the wild west

The aftermath at Wounded Knee

Robert McGee

Bison Skulls 1870

As I have had a lot of time off dossing (and unable to do anything strenuous because of my neck injury), I have been reading a lot, including a load of stuff about American history. It certainly was a completely different world back then, even though it was not that long ago in the great scheme of things. The photo of the bison skulls is amazing as it is just one pile of skulls. There would have been a lot more around the country. There must have been a lot of fat Indians or settlers by the look of that pile.
As for Robert Mcgee, he was scalped when he was younger, by the Sioux chief Little Turtle, in about 1864. It is one thing to survive the scalping and look like he did, but just try to comprehend the amount of pain he must have gone through, being scalped, and then having to put up with the barbaric surgery and stitches afterwards. I bet it bought tears to his eyes, even though men were men in those days. I assume a lot of hard liquor must have been taken beforehand, so it had it's plus points.
Wounded knee is a long story, but basically, a massacre by the American cavalry. There is a really good book about the whole episode (and many others), called 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' by Dee Brown. I am sure there was word that it was being made into a new feature film. I hope so, but with Hollywood, it will either be really maudlin, or just crap.
Thank fuck I was born when I was, no wars to join, no one attacking me (apart from soldiers in the nightclub), lots of available sex, and loads of modern gadgets. Also travelled a lot abroad and have access to TV and music when I want. Magic!
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