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Review: America's 140-year war against Nez Perce
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Filed Under: Arts & Entertainment

"The story of Chief Joseph and a band of Nez Percé being driven into exile by the U.S. Army has been told and retold. Because the tale is compelling, because it was well-documented by personal accounts of the time and because of its crushing moral weight, the tale will be continue to be told and retold. Joining this ever-growing canon of historical literature is "Selling Your Father's Bones: America's 140-Year War Against the Nez Percé Tribe" by British magazine writer Brian Schofield (Simon & Schuster, 356 pages, $26).

It is an unfortunate truth that the victors write the history, and a scan of the books on the Nez Percé saga confirms this -- most were written by whites (as was this book review). But even the most settler-biased historian would have a hard time putting a positive spin on the ethnic cleansing that took place in the American West in the 1860s and '70s. Schofield treads familiar ground in a careful recounting of how settlers and miners violated law and civility in illegally claiming Nez Percé land, and then how the U.S. Army came to the "rescue" when the Nez Percé objected or fought back. Where Schofield provides fresh material is in his incorporating the present into his recounting of the past."

Get the Story:
Review: Surviving Nez Perce speak out (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 5/13)

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