New York: The Viking Press, (1983.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The true first edition of this detailed examination of the American Indian Movement and the shoot-out with the FBI near Wounded Knee in 1975, which resulted in the death of one Indian and two agents, and the incarceration of native American activist Leonard Peltier. This book also gives a history of the years of struggle between the Lakota Indians and the US government, as well as discussing the traditional Indian beliefs of the sacred inviolability of the earth, and it examines how the expansion of mining onto Indian treaty land might have affected events. Finally, Matthiessen presents new evidence supporting Peltier's claims of innocence, arguing for a new trial. While the dust jacket refers to this book as controversial, I don't think the publisher realized how controversial it would be: as the result of lawsuits, it was suppressed and pulled from shelves and only finally reissued eight years later in 1991,after one of the most protracted and bitterly fought legal cases in publishing history. SIGNED on the title page. Three maps, notes, index. xli, 628 pp. ISBN: 0-670-397024.