Brown's 1970 publication of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee marked the first time a white author had written a book about the colonization of the American West from the point of view of Native Americans. As a result of this unique perspective, the book was received very well by critics and popular readers, who made it a best-seller. In her 1971 review of the book for the New Statesman, Helen McNeil notes that "the new perspective is startling." McNeil also says that one of the most powerful aspects of this "Indian historical viewpoint lies in its contrast to the vulgarity of the 'Turner thesis."' McNeil is referring to Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 proclamation, which claimed that it was the settling of the frontier lands that gave modern Americans their distinct character, because they had to work hard in the new, unfamiliar land. As McNeil notes, Turner's thesis...