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Symbols
There aren’t many overt symbols in Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. However, one exception is the Wounded Knee Massacre alluded to in the title. In December 1890, the U.S. military marched hundreds of defeated Sioux men, women, and children down to Wounded Knee Creek, supposedly with the intention of transferring them to a new reservation in Omaha. According to eyewitnesses, American soldiers shot a man named Black Coyote who, it seemed to them, refused to surrender his rifle. In reality, Black Coyote was old and deaf, and didn’t understand what he was being asked to do. In the scuffle, Black Coyote’s rifle went off and the U.S. soldiers—many of whom were openly eager to hurt the Native Americans—used this as a pretext to shoot hundreds of unarmed Native American men, women, and children. The Wounded Knee Massacre has gone down in history as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States’ relationship with the Native Americans. It symbolizes the cruelty and sadism of the U.S. in the era of westward expansion, and could even be interpreted as a microcosm of the government’s genocidal Native American policies in general.
Wounded Knee Massacre Quotes in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee quotes below all refer to the symbol of Wounded Knee Massacre. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 12 Quotes
At a place known only to them they buried Crazy Horse somewhere near Chankpe Opi Wakpala, the creek called Wounded Knee.
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At the end of this chapter, Crazy Horse is killed in a mysterious accident: supposedly, he was killed after lunging at one of the guards who had arrested him, and in the chaos, he was shot in the head. While Brown doesn’t say for sure, it seems reasonable to believe that Crazy Horse was killed through some kind of foul play: a disgruntled soldier who wanted the “privilege” of killing Crazy Horse himself. The more important part of the passage, however, concerns Crazy Horse’s burial near Wounded Knee Creek, which would later become the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur
Chapter 19 Quotes
It was the fourth day after Christmas in the year of Our Lord 1890. When the first torn and bleeding bodies were carried into the candlelit church, those who were conscious could see Christmas greenery hanging from the open rafters. Across the chancel front above the pulpit was strung a crudely lettered banner: PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN.
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In the final chapter of the book, Brown discusses the darkest hour in Native American history: the Wounded Knee Massacre, during which U.S. troops murdered three hundred unarmed men, women, and children, supposedly because one elderly, deaf man was waving a rifle. In a dark irony, the corpses of the Native Americans slaughtered at Wounded Knee were transported to a nearby church which bore a banner saying “Peace on Earth.” Here, Brown concludes, was the white man’s “peace.” For half a century, white Americans had gone west in search of freedom and prosperity. But freedom and prosperity didn’t fall down Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus
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Wounded Knee Massacre Symbol Timeline in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The timeline below shows where the symbol Wounded Knee Massacre appears in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: “Their Manners are Decorous and Praiseworthy”
...were often unconnected, they would come to a symbolic end in December of 1890 at Wounded Knee .
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Chapter 12: The War for the Black Hills
...Horse died a few hours later. He was buried near a little creek known as Wounded Knee .
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Chapter 19: Wounded Knee
...to dying. He surrendered to U.S. soldiers, who took Big Foot and his men to Wounded Knee Creek.
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At Wounded Knee , Big Foot’s men were carefully counted and guarded. Late at night, reinforcements arrived to...
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Days later, soldiers dragged away the bodies of the three hundred murdered Native Americans of Wounded Knee . The soldiers threw the bodies in open wagons and carted them across the state...
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