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Gr 5-8 This remarkable and well-written history begins with a vivid description of the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in December, 1890, as related by Black Elk, a Lakota brave who witnessed the tragedy. From that stark, yet poetically related beginning evolves the story of the ill-fated interactions between the white settlers and the government on one hand, and the Native American people who lived in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota on the other. It is a story of cultural misunderstandings, of journalistic excesses, and of intentional as well a...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Waldman uses photographs (many in the public domain and familiar to readers of Western history) as models for his over two dozen acrylic paintings that accompany the text, mostly in half- and quarter-page illustrations. Through selective focus (Big Foot's frozen body at Wounded Knee is cropped from a larger photograph showing the bleak and frozen background) and chiaroscuro (particularly in the portraits of Kicking Bear and Sitting Bull), Waldman individualizes his interpretation of historic events. As the author, Waldman also interpre...Log In or Sign Up to Read More