Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Dee Brown (Dorris Alexander Brown) was a writer and historian who also worked as a librarian and professor. He was born in Louisiana in 1908 and grew up in Arkansas, where his love for spending time in the library led toward intertwining careers in writing and library science. Though Brown was not Native American, he had several meaningful encounters and friendships with Native American people during his youth, which transformed his perspective on Indigenous affairs. After studying in Arkansas and Washington, DC, he published his first book Wave High the Banner, a novelized account of Davy Crockett’s life, in 1942. Beginning in 1948, Brown worked as a librarian and professor at the University of Illinois, where he lived until his retirement in 1973. Brown’s last major work released in 1998, just four years before his death in 2002.

Over the course of his life, Brown wrote and published over 30 books, of which Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee remains the most famous and influential. His position as a librarian in a major university system directly benefited the book’s research, as its structure and perspective relied on thousands of archived documents from the late 19th century. Brown’s ability to access, analyze, and compare those archival resources enabled forgotten voices from the past to take on leading roles in shaping the book’s

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