Circle The Wagons!
By: Henry Cabot Beck 06/01/2009
The Michnos admit in passing that, “all parties could more accurately be painted in shades of gray,” but that tiny concession quickly steps aside as they conclude the book with an exhausting diatribe on how we (whoever that is) are “in danger of becoming what the books and movies of late tell us we are: gun-toting, guilt-ridden self-haters living on false legends.” They recommend that we have a chance at saving the situation if we once again “circle the wagons and give it our best shot.”
One miniseries that comes to mind that actually took pains to add a layer of complexity to the relationships between the government, the army and the Indians is the HBO-produced adaptation of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (The Michnos feel the book “trampled the one-time soldier/cowboy into the dirt.”) The show also took time to reiterate the Sioux’s history of violence and aggression against other tribes. History would be better honored by following this, or a similar course, to make an effort to establish some greater measure of truth. To “circle the wagons,” as the Michnos advise, strikes me as a calculated and unfortunate leap in the wrong direction.
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