Powder River Invasion in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Chapter Five is mainly about the Powder River Invasion. The Powder River Invasion took place on July 1 to October 4, 1865. It stretched across the Powder River Country, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The Cheyenne‘s found out about the United States soldiers building a fort in the Powder River Country, They try to warn some Arapaho‘s of the soldiers coming, but they did not believe them leaving their village destroyed. The Sioux chased these hungry and cold soldiers thinking they could defeat them, but they failed.

Although the soldiers did destroy the village and established Fort Conner, the result is considered inconclusive or a failure because they failed to defeat the Indians and bring peace. “Whose voice was first sounded on this land? The voice of the red people who had but bows and arrows. What has been done in my country I did not want, did not ask for it; white people going through my country.“

When the white man comes to my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him… I have two mountains in that Country—the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountain, I want the Great Father to make no roads through them.

I have told these things three times; now I have come here to tell them the fourth time — Mahpiua Luta (Red Cloud) Of the Oglala Sioux” This is a quote by Red Cloud in the very beginning of Chapter five. I think this single quote tells a lot about the relationship between the Native Americans and the European Immigrants or Americans.

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The voice of the Native Americans is often ignored, and unimportant to the Americans. They take whatever they want from the Native Americans regardless of who’s it is, what it means to them, or the treaties that they have.

General Conner, who led the invasion ordered his officers to accept no overtures of peace from the Indians and he ordered very bluntly, “Attack and Kill every male Indian over twelve years of age.” The way that Brown describes these events makes it seem as if the U.S soldiers didn’t want peace at all, they just wanted everything that the Native American Indians had for themselves and would do anything they had to do to get it. Brown really makes you see the truth about what the Americans did to these Indians.

He tells their side of the story opposed to what we would learn in a high school history class I knew that what we did as Americans was terrible, but I didn‘t know how unfair and selfish they were. In chapter Five the Indians do begin to retaliate they capture some of the soldiers and end up torturing them. Many of the soldiers died from malnutrition, starving to death, or disease. Red cloud closes the Chapter by stating, “If white men come into my country again, I will punish them again.” However, after examining this battle he knew that he needed to attain more guns like the ones they had captured of the soldiers and plenty of ammunition to defeat the Americans I don’t think that the Indians would have ever went as far to torture the Americans but they were left with no choice.