Video: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - HBO Special
Summary:
Beginning with the Sioux victory over General Custer at Little
Big Horn, BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE intertwines the unique
perspectives of three characters: Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), né Ohiyesa, a
young, Dartmouth-educated, Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged
success of assimilation; Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg), the proud Lakota
chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his
people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land - the gold-laden
Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn), one of the
architects of the government policy on Indian affairs.
While Eastman and patrician schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) work to
improve life for the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President
Grant (Thompson) for more humane treatment, opposing the bellicose stance of
General William Tecumseh Sherman (Feore).
Hope rises for the Sioux in the form of the prophet Wovoka (Studi) and the Ghost
Dance - a messianic movement that promises an end of their suffering under the
white man.
This hope is all but obliterated after the killing of Sitting Bull and the
massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at
Wounded Knee Creek on Dec. 29, 1890.
Published in 1971, Dee Brown's book is one of the foremost works documenting the
systematic subjugation of the American Indian during the latter half of the 19th
century. It has sold nearly five million copies and has been translated into 17
languages.
From Brown's encyclopedic tome chronicling the fate of the Dakota, Ute, Cheyenne
and other tribes, the film focuses on the events leading up to the massacre of
the Sioux, which many consider one of the most grievous atrocities in United
States history. (2 Hours)