The Last Sovereigns by Robert M Utley is a historical book about the days of Sitting Bull during the time of avoiding surrender and living in Canada. Sitting Bull is more famous for the Custer event and I hadn't known too much about the Canada years. During this time, Sitting Bull avoided capture when other American Indians (I will use the Indian term in this review as that is the term Sitting Bull used) were surrendering so that they would no longer have to starve. The Indians had been pushed farther north into Canada to leave room for white settlers. Each time more land was wanted, the Indians were simply moved again. Canada didn't have enough buffalo to go around for all of the Canadians and Americans as well. The Canadian government also could not afford to feed both sets of Indians. American whites were not known for kindness or trustworthiness, therefore Indians wouldn't volunteer to go to reservations unless it was absolutely necessary.
The beginning of this book reads like a list of facts and took a little while to get flowing. I considered stopping. However, I kept going and about a quarter of the way through it picked up and started to flow in a captivating way. I learned a lot about the relations between the two governments and the two races. I admit I was a little disappointed in my race. Not a nice look. I felt horribly sorry for all of the family members of Sitting Bull that got caught up in the battle of the male egos that were fighting each other. One thing I have noticed in my various readings about struggle and notorious events is that the male ego is not usually very helpful. It can cause a lot of damage. As you can see here, males everywhere and the women and children were starving.
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