My readers must be able to tell when I’m under the weather…big blogging days! I am smiling as I type this.  I have a cold, and since I was still reading in bed at 3:30 a.m. and sipping steaming hot lemon, ginger and honey, I opted to stay home, apart from my hour- long litter pick-up with dear Max.

I have two topics that I’m eager to write about; here goes the first, the book, The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn; A Lakota History by Joseph M. Marshall III.

I haven’t completed this book, but am almost there and I’m so taken by it, that I have to write.  Well-in to the book, I left off at Wounded Knee, the death of Sitting Bull, and the horrific reaction to the Ghost Dancers.

It was three years ago that my son and I visited Little Bighorn.  We participated in the guided tour, as well as spent time wandering and pondering the expanse of land and sky and paused at the surrounding memorials.  We took lots of time and now that I am reading this book, I am grateful for the time spent planting our feet on such a powerful piece of land.  Our Canadian history; struggles and assimilation of our Canadian First Nations, was no less tragic, but this book gives some sense of the physicality of the movement west by Euro-Americans, the end of buffalo populations as North America knew them and the circumstances that found a free migrating people restricted to agencies, later called, reservations.  This book includes an extensive collection of narratives around the circumstances of the day and the impact that these stories have on the lives of others.

The story of Wounded Knee, as written by Joseph Marshall, causes me to take pause.  I think that this as an important book for every person to read.  We must vow never to forget.

You will be able to capture some of Marshall’s thoughts on this site.