Books like Creek Mary's Blood

Decades before Hitler over ran Europe, The United States systematically set out to destroy the Native American Nations.This novel is rich in history. Long before the Trail Of Tears, Creek Mary was speaking out for her people not to give another inch of their land but her people were deported to Oklahoma anyway. The story winds on as the main characters continually pick themselves up from disaster and go on.They find freedom on the plains, plenty of buffalo and antelope all too soon to have it ripped from when the California gold rush sends the whites into the northern Indian hunting grounds. Gold is discovered in Colorado. More white men appear, "Pike's Peak or Bust!" Treaties are signed and broken. Indians herded onto reservations find they are starving and they run away to join Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Back Kettle, Man Afraid Of His Horses. In Montana, The Dakotas and Minnesota the Indian tribes find their hunting grounds intact and then gold is discovered in the Black Hills. Sacred to the Native Americans, the Paha Sapa is not for sale so the white government decides to take it by force and here comes the Battle Of Little Bighorn.Dane, the main character lives through it all, sees children and grandchildren born, sees many killed for the sake of the white man's gold. While the free Indians are chased from place to place by white soldiers and given no chance to hunt, the Iron Horse makes it's sudden appearance.A story so sad that I ended up in tears by the time I finished.This reminded me of the genocide of the Jews.Against this rich historical background, the main characters interact with each other and try to live out their lives.In 1833, a French ancestor of mine brought his half breed son out of a Blackfoot tribe into Quebec looking for a wet nurse. Later he ended up buying up land in Vermont. Had he stayed with the Indians, history might have been changed for all of us descendants as the boy would have been raised among the Blackfoot.I am proud to call myself truly American and not surprised that the Native American prophesy "The Earth Shall Weep," is now coming true.