'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee'

I watched the television drama, 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee' on More4 tonight which is, I think, the first time it's been shown on TV over here. It's the tale of the downfall of Sitting Bull and the Sioux nations in the 1870s/1880s in north America. It's based on about one chapter in Dee Brown's book of the same name so misses so much of the mass genocide of the native nations.

I read the book last year in hospital and it's a painful read. What you see in this TV drama is the least of it. It's odd in a way, to think that these characters actually lived - yes, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and Red Cloud were real people but they've passed into mythology. Canada treated them with respect to a degree but still deported them across the border to America. Mass genocide and broken treaties that are still in the law courts today.

Buffy Sainte-Marie delivered a powerful song of the same title back in 1992 which updates the tale of the book to include theft of land rich in uranium. Why isn't this song in the film? It would've been the perfect outro, showing that the themes of the drama continue today. But that might be a bit risky. I'll listen to Buffy, thank you.

Read the book for the full story.