soldiers and generals. Most of the time they did not understand the details of the treaty, but they signed anyway. And within months or a few years of signing, they would lose the extent of the area they were permitted to live and hunt, eventually culminating in a battle with the soldiers; and if not completely eradicated, then survivors were rounded up and moved to an area reserved for them for the remainder of their lives.

I thought this was really sad: a senator lectured Sitting Bull after the Chief described the poor condition of the Indians on the reservation:

You are on an Indian reservation merely at the sufferance of the government. You are fed by the government, clothed by the government, your children are educated by the government and all you have and are today is because of the government. If it were not for the government you would be freezing and starving today in the mountains. 

How insulting!

The Indians loved liberty. But maybe what they appreciated more than that was the land. White Thunder said:

Our land here is the dearest thing on earth to us. Men take up land and get rich on it, and it is very important for us Indians to keep it.

And maybe this was another conflict, as to why they could not assimilate into the white man's culture. One government employee who sought to "correct this barbaric condition" explained:

Their needs are so few that they do not wish to adopt civilized habits. What we call conveniences and comforts are not sufficiently valued by them to cause them to undertake to obtain them by their own effort...the great majority look upon the white man's ways with indifference and contempt. 

Of course, there were soldiers, commanders, generals, and government officials who were sympathetic to the Indians, and they did what they could to see to the protection and preservation of the people and their land; however, it was usually short lived or the sympathizer was outnumbered.

There is no way around this story. It is a very regretful truth about American history. The eradication was not only perpetrated by the U.S. government through soldiers, but also by settlers moving west or miners in search of gold.

To be fair, the Indians also committed ruthless acts of murder on settlers and soldiers. They fought as much as they could to prevent the confiscation of their land by what they saw as an invasion and theft. But sadly, they, too, will have to answer for their sins. There is no justification for murder of other humans, whether they were settlers encroaching on land or soldiers following through with orders from the government.
A major theme I found throughout this particular history was REVENGE. Indians and soldiers alike sought revenge and believed each was justified in the savage killing of another human being. It was just astounding how neither could see this wicked truth. While there were attempts on both sides to live peaceable with the other group, both were in conflict because they refused to value the other as human beings and worthy of living.

Another thing I learned from this history is that I don't think we read history to learn from it, in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the same mistakes; but instead we think we are justified in our revenge because of past sins; this is why we continue to perpetrate injustices; conflict will never end.  It doesn't matter our race. Regretfully, in our hearts, we selfishly want to prove we are correct or justified in our hatred, theft, and murder.

I think these were good words by Chief Joseph, which he spoke to the leaders in Washington DC:

Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself - and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

Chief Joseph died on September 21, 1904, of, what an attending physician reported as "a broken heart."

 

Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Mary Rowlandson

Published 1682

The Well-Educated Mind Biographies

⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5

Mary Rowlandson, a British native living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shares her terrifying experience: being forced from her home, witnessing the brutal murders of neighbors and family members, and being separated from her children, save one dying in her arms from a gunshot wound.  

In 1675, American colonists were in the middle of a Native American conflict between several New England tribes and the British and their Indian allies.  King Philip's War, named after Native American Metacomet, began after the alleged murder of an Indian translator and advisor to Metacomet. Three Wampanoag Indians were tried and hanged for this crime. In revenge for the trial and hanging, a number of surprise attacks occurred on colonial towns.  Homes were destroyed and men, women, and children were either murdered or taken captive; Mary Rowlandson was one of those taken captive.

Rowlandson narrates in vivid and terrifying description what it was like on that February morning: Indians came into her town, burning homes, knocking men or women on the head, shooting, stabbing or butchering some to death, stripping bodies naked, or taking others alive. She witnessed the death of one sister and a nephew.  Her husband was not home during the time of the attack when two of their oldest children were taken and a third was wounded.

At first, she thought, "if Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed..." And so began her eleven-week ordeal of survival in the daunting wilderness, often on the march and fleeing from the pursuing British, foraging for food to sustain herself, but always clinging to God and His Word.  

Within a week, her wounded six-year old died, but she knew her two older children were alive and in nearby camps.  In her burden and anxiety, she asked God to give her "some sign and hope of relief." Then after a raid on another English colony, an Indian brought her a Bible that he took as loot and had no use, which she accepted willingly and saw as an answer to prayer.

She gained strength from Psalm 27: "Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Heart, wait I say on the Lord."  And in understanding her loss of family, relations, her home and its comforts, she read from Job: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."  

She was able to comfort her son, when she saw him, with Scripture, such as Psalm 118:17-18: "I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord: the Lord hath chastened me sore yet he hath not given me over to death."  Other times, this verse, Psalm 46:10, was good enough: "Be still, and know that I am God."  Or when she could not worship on the Sabbath and had no where to lay her head, 

I cannot express to man the sorrow that lay upon my spirit; the Lord knows it.  Yet that comfortable Scripture would often come to mind, "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.

Rowlandson suffered in her heartbreak over the separation from her children and endured humiliation in the midst of her captors - who threatened her, struck her, or were unkind to her, particularly the women.  Sometimes she was "met with favor," but other times unkindness.  She did meet Metacomet (King Philip), and he was very good to her.

To survive, she was forced to look for her own food in the wilderness or to beg for pieces of food from others.  Food included: ground acorns, bear meat, or boiled horse hoof.  Once she sustained herself on molded crumbs of bread that she found in her pocket.  She remarked that "it was very hard to get down their filthy trash," and yet, in her hunger, she believed that God allowed them to be "sweet and savory to [her] taste."

Near the end of her captivity, she learned of her possible restoration and had to set a price for her redemption; this was ironic because the Indians had taken or destroyed all of her property, and she and her husband had nothing to give.  Nonetheless, she was redeemed for twenty pounds.  Later, she and her husband were able to track their two older children and redeem them, as well, so that they were all reunited once more.

Rowlandson recalled how God had His hand in this conflict, and how He provided for the Indians, whether it was to stop the English from pursuing or permit Indian victories, destroying towns and taking more captives.  She says,

Now the heathen begins to think all is their own, and the poor Christians' hopes to fail (as to man) and now their eyes are more to God, and their hearts sigh heaven-ward; and to say in good earnest, "Help Lord, or we perish."  When the Lord had brought His people to this, that they saw no help in anything but Himself; then He takes the quarrel into His own hand; and though they (the Indians) had made a pit, in their own imaginations, as deep as hell for the Christians that summer, yet the Lord hurled themselves into it.  And the Lord had not so many ways before to preserve them, but now He hath as many to destroy them.

In regards to her afflictions, she said, I have seen the extreme vanity of this world: One hour I have been in health, and wealthy, wanting nothing.  But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction.

Having known these miseries, she could now look beyond her troubles and be at rest in the Lord.

If I had to answer the question, "Why did Mary Rowlandson write her story?" I would say her simple message was this: God chastens those whom He loves, and He is able to carry them through their afflictions.  "That we must rely on God Himself, and our whole dependence must be upon Him."