Week 23: An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians by David Wishart (University of Nebraska Press, 1994, paperback)
This is the second of four books I am reading for a National Endowment for the Humanities workshop on the Plains Indians. This book provides an historical description of four Plains Indian tribes–the Ponca, the Pawnee, the Omaha, the Otoe-Missouria–during the late 19th century as they are forced, by the American government and the push of European-American settles, from their native Nebraska homes. All but the Omaha (and a part of the Ponca) end up on reservations in Oklahoma, and in the process suffer incalculable human and cultural devastation.
I’ve studied American Indian literature so I can into this book with some background. However, I quickly realized how little history I truly knew. Even more, I recognized that I had fallen into the tendency that we can so easily suffer in dealing with American Indians-that of summarizing all the different tribes into one Indian stereotype. Wishart’s detailed book helped to shatter that stereotype by showing how the Ponca, Pawnee, Omaha and Otoe-Missouria suffered differently under this reservation process because they were different cultures and societies.
While there are similarities between the groups, Wishart’s structure continually focuses the reader on each tribe individually so that we don’t attempt to summarize their experiences into one experience. The Omaha, for example, were not forced out of Nebraska in part because they attempted to become acclimated to the changes more quickly, yet they still suffered culturally. His history is clear and detailed-his research is detailed and his writing accessible.
Wishart does not attempt to provide a silver lining or happy ending to this story. In so many ways, there is no way to find positives in the story of one cultural systematically destroying another. I admittedly came out of reading this novel struggling to come to grips with this significant part of American history. I believe that is the value of reading and knowing this history. It’s not about guilt-it’s about understanding what happens when different societies desire to live in the same place. This is an important book to read.
Next week . . . Dance Lodges of the Omaha People: Building from Memory by Mark Awakuni-Swetland.