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mvatza57's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
courtofsmutandstuff's review
informative
5.0
I really liked this! I had heard it mentioned as a foundational book in other books, and even though it is older, it is still really great. There were things I was familiar with, but I learned a lot. I also liked the way the chapters were structured (especially the chapter exclusively on Native humor, which paired really well since I had just finished We Had A Little Real Estate Problem), which allowed the book to spotlight and focus on different aspects at a time, rather than do a straight chronological survey. If you have no knowledge of Native history, this will be a lot of information, but it's really good. I would love to read a follow up that follows what has happened since the Vietnam Era.
lauraedosanjh's review
2.0
Whew.... the anti-blackness in here is rough. Def overshadowed some of what was said about the advancement of Native American tribal rights and culture. No need to belittle and demean another minority when the point is that they are different not less.
unladylike's review
5.0
Absolutely brilliant and hilarious, Vine Deloria Jr. has to be one of my new favorite authors of history between American Indians and white colonizers.
There are so many witty and pointedly insightful moments throughout this book, but I will here simply paste the few notes I took while listening to it.
This book has me cracking up multiple times in the first chapter. He recalls from his days [as the head of an organization whose name I forget] how almost every day some white would come to his office and proudly declare they had some Indian blood. All but one person claimed it was on their grandmother’s side, leading Deloria to calculate that for the first three hundred years of colonization, these Indian tribes - most popularly Cherokee, then Mohawk and Chippewa - were entirely female. LMAO!!! He theorizes that they were uncomfortable with the idea of having a Native male ancestor because it brought notions of a savage warrior undeserving of their family history, but an “Indian Princess Grandmother?!” Perfect: genteel, graceful, beautiful, elegant, and feminine. He says after a while of hearing all the white people claiming to be part Indian, he started to affirm them and understood or sympathized with their need to identify that way. He hoped that one day they would be able to accept themselves and leave [Native Americans] alone. Howww
After listing and describing the work of various Indian organizations, he dryly says, “There are a number of white-led organizations that attempt to help Indians. Since we would be better off without them, I will not mention them, except to acknowledge that they do exist.” HAHAHAH
There are so many witty and pointedly insightful moments throughout this book, but I will here simply paste the few notes I took while listening to it.
This book has me cracking up multiple times in the first chapter. He recalls from his days [as the head of an organization whose name I forget] how almost every day some white would come to his office and proudly declare they had some Indian blood. All but one person claimed it was on their grandmother’s side, leading Deloria to calculate that for the first three hundred years of colonization, these Indian tribes - most popularly Cherokee, then Mohawk and Chippewa - were entirely female. LMAO!!! He theorizes that they were uncomfortable with the idea of having a Native male ancestor because it brought notions of a savage warrior undeserving of their family history, but an “Indian Princess Grandmother?!” Perfect: genteel, graceful, beautiful, elegant, and feminine. He says after a while of hearing all the white people claiming to be part Indian, he started to affirm them and understood or sympathized with their need to identify that way. He hoped that one day they would be able to accept themselves and leave [Native Americans] alone. Howww
After listing and describing the work of various Indian organizations, he dryly says, “There are a number of white-led organizations that attempt to help Indians. Since we would be better off without them, I will not mention them, except to acknowledge that they do exist.” HAHAHAH
bobbo49's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Well, of course this 55 year old book is somewhat dated (although I read the slightly updated 1988 version) - but Deloria's wit and wisdom still says a lot about the culture, history, and the future, of Native Americans in the modern USA. An excellent grounding in social and political issues that are somewhat changed, but persist, in the present day.
jlmn's review
I have read the more popular An afro-indigenous history of the United States and was more interested in the intersectionality of those 2 cultures. I didn’t really find the analysis I was looking for in this book.
stevenyenzer's review
2.0
Meandering and often vague. Along with the wit, there is a heavy dose of theory, which is not particularly compelling. I learned a lot about Indian culture, but I also learned that white culture either doesn't exist or is founded on violence and exploitation.
A good chunk of the book is taken up with Deloria Jr.'s elevation of Indian culture above white (and specifically, American culture). For him, there is little (really, nothing) wrong with Indian culture, which is infinitely wise, holistic, and eternal. On the other hand, America and American culture are meaningless and have accomplished nothing.
It's not that I mind criticism of America — I just mind it when it isn't based on facts and history but rather, theory and ideology. Deloria Jr. essentially declares himself arbiter of culture and philosophy, with the power to crown Indian culture as the greatest of all human cultures in history.
Along with this is his less-than-subtle, somewhat prophetic declarations that Indians will one day drive whites out of America and retake their land. Again, I don't have a problem with the sentiment. But it's the "evidence" Deloria Jr. uses to back it up that is problematic. For example, he cites the restoration of Israel to the Jews as evidence that, like them, Indians will eventually retake their homeland. Not only is this an obviously fallacious argument, but it also relies upon "white culture's" artificial creation of Israel.
So the violent, destructive, possibly non-existent culture seems to have produced at least one thing upon which Deloria Jr. can hang his hat — Zionism.
A good chunk of the book is taken up with Deloria Jr.'s elevation of Indian culture above white (and specifically, American culture). For him, there is little (really, nothing) wrong with Indian culture, which is infinitely wise, holistic, and eternal. On the other hand, America and American culture are meaningless and have accomplished nothing.
It's not that I mind criticism of America — I just mind it when it isn't based on facts and history but rather, theory and ideology. Deloria Jr. essentially declares himself arbiter of culture and philosophy, with the power to crown Indian culture as the greatest of all human cultures in history.
Along with this is his less-than-subtle, somewhat prophetic declarations that Indians will one day drive whites out of America and retake their land. Again, I don't have a problem with the sentiment. But it's the "evidence" Deloria Jr. uses to back it up that is problematic. For example, he cites the restoration of Israel to the Jews as evidence that, like them, Indians will eventually retake their homeland. Not only is this an obviously fallacious argument, but it also relies upon "white culture's" artificial creation of Israel.
So the violent, destructive, possibly non-existent culture seems to have produced at least one thing upon which Deloria Jr. can hang his hat — Zionism.