North America's holocaust of natives

Ma hada Sangavan wounded kneeye
Translated by Malini Govinnage
Published by Wijesooriya Grantha Kendraya

Malini Govinnage's Ma hada Sangavan wounded kneeye chronicles the slow, inexorable holocaust of the natives of North America who later came to be known as Indians later as native Americans. This is not a book of fiction but what actually took place in American soil a couple of centuries ago.

First published in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War, when the blame of all the right thinking people of the world was turned towards America, it made the American nation acutely aware of the gross injustices perpetrated against the natives of the land in the 19th century. They were reminded of another heinous crime they committed as a nation.

Dee Brown in his epoc-making novel Bury my Heart at Wounded knee incorporates a number of official records, documents and eye witness accounts to offer a scathing indictment on the European settlers turned US citizens, their politicians and the US army.

The writer focuses on the 30 year period from 1860-1890, during which many fierce battles were fought by the two parties-the US government and the native Americans. The US government wanted to grab more and more land for the great influx of European immigrants while the Indians desperately tried to hold onto their hunting grounds. Resistance of the Red Indians/Native Americans came to an end with the battle at Wounded Knee near Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota when some 350 Indians were killed by the US army. The book tells the true story of what the US was built.