The Huffington Post has an appreciation commemorating the 40 year anniversary of the publication of Dee Brown’s important history of the American West, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, written by Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, and the publisher of Native Sun News.

At the time of its publication, no one could have said it would become such an important history. Yet it came just at a time when people were questioning the received wisdom of Manifest Destiny-style histories, and Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee went on to re-shape the nation’s understanding of the settling of the American West.

Brown’s writing was very stirring, as sampled here by Giago. Here he quotes the section of the book that describes the aftermath of the Wounded Knee massacre:

When the madness ended, Big Foot and more than half of his people were dead or seriously wounded; 153 were known dead, but many of the wounded crawled away to die afterward. One estimate placed the final total of dead at very nearly three hundred of the original 350 men, women and children. The soldiers lost 25 dead and thirty nine wounded most of them struck by their own bullets or shrapnel.

After the wounded cavalrymen were started for the agency at Pine Ridge, a detail of soldiers went over the Wounded Knee battlefield (I resent the use of the word ‘battlefield’ here and would prefer ‘massacre site’ instead) gathering up Indians who were still alive and loading them on wagons. As it was apparent by the end of the day that a blizzard was approaching, the dead Indians were left lying where they had fallen.

The wagonloads of wounded Sioux (four men and forty-seven women and children) reached Pine Ridge after dark. Because all available barracks were filled with soldiers, they were left lying in the open wagons in the bitter cold while an inept Army officer searched for shelter. Finally the Episcopal mission was opened, the benches taken out, and hay scattered over the rough flooring.

It was the fourth day of Christmas in the Year of Our Lord 1890. When the 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.

Giago writes,”The history of Wounded Knee is not such an ancient one to the Lakota people of 2009. Many Lakota living today had grandparents at Wounded Knee and some of them died there. My grandmother and grandfather lived at Kyle, just skip and a hop from the massacre site at Wounded Knee. My grandmother was just a teenager then, but she vividly remembered that day of December 29, 1890.”

And, according to Giago, the Lakota will soon hold their yearly religious ceremony at the site of the mass grave “to commemorate and honor those men, women and children that lie buried there. Their prayers will ceremoniously ‘Wipe away the tears’ and they will pray that they can find it in their hearts to forgive.The Lakota have never forgotten that tragic day because it very nearly ended their way of life. But just like the Phoenix that rose again from the ashes to begin a new life, so have the Lakota.”

Giago generously credits Brown for being part of that revival, “Dee Brown never knew that his book would, in a small way, contribute to that cultural and spiritual revival.”

(In an interesting aside for book lovers, Giago notes that, “Just six days after the massacre, L. Frank Baum, an editor at the Aberdeen (S.D.) Saturday Pioneer, wrote an editorial calling for the genocide of the Sioux people. He later wrote the children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.)

Sounds like Sterling Publishing has done a beautiful job with the anniversary edition. According to their website, this is a fully illustrated edition, with “hundreds of illustrations—including maps, photographs, sketches, and paintings….” It also includes, “…relevant excerpts from such highly acclaimed Native-American themed books as Where White Men Fear to Tread by Russell Means, Mystic Chords of Memory by Michael Kammen, and Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog, as well as all-new essays by contemporary historians and Native American leaders like Elliott West and Joseph Marshall III.”