How To Write A Literary Analysis On Wounded Knee

In this literary analysis, the June, 1973 issue of New Breed magazine defines the tumultuous activism of Native American communities, such as the Metis Tribe, that sought to resist the tyranny of white oppression in the era of the Wounded Knee Incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. One poem in this issue provides an important insight into the internal and external political conflict and corruption at Pine Ridge, which is defined in “Hawk” Henry J. Foster’s poem “Wounded Knee”. This issue also defines the internal issues of governance related to alcohol recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Winter Warmth Project, and other community services that are meant to help the Metis tribe as a form of resistance

against the neglect of the Canadian federal government and the government of Saskatchewan to help the Metis Peoples. More so, an article about Wounded Knee by Linda Finlayson also explores the journalistic approach to analyzing the events that led up to the violence at Pine Ridge. In essence, Foster’s poem reflects the artistic expression of anti-authoritarian resistance to white governmental oppression in this issue of New Breed magazine by the Metis Society.
The poem “Wounded Knee” by “Hawk” Henry J.

Foster is a powerful literary statement about the political aspects of the Wound Knee incident that took place on February 23, 1973 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Historically, this poem was published in New Breed Magazine nearly four months after this event occurred. Foster’s poem defines the important aspects of popular resistance against corruption within the tribal unit, as well as outside of the tribal unit in terms of evaluating the military resistance put up by members of the Oglala Tribe to attempt an impeachment of Tribal President Dick Wilson and to use military force to remove this corrupt leader from power. In Foster’s poem, this aspect of militaristic resistance to white governmental oppression is major part of the fight against internally corrupt tribal leaders that oppress their own

people:
For hypocrites in the highest places,/ That Bureaucratic Clan,/ Have reaped on justice such disgrace,? It’s time for us to stand. Our brothers raised a righteous fist, refusing every bribe; And there as one they faced the risk/to die for every tribe (Foster 8).
In these lines, Foster is talking about the “bureaucratic clan” of the Oglala Tribal Council that had been corrupted under the influence of Dick Wilson. Wilson’s leadership in the Oglala tribe reflects the corruption of local tribal officials that gave resources to family members, instead of spreading out resources for the greater good of the community. More so, Wilson was accused of forming a “goon squad” to force tribal members to follow his policies and submit to his authority by “false arrest of Indian dissenters on the reservation, and hiring what they call “goon squads” to enforce his authority” (Lyman 6). In this manner, Foster’s poem suggests that not only are Indians fighting the white oppression of the Canadian and Federal governments, but they are also fighting each other to gain power through corruption. This is what Foster means when he identifies the internal aspects of political divisions that caused the Wound Knee incident in this poem.
Another theme of political conflict in Foster’s poem is directly related to the historical oversight of political co0rruption by the white American and Canadian government, which supported Dick Wilson by sending in the FBI to assist in the suppression of paramilitary resistance by the American Indian Movement (AIM) and other tribal forces that fought the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) and the federal government.

For instance, Foster defines the historical oppression of the white government’s use of “cavalry” to define this form of external tyranny by the white government: Our children here one day slain/By cavalry riding bold;/Whose journals mark with bloody stain/The saddest story told (Foster 8). In these opening lines, Foster is acknowledging the external genocide of the U.S. Calvary that massacred entire tribes during the period of westward expansion in the 19th century. More so, Foster is using this historical precedent to urge all Indians to rise up militarily against the white government in the U.S., as well as at home in Saskatchewan: “If all our people join as one/ In honoring our braves,/ They have not vainly bore the gun/ Who liberate our slaves” (8). Foster’s call for unity against the U.S. government is a powerful statement on the militaristic call to rise up against tyranny, so that no Indian brave has “vainly bore the gun.” In this poem, Foster is also making the claim that the combination of internal and external corruption are working together to

divide North American tribes, which must be countered by embracing a paramilitary unity to oppose these political forces in the example of resistance used at Wound Knee.
Finally, an important part of “Wounded Knee” is the pride that Foster expresses in the courage of Native American to use paramilitary resistance against Dick Wilson and the U.S. government. In 1973, the symbolic power of paramilitary groups, such as AIM, provided great pride for young indigenous peoples to bravely stand against violent oppression by militaristic methods. In one point of view, Foster is aware of the necessity of political protest and marches, yet he is also aware of the necessity of oppressed indigenous peoples to use military weapons to protect their people from “the goons” and the military or law enforcement branches of the white U.S. government: So let our people new arise,/ With love for Wound Knee/ To march as one while justice cries,/ ‘Til all our tribes are free (Foster 8). In this way, Foster encourages political conflict that attempts to oust corruption and tyranny, which has now become symbolized in the resistance of Aim against corruption within the Oglala Tribe. Surely, Foster’s poem define the theme of political corruption from the internal and external aspects of tribal life during the Wounded Knee era, but only within the context of supporting unity through protest and paramilitary support for all North American tribes.
In conclusion, a literary analysis of the poem “wounded Knee” by Henry J. Foster defines a Metis interpretation of the theme of political corruption that occurred during the Wounded Knee incident in 1973. In this issue of New Breed, Foster describes the internal and external political forces that caused a paramilitary conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Foster defines the historical culture of Indian resistance movements, such as AIM, which were popular in the activism of the Metis Society and the New Breed magazine as a result of the Wounded Knee incident. The internal corruption of Dick Wilson’s exploitation of his own people in Oglala tribe defines the hypocrisy of the “bureaucratic clan” that caused the tribal members of the tribe to revolt against the GOONs as a form of inter-tribal corruption. More so, it also defines Wilson’s betrayal of the tribe by calling in the FBI and U.S. government officials to reinforce the corruption that caused a full-out paramilitary conflict between Aim and their oppressors. Foster’s poem is a historical example of the immediate aftermath of the Wounded Knee incident, which reflects the paramilitary and activist movement of the Metis peoples in terms of a poetic reaction to political conflict in North American indigenous culture.