Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This account of hope, anger, and the pursuit of honor centers around the efforts, beginning in 1985, of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Associations to obtain legal redress for the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Interweaving entries from the diary of Oglala attorney Mario Gonzalez and historical commentary by Santee/Yankton writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, The Politics of Hallowed Ground traces the Survivors' Associations' struggle to secure from the U.S. government a formal apology and recognition of the massacre site as a National American Monument. Surveying both recent and historical events, Gonzalez and Cook-Lynn address critical issues of cultural bias and collective memory. Their observations expose not only the seemingly unbridgeable gap between white and Native cultures but also impassioned dialogue among various tribes affected by the Wounded Knee Massacre.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

By far the most moving, most compelling book I have read about the Sioux and their ongoing struggle to come to grips with history....[Let's] us see the gut-wrenching realities that people who work to make a difference face. — Robert Allen Warrior