Dee Brown's "Buy My Heart at Wounded Knee" has been adapted for HBO. Aidan Quinn, Adam Beach and Anna Paquin star in the series described as "HBO Films teams with executive producers Dick Wolf ("Law & Order") and Tom Thayer to present a feature adaptation of Dee Brown's 1971 nonfiction best-seller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Told primarily through the eyes of three characters Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg) and Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn) - the film explores the United States' obsession with its manifest destiny, detailing the economic, political and social pressures that underpinned the opening of the American West in the latter part of the 19th Century, and the tragic and permanent impact this expansion had on American Indian culture. Also starring J.K. Simmons, Colm Feore and Wes Studi, with Fred Thompson and Anna Paquin.
From Wikipedia, "Born in Alberta, Louisiana, Brown grew up in Ouachita County, Arkansas and Little Rock, where he became friends with many Native Americans who made him realize that the portrayals of their people in American movies was not the true story. He worked as a reporter in Harrison, Arkansas, then became a teacher and librarian.
He [Brown] was a librarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1934 to 1942 and for the War Department after serving in the army in World War II. From 1948 to 1972, he was an agriculture librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he had gained a master's degree in library science and became professor. In 1973, he retired back in Arkansas and devoted his time to writing."
Dee Brown died December 12, 2002.
Comments
Comments about 'making up history' are accurate with regard to the HBO adaptation of Dee Brown's book.
Most upsetting, to me, was that the producers intentionally gave the impression that the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek happened within two-to-twelve hours after the murder of Sitting Bull. In fact, it occured five days later and 100 miles to the south.
The Indians who were butchered at Wounded Knee actually spent the night before the "battle" camped with the 7th Cavalry along the creek, as the snow had already begun.
The commander of the regiment had supplied a wagon to transport the dreadfully ill "Big Foot" (leader of a band which had begun south for the Pine Ridge post from the Standing Rock post upon the death of Sitting Bull).
Making a movie is obviously much more difficult than I can possibly know. The general American public is also so sadly ignorant of most of the facts of the genocide of Native Americans in the last half of the 19th century, that the HBO film may be better than nothing.
But, to readers, I would recommend Rex Allen Smith's "Moon of Popping Trees" if you want to get the best interpretation of what really happened in December of 1890. It will also add to your appreciation of Dee Brown's historic epic, "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee".
Posted by: Jerry Wallace![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/moviegoer/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 27, 2007 11:43 PM