Lost Bird Of Wounded Knee: Spirit Of The Lakota Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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