When the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe.
Dee Brown – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Invisible Dead
I
Dee Brown was an American author best known for his groundbreaking work “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” a seminal history of Native American experiences in the United States during the late 19th century. Born in 1908 in Louisiana, Brown developed a deep interest in Native American culture and history from a young age. His writing career spanned several decades and encompassed both fiction and non-fiction works, with a focus on the American West and Native American issues. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (1970) exposed the tragic and often overlooked history of broken treaties, displacement, and violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples by the U.S. government and settlers. Brown’s meticulous research, combined with a narrative style that humanized historical figures, brought critical attention to the plight of Native Americans and influenced public perception and policy discussions on Indigenous rights and sovereignty. His legacy continues to resonate in both academic circles and popular culture as a testament to the importance of understanding and confronting historical injustices.