Choice Review
This is one of the most informative books written about the unfortunate circumstances leading to the 1890 debacle at Wounded Knee. Twenty-five years in the making, it provides insights into the Ghost Dance phenomenon with its visions and beliefs in the Messiah's arrival. The impact of starvation, lack of clothing, inadequate housing, government violations of treaty benefits, and unscrupulous agents were overwhelming to the Indians. Religious bigots and the sensationalism created by news reporters nourished irrational thinking. Voices demonstrates the detrimental effect of religious fervor and the corresponding misinterpretation across uncompromising belief structures. The use of the Ghost Dance for personal, political, and military aggrandizement is apparent. The author uses italicized print to present historical and introductory materials, then returns to normal print for original letters, statements, military reports, press releases, and Indian pronouncements, a clever approach resulting in a readable and interesting text. Two riveting chapters contain actual observations of the massacre followed by transcripts of hearings and investigations. Thirty-three pages of notes and a valuable bibliography make this title appropriate for all collections. N. C. Greenberg; Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
Library Journal Review
While much has been written about Wounded Knee and what happened there, this is the first account in which the participants have been allowed to tell the story almost entirely in their own words. While Coleman (theater, Drake Univ.) was seeking information on Buffalo Bill Cody, a chance meeting with Benjamin Black Elk set him on the trail of firsthand accounts of the events that led up to the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890. He has welded these accounts (of the two-week Ghost Dance and the climactic attack by the Seventh Cavalry) into a riveting narrative that tells how the massacre emerged out of a long string of broken treaties, cultural mistrust, governmental rivalries, and inflammatory press reports. Rather than presenting a series of documents, he selects only the relevant parts of each, setting differing accounts of the same event in juxtaposition to each other, with a minimal connecting narrative to keep the chronological selections in context. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.DStephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
