Young Adults Books

WOUNDED KNEE 1973: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT by Stanley David Lyman. University of Nebraska Press (Bison Imprint), 901 N. 17th St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0520, (800) 755-1105, (402) 472-6214 FAX. The University of Nebraska Press online catalog is available on the Internet by telneting to CRCVMS.UNL.EDU, username INFO, choosing UNIVERSITY PRESS, and ONLINE CATALOG. Illustrated, index, map,

Lyman was the Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent at Pine Ridge when members of the American Indian Movement began a seventy-one-day occupation of the small town of Wounded Knee, a symbolic gesture that harkened back to the 1890 massacre of 150 tribal members by the U.S. Cavalry. Lyman's personal account is in the form of a diary, which details his frustration with those on both sides of the conflict. This is a well-written, if not entirely unbiased, narrative of the events that began with impeachment proceedings against Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson, grew into an armed standoff, and ended with the deaths of two Indians and the serious wounding of a U.S. marshal. Recommended. Reviewd by Steve Brock

A second Look: Not entirely unbiased, wow what an understatement. Lyman was a participant in events -- on the U.S. government side. He manipulated the press as per orders, covered up brutal atrocities by the GOON squads then, and the dozens, perhaps hundreds of murders of AIM supporters that occurred during the following 3 years on Pine Ridge. He supported the corrupt tribal council all the way; after all, it was the BIA they were puppets of and the BIA (mostly) who corrupted them. This book is the self-protecting appology of a U.S. government functionaryr who did his appointed best to surpress the struggle for Native rights and sovereignty going on in his balliwick at that time. Decades afterwards, Lyman hopes to be seen as an impartial historian. Too many of us involved in that struggle are still alive for him to make this plausible. It is a clear indication of where academia really stands on this struggle that Voices from Wounded Knee the best people's history of the event and its causes (and a fw of its consequences) cannot be kept in print -- while propaganda like this is eagerly published by a respectable University press. This is U.S. government propaganda, by one of its main functionaries in the event he writes of. Reviewed by Paula Giese