Lost Bird Of Wounded Knee: Spirit Of The Lakota [ペーパーバック]

In December 1890 the United States of America massacred an unarmed band of Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Most of them were starving and many of them were very ill. They were cut down like prey in the bitter snows of the Badlands and it was a sad day for Human Beings, one of many days I can never get out of my heart. There was a tiny miracle that day. A little baby girl survived unharmed, protected were she fell, by the body of her murdered mother. She was taken in by other Lakota people but Brigadier General and future Assistant District Attorney of the United States, Leonard W. Colby kidnapped and then adopted the baby as a "living curio." This murderous, inhumane and corrupt man wanted a little souvenir so he stole a human being, a helpless infant, and ripped her away from her people and her culture. He exploited her to attract prominent tribes as clients of his law practice. His wife, Clara B. Colby, who later divorced him was a prominent suffragist and newspaper editor. She tried to give this little Lost Bird a stable home and she meant well but she could never replace the Lakota ways or help Lost Bird to fit in to an alien and inhumane world. Lost Bird, whose real name was Zintkala Nuni only lived to be 29 years old and her short life was filled with pain and degradation and tragedy. She suffered sexual abuse, violence, prostitution and rejection. She was a being caught between two worlds and accepted in neither. The author of this book has done a wonderful job of bringing this poignant story to light. She illustrates the atmosphere of the times and offers rich insight into the insidious racism of the America of that time. This is a story of not only the cruelty that was done to the Native peoples of this land but of the misogynous, unscrupulous and socially unjust attitudes and actions of the leaders and people of this country. It is a testiment to endurance, a chronicle of tragedy. In 1991 Zintkala Nuni was returned from her burial place in California to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Badlands of South Dakota. She was buried with respect and ceremony among her people. Last summer I drove past the crowded impoverished homes to pay my respects to the people who died that day at Wounded Knee. I saw the harsh reality of the ancient gray hills of the Badlands with their ghostly beauty. I saw the offerings and prayer bundles in the burial grounds. I talked with two men selling souvenirs, trying to make a few dollars in a place where work is so hard to find. The arrogance and greed that murdered so many people, that stole a little girl from her people, that sought to cripple and defeat a powerful People is still alive and walking in the land but it has not succeeded. This book may help people to feel the injustice in their heart of hearts. It may illuminate our past and open our eyes to the injustice we still condone, many of us, with our silence. It is a powerful and moving story, well told.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 is a shameful piece of our history. This book is a description of what happened to one infant survivor of that horrible day and the woman, Clara Colby, who tried to raise that child, Lost Bird. Readers will shudder at what happened to Lost Bird, including the fact that she had been taken in by a loving Lakota family after the massacre, only to be ripped from familiar arms by General Colby to take home as a prize. One will be torn between what might have been best for the girl and what the well-meaning and kind Mrs. Colby did for her, given the circumstances. Renee Flood tackles the two ideas that it is wrong to raise a child of Native American heritage as a white because of inherent natures and because raising a child of dark skin produces racist tendencies in those of lighter skin who come in contact with the child. For example, Lost Bird did not get along with white children her own age partly because she was so sheltered, but mostly because the children teased her about being Indian. She was not allowed to be with the African Americans either, although this was her choice, because they were "beneath her." This only led her to believe that dark-skinned people, Native Americans included, were "bad." Another facet of this book is that it describes much of the Woman's Suffragist movement and goes into great detail about Clara Colby's role, as well as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Renee Flood has great sympathy for her subject and was instrumental in getting Lost Bird's remains brought from Califonia and reburied at Wounded Knee with a magnificent granite tombstone, where she joins the others buried in a mass grave dating back to 1890. Flood is an excellent and accurate historian who humanizes a sad story.

i gave this book a fair rating because i wanted to learn more about native americans, wounded knee, and lost bird. what i read was more about womens sufferage, the personal life of the colby's, and very little about lost bird. really only the last two chapters went into any detail about lost bird.