Book · 1970
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
A 1970 history book retells the settling of the American West from the perspective of the nations it was taken from.
What does Reddit think of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?
Eleven mentions split evenly between r/AskHistorians and r/history is a small sample, but the ↑61 comment carries real weight for its size: someone who read it at fourteen, drawn in partly by their own family's Choctaw ancestry, describing a 1970 book that got at material their contemporaries weren't writing about yet. That's one account identifier's experience, not a subreddit consensus, and the corpus doesn't have enough volume to say whether it generalizes. The other AskHistorians mentions (↑187, ↑139) sit inside broader answers about frontier history and the arms trade with Native nations, using the book as source material rather than subject. r/history's two mentions are list entries: one title dropped into a regional-reading-list comment with no elaboration attached. Four mentions a year isn't a trend either way. What's here reads less like a verdict and more like a footnote that occasionally becomes personal.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Personal-discovery narrative tied to family history
- · Cited as source material in broader historical answers
- · Minimal but consistent presence across seven years
- · Appears in general reading-list comments without elaboration
- · AskHistorians treats it as reference, not as the subject of debate
Common praise
- + The ↑61 commenter credits it with covering ground their own schooling hadn't gotten to yet, tied specifically to discovering their own family's Choctaw ancestry.
- + AskHistorians cites it as a source inside answers about frontier resentment and the arms trade (↑187, ↑139), a kind of institutional use, not just casual name-dropping.
- + It shows up on a regional-reading-list comment (↑54) without anyone questioning whether it belongs there.
Common criticism
- − Eleven mentions across seven years, from five distinct account identifiers, is too small a sample to separate a real reputation from a coincidence.
- − Most of the mentions cite it as background source material rather than discuss the book directly, so there's not much argued opinion to report.
- − The strongest endorsement here comes from one person's account of reading it at fourteen. That's a real data point, not a pattern.
Who it's for
If your own family history brushes up against what this book covers, the ↑61 comment describes exactly that pull: discovering the book as a teenager because a relative's story sent you looking. AskHistorians treats it as a citable source inside answers about frontier conflict and the arms trade, a different kind of endorsement than a recommendation thread. Looking for a Reddit consensus to lean on? There isn't enough volume here for one. Eleven mentions in seven years means you're deciding on the book's own terms, not the forum's.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“It really depends on where you are. At the upper level of historical scholarship, it’s very widespread. Any U.S. Historian knows that Native American relations were a big part of the resentment felt toward the British; especially among the frontier folk and the planter class looking to expand their …
“Depends a lot on the time and place. I’ll focus on the US and Canada for this answer. In the northeast coast of North America, at the time of first contact for many tribes firearms were not as advantageous as they initially appear to be. They are intimidating certainly and when massed have a lot o…
“I'm mostly familiar with US - Native relations within the American West, so I'll speak mostly to that region. In general, there were degrees to which treaties … out across the American West, but hopefully that gives you an idea of a few different ways, and how tribes continue to contest broken treat…
“The first comment left out how Treuer, an indigenous historian, finished his *New Yorker* review.... > But, if Hämäläinen’s achievements are more circumscribed than his ambitions, it’s impossible not to honor both. I can only wish that, when I was that lonely college junior and was finishing “Bur…
“I read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee for the first time when I was 14 or so, when I was becoming a huge history nerd and looking into my mother's ancestral story of having a Choctaw descendant (a woman for which only a last name exists). For a book written in 1970, it was groundbreaking in that it …
“Hello everyone. I compiled a list of all the books I strongly recommended, and organized them by region/topic. Hope you guys find it useful! Afghanistan: *Afghanistan* by Jonatahn A. Lee. The books provides a great overview of Afghanistan's rich history from the 15th century to the modern day. Int…
“Bury my heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Convinced? Pick up Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — counted from the comments, not curated.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually say about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?+
Not much, in volume: eleven mentions across seven years, split between r/AskHistorians and r/history. The one substantive account (↑61) describes reading it at fourteen and connecting it to their own Choctaw ancestry, calling it ahead of the material their peers were reading in 1970. The rest cite it as source material inside broader historical answers rather than discuss it directly.
Is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee still considered accurate by historians on Reddit?+
Unclear. AskHistorians cites it as a source inside answers about frontier resentment (↑187) and the arms trade (↑139), which implies it's treated as usable reference material, but no comment here directly defends or challenges its scholarship.
Why does Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee show up in r/AskHistorians?+
It gets used as supporting material inside longer answers about Native American history rather than as a standalone recommendation. Two of the four r/AskHistorians mentions (↑187, ↑139) reference it this way. The remaining AskHistorians mention is the personal ↑61 account of discovering it as a teenager.