Analysis Of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee- Charles Eastman Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a novel the describes the history of the struggles between the Native Americans and the Europeans in the late 19th century written by Dee Brown. In 2007, a movie was produce based on the novel. The storyline of the movie is centered around four main characters: Charles Eastman, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Henry L. Dawes. Through different perspectives, the film wish to accurately depict the struggle of the Native Americans in their resettlements and the history of the massacre of the Natives at a place called the Wounded Knee. Throughout the movie, the main characters experience changes in their mind and beliefs. Charles Eastman, a Sioux doctor, experiences the

One day, Ohiyesa’s father comes to the Native American’s tribe and takes Ohiyesa away from his people. At first, Ohiyesa feels very uncomfortable with the Europeans’ living style. In the town, Ohiyesa is forced to cut his long hair so that he wouldn’t stick out in the crowd. He is also being forced by the teacher to adapt a Christian name in school. At the beginning, he refuses to have a Christian name. When the teacher offers to pick a name for him, he also turn down her offer. One day in school, he wants to tell the teacher that she is mistaken. The teacher asks him, “How shall I address you?” After struggling in his mind, he shouts out, “Charles.” The transition of Charles’s attitude toward becoming educated occurs in the time where his father painfully says to Charles, “The earth belongs to the white man. There is no future outside his world. You must go.” A few years later, Charles becomes a successfully college student. Slowly , Charles is able to adopt the Western culture.However, at the same time, he is forgetting his Sioux identity as well. The next phase of Charles’s life is where he begins to help Henry L. Dawes to organize the Dawes Act. With this act, they are hoping to improve the lives for the Native Americans on the reservation. Together, Dawes and Charles work to try to pass the bill in the Congress. After the pass of the bill, Eastman moves to the Sioux reservation