Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Two Sides

I just finished reading Over the Earth I Come The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.  Before reading, I knew little about the events that took place that year.  How the Sioux Indians were mis-treated, how the revolt began, and how cruel the Indians were in their slaughter of the white settlers in the area.  I had heard of some of the names prior to reading, Little Crow,  Governor Ramsey,  Henry Sibley, and many of the places, New Ulm, Mankato,  Fort Ridgely, Fort Snelling for example.

But what I'm more astonished with than my new knowledge of this piece of history is that the author, in my opinion, did a very good job showing how all sides were guilty of wrong.  I came away from reading this not liking many of the people's actions and very saddened that there was very little forgiveness on either side.  Revenge and the way one looks to one's people (either white or Indian) very much guided the actions of the day.

Mistrust, arguments, fighting always contain two sides and it was nice to read a book that presented both and didn't try to justify the actions of one side over the other.

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