Writing II: Blog Post 6

I'm currently still reading "The Heart of Everything That Is", the story of the Sioux war against the US. I must say I'm very impressed with the sheer level of detail in this book. The amounts of first hand accounts, primary sources and direct quotes is astounding. I cannot even imagine the number of hours it must have taken to track this all down. Where would one even look to find quotes from Red Cloud? Seriously, this is the most impressive history book I've ever read. But anyways, this book is not only interesting but also wildly entertaining. One thing that you have to be conscious of when studying history is where the bias is located. In the case of this book, the sympathy of the writer's definitely lies with the Native Americans, particularly the Sioux. While both sides did awful things to one another in the war, such as mutilation, murder, rape and so on, It always seems more barbaric when the white men do it, and more "justified" when the Indians do it. Although this is understandable. While it is true that Indians killed settlers in gruesome ways, white settlers were invaders, backed by a government that kept no promises and allowed slaughter of Indians to go unchecked. Neither side had clean hands,  it was a total war, with no bystanders in the west. So yeah, it is horrible to read about the killing of children, Indian or white, but I suppose if you ever read this book it's important not to blame these deaths on those who fought, but on centuries on ignorance concerning Indians and other cultures under European influence. Either way, this book is only getting better the more I read, and right now the actual huge war is about to begin so if you'll excuse me I'm off to read.