The treaty acted as an excuse for an even easier access to the gold lands of North and South Dakota as little was made to enforce this treaty. Although officials like President Jackson argued that "the propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi…to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it" (Brown, 1991, p
And created the myths of "the American Dream." As Jenkins presents in his analysis of American history, after the end of the Civil War, colonists began to enter systematically within the Lakota/Sioux territory, between 1865 and 1880, thus breaking a peace treaty from 1851 (Jenkins, 1997, p
As Alvin Josephy depicts, at Wounded Knee "died the last tortured hope of freedom among the Indian nation in North America. It was the end of a long story of dreams and drama and courage, one that had involved many different peoples of hundreds of Indian nations" (Josephy, 1994, p
The Indians also suffered from a poor or inexistent state authority that would abide by the existing laws. As Weinberg argued, "even before 1871, federal laws and court decisions severely weakened the treaties…decisions were favorable to the federal government which was given the right to collect taxes on the sale of tobacco raised on the Cherokee reservation even though such production was approved by the treaty…their (the Indians) sole refuge- the reservation system- afforded them less and less protection than ever" (Weinberg, 2003, p
The strength of this work of literature is in the author's ability to fully portray the political situation that was actually responsible for the deaths of these innocents. Other reviewers have acknowledged this fact as well (McCaskey, 2010)