Tribal unity, however, was their Achilles’ heel, not only among tribes but within the same one. The Lakota were unmatched horsemen, the Apaches masters of lightning guerrilla strikes. Though some may regard this as cultural genocide, a distinction without a difference, the author disagrees.Ĭonfronted with the reality of fierce Indian resistance, Army officers learned to respect their enemies’ martial skills. Indians were pushed and prodded to shed traditional ways, adopt Christianity and be transformed into settled farmers and ranchers. While in no way minimizing the devastating impact on Native Americans, Cozzens contends, contrary to revisionist works like Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (1970), that official U.S. A sweeping work of narrative history that synthesizes the work of countless historians, the book is intended as an evenhanded account that recognizes fragments of nobility and humanity amid epic tragedy. Army subdued the Lakota Sioux in the North, the Apaches in the Southwest and the Nez Perce in the Northwest, among other tribes, and forced them out of their hunting grounds and onto reservations. Peter Cozzens’ “The Earth Is Weeping” focuses on the final chapter of this drama, from the mid-to-the-late 19th century, as the U.S.
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