I think that the Legend of the Indian Paintbrush is a good story because it's about a boy who believes that he could do something that he had trouble in. Then he finally did it.

this is a great book for children my son really enjoyed it we read it together for school .

A great story for children of all ages. Teachers could use this book when studying the Plains Indians, Geography of the Plains States or wildflowers. When children know a legend associated with a plant they will retain the knowledge of that plant longer.

Is a total of 46-informative pages. For the price it is defintely worth the read. Learned a few new facts I didn't learn before.

This book was the most useful of the recent pile of buffalo/bison books I purchased. Biologically, the book gave me all the answers I sought. As a bonus, it included history and lore of the buffalo/bison of the Old West. If you're looking for a book to help you learn about these giant animals, something to help with a school report, or just a great field guide to add to your existing library, this is the book.

Percival G. Lowe's account of militart life in the pre-CivilWar west is a must read for the military historian, anyone interestedin American frontier history, or anyone who just likes a good read. Lowe's account is most enlightening because it is written from the enlisted troops point of view. Most histories of the day were written by the officers who were better educated and often said little about the enlisted life on the frontier. Lowe's memoir starts with his induction and training in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and his 3 month trip west to his first post. Just the story regarding his travels to his first duty station include canal boats, river boats, mule trains and just plain old foot slogging marches across a raw expanse only recently opened to settlers from the east and Europe. His writting about his troops escort duty on the early Santa Fe trail is also quite informative. The book is written in the style of the 19th century and is a colorful as well as interesting reading. Well worth the price and time involved.

Percival Lowe was a gentleman, even if he was not an officer, and he was also a good soldier and a great frontiersman. If you want to know what it was like to be a Dragoon on the frontier this is the book. If you are interested in the history of the US Cavalry you need to read this book.

Paul Goble does a great job in bringing Plains Indian lore to a modern audience. His humor and capitivating illustrations make this book a good "read out lound" for preschoolers and early elementary alike. The trickster Iktomi gives us a chance to laugh at our own foibles, while we learn a valuable lesson. Iktomi, it seems, will never learn!

Iktomi is a trickster in Plains Indian folklore. In this tale his conceit gets him into trouble.

Paul Goble is a Caldecott Medal winning illustrator who has a gift for bringing native folktales to life for elementary age children. He has a unique pen, ink and paint technique that brings out the details in Iktomi's dress and gear, as well as animals--such as the prairie dogs and ducks in this tale.

While the main text of the story is told in bold black type, the storyteller is given some hilarious commentary in gray type, which is a delight for children listening to the story. Goble also adds little captions that are fun to read aloud, or that children enjoy looking for on their own.

I prefer folktales that teach a moral, and here the message is clear: pride goes before a fall.

I would add to the previous review that the first chapter provides a critique of Paul Shepard's thesis that our society is broken, and will never become whole again until we return to our hunter-gatherer roots. I was interested in this because I am a big Paul Shepard fan and have not before seen a critique of his ideas from a source I can respect. I don't know that Flores even gets Shepard's ideas completely straight, and I wish he had devoted more space to his critique, but at least it's something to get you thinking about.

I hope I haven't turned off those looking for a more straight-forward natural history of the West and southern plains, because except for that first chapter, that's what this book is- and it's excellent in its digestible chapters on components of this region.

Everyone always loves the West -- people hike the mountains for adventure, they hide out in the small towns when they're broke, and they buy ranchettes when they have money. The West is like a big old classic car that symbolizes something dependable and that people love to get in and hit the road -- the loooong road. "The Natural West" is for those brave enough to get under the hood and see how that car operates.

"Environmental History" is a fairly recent discipline, coming out of conventional history meeting ecology and the changing understanding of what a human being really is. Dan Flores is a hip guy with a smart take on the whole field. He's out there hiking, taking photos (they're in the book), running his wolf-dog, building his adobe house, and fighting the exotic weeds on his acreage -- and all the time he's thinking, "How does this work? How does all this fit together?"

Not that he will hand you a lot of predigested answers. This book, broken into chapters by region, is a tool kit, a beginner's manual, a map to the territory. It's a place to start getting under the hood and finding out how the motor really works. He's handed you all the clues.

This is a book to keep on hand and return to. Every revisitation will reveal the beginning of a new trail.

This book discusses the ecology & conservation needs of several threatened & endangered "keystone" species of the plains, and a plan to set aside large landscape-scale nature preserves to protect them. Though the author is from the northern plains, he seems well-traveled and informed on conservation issues here in Oklahoma, as well as other states in the region. I found the book very informative, esp. the chapters dealing with federal farm programs. While I disagree with the author on several points, I think the book proves that landscape-scale conservation of the North American Prairies is economically feasible. I would recommend this book to anyone working in the conservation field in the plains states.

Daniel Licht explains why it is in the nation's best interest to establish what he calls grassland "reserves" in most of the thirteen states of the grasslands biome. Such reserves--he suggests ten--must be landscape scale. His range from 400 to over 8,000 square miles. These reserves may be the only way to assure the long term survival of many grasslands species of wildlife but biodiversity is not their only rationale. They would reduce wasteful farm subsidies, relieve pressures on scarce water resources, provide tourism-based employment in areas suffering stagnant economies, and stabilize human populations in grassland counties with fewer humans now than before European settlement. Besides, the prairie grasslands biome was once the continent's largest ecosystem. Now it is the smallest. Grassland reserves, Licht argues, may well be the highest, best, and most productive use for this land. His book is compelling and should be read carefully by all who have an interest in the environment in general, and the prairie grasslands in particular. Besides, we need vast prairies for their mysterious value in preserving wildness. Licht quotes Leopoldo's famous observation about how relegating grizzly bears to Alaska is "like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there." The vast midlands of our country are nearby and we need some nearby wildness to restore human balance along with biodiversity. And we can reduce federal subsidies for excess farm capacity at the same time. This should be a winning idea. Read this book and then spread his ideas across the political landscape like a prairie wildfire.

I came across this book researching the economic future of my hometown in western North Dakota. There has been a noticeable deterioration in the economy of this region. Grain farmers, ranchers, and related businesses are stuggling. Many people have moved or are thinking about it. Dan Licht's book identifies economic trends and environmental factors which predict historic changes for this region. It should be required reading for community leaders.

Ms. Kehoe did a good job at tracing the practise of the ghost dance from the time that Wovoka (A Paiute medicine man) was given this ceremony to the masacre by the military at Wounded knee creek South Dakota in 1890 to the second incident at Wounded knee creek in 1973.

For people interested in seeing the ghost dance watch the dance in the movie "Billyjack" after Billyjack goes through the ceremony with the rattlesnake. I have heard that Wovoka's son or son-in-law supervised that scene of the movie.

Basicly the people would dance until they would faint from exhaustion, and while unconscious they would see into the spirit world something similar to an OBE.

On page 62: Ms. Kehoe states that Nick Black Elk (Sioux holy man) was a practising Catholic. It is true that Black Elk went to mass after he married the second time. However; the prayer that Black Elk offered on Harney peak, and is recorded in the book "Black Elk Speaks" John G. Neihardt, it is abundantly clear that his spiritual beliefs in Wakan Tanka (Sioux name for the Great Spirit) never wavered. He may have went along with Catholocism for peace in the family, or to stop the proselytizing church members. I used the same tactic early in life.

Ms. Kehoe; made one statement on page 65 that made me angry! She implies that Nick Black Elk had partial blindess by using gunpowder in his yuwipi healing ceremony to fool the indians into thinking the spirit helpers had arrived by throwing a pinch of gunpowder in the fire.

With my understanding of Sioux spirituality, and the properties of gunpowder. I state categoricaly that this is impossible! 20 years ago; I used gunpowder to reload the cartridges for my high powered rifle.

In the Yuwipi ceremony the indians remove all furniture from the room, and place quilts over the doors and windows to block all light from entering the room, and the wicasa pejuta or wicasa wakan (medicine man or holy man) has his hands tied behind his back with rawhide, and then they usualy wrap him up in a star quilt like a mummy and the quilt is tied around his body. The wicasa pejuta or wicasa wakan is placed on the floor, and the lamp is put out leaving the people in total darkness (there is no fire, and the yuwipi man is tied up in a quilt; making it impossible to use gunpowder in this manner).

Ms. Kehoe may have meant the Inipi (sweat lodge) ceremony so I will describe that to you. A sweat lodge structure is built of saplings or willow limbs, and a large fire is built to heat rocks until they are red hot. While the rocks are heating they dig a hole in the center of the structure to hold the rocks, and the removed dirt is used to build a mound to the east of the structure, then the indians cover the ground with sage, and quilts are put over the structure. Water is poured over the rocks making steam inside the structure. (It would be impossible for Nick Black Elk or any wicasa wakan to use gunpowder on the rocks. Everyone is drenched with steam, and is sweating profusely. Gunpowder will not burn or explode if it gets wet. This is the reason for the saying (keep your powder dry.).)

I am NOT asking you to take my word for any of this. You can read about the Inipi and Yuwipi ceremonies in "Lakota Belief And Ritual" James R. Walker, "The Sacred Pipe" Joseph Epes Brown, "Mother Earth Spirituality" Ed McGaa, and other sources.

I only wish Ms. Kehoe had bothered to properly research material instead of making outrageous statements such as this.

Please send E-Mail if you have questions or comments about this review. Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

Kehoe's excellent work on the Ghost Dance religion allows the reader to be witness to a textbook example of religious revitalization movements. From the Paiute prophet Wovoka Jack Wilson's revelation during an eclipse to "Live a good, honest life" to the massacre at Wounded Knee, Kehoe describes in detail the history and beliefs of the Ghost Dance and the benefits it provided to the American Indian communities who took it up, as well as the rejection of the Ghost Dance religion by groups like the Navajo. Kehoe further describes the continuance of a variant of the Ghost Dance religion at a reservation in Seskatchewan and talks about the revitalization movement driven by Handsome Lake amongst the Iroquois and how the re-imagining of their beliefs allowed them to become more successful in a radically altered world.

This rather short read by a pre-eminent author on the anthropology of American Indian societies is sure to both educate and provide deep enjoyment to the curious reader.

Anyone interested in North American Indians (Native Americans; First Nations) has to read Alice Beck Kehoe's book. She weaves together the past and present, religion and politics, and creates a book that offers more insight into contemporary issues than any other one ever written. And as a plus--for those interested in mysteries--she explains how the Ghost Dance Religion, thought to have died out in 1890, survived decades into the twentieth century.

In the book "Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930's," Worster examines the reasons for and the ideological background behind the Dust Bowl of the 1930's. The author focuses his discussion around the devastation of the Southern Plains, as he presents his argument about the impact of American culture on both the ecological destruction of the land and the desolation of the people who depended on the land for their livelihood. The body of the work focuses on the multifaceted and sometimes diametrically opposed economic and ethical/ecological interests of the country during the Dust Bowl, which Worster brings into an examination of the pervasive capitalist mentality of early 20th century American culture. The author believes the root of Americans' misuse and destruction of the Southern Plains serves as just another example of irresponsibility in the means to obtain the end desire of capitalistic pursuits.

Donald Worster argues that a close link existed between the Dust Bowl and the capitalist mentality of American society during the early 20th century, as American zeal for wealth and expansion wrought devastating affects on both the land and its people.

In his treatise of the Dust Bowl, Worster focuses on the mindset of American culture both before and during the 1930's. Worster believes that before the Dust Bowl and the years immediately preceding it, the area of the Southern Plains enjoyed relative ecological stability as neither the Indians, nor the primary white farmers following them viewed their environment and land as expendable resources or commodities. However, as the Jeffersonian ideals of agrarian harmony with nature gave way to the destructive and selfish capitalist ideology, the Southern Plains became the victim of economic ambition. Subsistence farming no longer existed in the Southern Plains at the time of the Dust Bowl. Rather, Worster describes an area dominated by massive amounts of machinery, fewer farm laborers, and a construct known as the factory farm based on city assembly lines, business principles, and exploitative ends. As the ill-effects of factory farming came together with a period of significant drought, the resulting dust storms generated not only a environmentally destructive force, but also became a symbol of the filth and disparity of the capitalistic pursuits of American society, a symbol that would leave Americans searching for both a solution and a way to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

Worster describes the delicate ecological reality of the Southern Plains in great detail as he presents the scientific basis necessary to further support his claim of unhindered misuse of the lands by American commercial farming. The author presents the Southern Plains as an untainted grassland community, which remained largely in tact due before the period of great settlement and farming in the area. Worster shows that the commercial farming techniques during the early 20th century stripped the land of not only its productiveness, but also its ability to achieve an organic equilibrium in nature. Due to both governmental and personal economic motivations, American farmers felt compelled to plow, plant, and exploit every free tract across the Southern Plains, a trend only intensified by the importance placed on the American farmer during the period immediately following the onset on the Great Depression. Due to the impeding pressures of capitalism, the plowing of the majority of the land and focusing on planting and increasing production of only a select few cash crops resulted in a great loss in biodiversity in the ecosystem of the Southern Plains. This ecological imbalance would reap widespread devastation in the manifestation of not only the dust storms of the period, but also in the displacement of many who depended upon the land for their livelihood.

In the midst of the Dust Bowl, Worster presents the popularly held and supported proposals for solutions to the problem facing the Southern Plains. Worster provides examples such as the formation of the National Land Use Planning Committee and the conservatism of Roosevelt's New Deal to show the government's efforts to offset the devastation of the Dust Bowl and preventing the recurrence of another such disaster in the future. The author shows that, though the ideas of such prevention and regulation constituted seemingly positive ventures, these strategies proved relatively ineffective in drastically changing farming practice or preventing another such event to occur in the future. Worster presents historical information that exemplifies the attitudes associated with the expansionary, free enterprise oriented, capitalistic American culture, which actively participated in the destruction and exploitation of nature to satiate its ever-growing greed.

In Dust Bowl, Worster presents a well-developed and clear argument for his advocacy of American culture's inseparable tie to capitalism and its affect in the ecological devastation of the Southern Plains. The book not only contains a great deal of specific information, but also artfully ties the Dust Bowl into many underlying themes present in early 20th century America. The book supplements one's understanding of the time periods both before and after the Great Depression and provides insight into the affects of the nation's fallen economy on rural America.

As most persons are aware, these are times of climatic change, with the West becoming warmer and drier. These changes are episodic, but mankind's response to them is not so predictable. Professor Worster's excellent coverage of the Dust Bowl, one of the greatest agricultural and ecological calamities in history, shows that, with a little foresight and honest recognition of the limitations of technology, much of the harm caused by shifting climate can be prevented. In that respect, it is a hopeful text.

Professor Worster, however, views history from a Marxist standpoint, a trait that colors some of his conclusions. While I agree with him that land is frequently viewed by the shortsighted as a commodity to be used and discarded, I feel that the lessons of the Dust Bowl have resulted in safer, drought-resistant patterns of crop farming. However, as Worster adroitly points out, the shifting in agricultural practices in the Southern plains is accompanied by a wasteful use of available underground water, raising a peril of the Dust Bowl's return. So have we really learned anything? Time will tell, and not very long from now.

So far as Professor Worster addresses the socio-economic causes of the reckless destruction of the short-grass prairie ecosystem for quick profit, his discussion is masterful His organization of topics and chronology is excellent, and the reader will not soon forget the horror of living with the dust. The photos of dust storms and their effect are almost nightmarish.

Regardless of one's irritation at the myopia of those who try to farm mrginal land, his is a sympathetic portrait as well, waxing almost lyrical in his discussions of the effects of crop failures on the local populace. The book is copiously reserched and peopled with personal anecdotes of those who lived through the "Dirty Thirties". This narrative includes not only the local citizenry, but contains numerous passages about governmental attempts to allay the crisis.

I recommend this book very highly. I think anyone who likes history, who is concerned about the effects of climatic change, or both, ought to read this book very carefully. It should be an essential part of anyone's library.

In Dust Bowl, Donald Worster masterfully transports the reader to a time when the land seemed to rise up in protest against those who would try to dominate it. The author points out in the introduction that the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression took place at the same time, and that both events "revealed fundamental weaknesses in the traditional culture of America, the one in ecological terms, the other in economic." Worster successfully weaves a revealing tapestry in his monograph that supports his argument, by presenting capitalistic values and motives as the human element involved in the Great Depression's "Dust Bowl Days." The natural environment caused the winds to blow and the rains to stop, but the farmers of the Great Plains, in an attempt to reap a profit from the land, destroyed the prairie grasses by plowing them under. This left the nutrient-rich topsoil in an exposed position, where intense drying heat and voracious winds could forcefully thrust the sandy granules of soil into the atmosphere.

Dust Bowl is divided into five parts, and the author has a personal interest in the subject and the location of this ecological disaster. The author dedicates this book to his parents, who actually experienced the trauma of leaving the plains for California during the Great Depression. Although the author was born in California, he spent his childhood living on the Great Plains and considers himself "a native son." The first part of the book provides insight into what a dust storm was like, and how this severe wind erosion effected the land, the people, and the nation in general. Part two gives the reader a sense of place, by explaining the chronological physical history of the Great Plains from prehistoric times to the mechanized wheat farming of the early twentieth century. In part three, Worster concentrates his study toward Cimarron County in the Oklahoma panhandle during the "dirty thirties," by describing people's experiences, government programs, and quotes from historical documents. Moving north to Haskell County, Kansas, Worster scrutinizes this region by interpreting economic, political, social, and agricultural trends evidenced by historical data. The final chapters of the book relate the history of the agricultural conservation movement in the United States, describe the delicate balance between all living things in an ecosystem, and illustrate why the "filthy fifties" took place and how other agricultural disasters may appear in the future.

While some may disagree with Worster's attack on capitalistic values and label his perspective as politically biased, one cannot refute the hard, cold, documented evidence of how economics dominated agriculture and caused the catastrophic disaster of the Dust Bowl. Without considering a history of drought in the area, the farmer used the tractor and plow to cut deep into the soil in order to turn the Great Plains into a giant "wheat factory." The standard of living in the United States was rising quickly, but in order for people to acquire such luxuries as indoor plumbing, they needed currency. With the hope of obtaining more material possessions during the 1920s, bankers bought stocks on margin, and farmers plowed up more and more natural grasses. The wheat fields were considered an investment, and large corporations started to buy enormous expanses of land. The profit margin involved with mechanized farming allowed one person to alter more land area than had ever been possible in the past. This gave people a feeling of complete sovereignty over nature or "human autonomy." As Worster advises, "The attitude of capitalism-industrial and pre-industrial-toward the earth was imperial and commercial; none of its ruling values taught environmental humility, reverence, or restraint" (97).

In order to survive, a society must be able to adapt. Worster's Dust Bowl is an enlightening study, which not only informs the reader of past exploitation, but also challenges the reader with current socio-economic environmental responsibility. After reading the book, one wonders-Can the capitalistic system and a healthy worldwide environment survive the twenty-first century together?

Marilyn Glaser, Student
Great Basin College

The title promises this will be about the Rush to Colorado, but it is more like a slow crawl. In his introduction West quotes a friend as saying, "(he) couldn't comment on a new traffic light at Maple and Arkasas without starting with the Magna Carta," unfortunately this is all too true. In his lead up to the gold rush the author goes back to 10,000 BC. Not only was this unnecessary in dealing with the topic, but these early migrations of native peoples have already been treated much better by Hyde, Grinnell, and others.

West's thesis is that the gold rush not only affected the areas immediately around the strikes-the places the immigrants went to-but also the areas they passed through, thus transfoming the entire Plains Region. He also maintains that it was the competition for vital resources, such as grazing land, water and timber that brought the Indian nations to their knees, long before the actual military campaigns.

West's points are interesting, however, he makes them early and then spends the rest of the book reiterating them. There is little new here in terms of factual information, and while his treatment of the Indians in the first part of the book suffers from too much detail, the second half suffers from too little. There is not much information given about the Indians and their reactions except for that surrounding their encounters with whites.

This is actually not a bad book to read for someone who has a passing interest in the settlement of the Plains. However for me it was like going back to high school, after taking college level courses.

The title, The Contested Plains, relays Elliot West's desire to tell the story of the 1858 Colorado Gold Rush not from the perspective of the destination, but from the tale of the journey. West is determined to understand the environmental history of the plains as well as the perspective of the Indians who long inhabited them. He not only attempts to understand the land itself, but also how the indigenous peoples, and ultimately the gold seekers, used it. Clearly defined within the story are the concepts of imagination, impact, and power and the story itself is in fact divided into these three subsections: Vision, Gold Rush, and Power. West relates the tale through multiple scopes as he attempts anthropological, geological, economic, cultural, topographical, and biological interpretations of the 19th century transformation of the western Plains environment.
West begins by taking the reader back to the land before time in what he calls the "Old World." His clever play on the general Euro centric application of the world is all the more poignant when it is understood that this truly is the Indians' "Old World," and that a new and generally inhospitable future awaits them. After this short introduction, introduced is Spanish explorer Coronado and offers the foreshadowing of the encounter, exchange, and exclusion of the next four centuries.
The staples of the Western encounter remain the same. Disease, trade, firearms, and the horse are the four major players in the transformation of Indian lives. This is where West's biological angle emerges. He constructs the interdependence of life between the Indians and the Plains and the fundamental impact that the introduction of the horse levied upon their lifestyle. While horse and firearm prove beneficial and disease fatal, trade has been cast in a more complex light. The same trading systems that permitted the general rise of the Plains Indian became its downfall as settlers pushed westward in search of increased capital through a marginal gold rush or a now expanded trade system.
The encroachment of settlers onto the Plains found fundamentally different uses for the land. While the Cheyenne, or Tsistsistas, had managed a sustainable lifestyle consisting of hunting, grazing, movement, and trade, the relatively static farming productions of the white settler not only consumed valuable land space needed for the Indians, it levied substantial tolls upon the environment itself, particularly in times of drought.Accompanied by a population explosion wholly untenable with the nature of the land, it wasn't long before bloody conflicts between the two groups would arise, with the ultimate victor being the white settler.
West has written a comprehensive narrative consisting of several different vantage points, the most emotive being the ultimate transformation and decline of the life of the Plains Indian tribes. Voice has also been given to the land in this account. West is careful to make no judgments on the Indians or the gold seekers and settlers. He is pragmatic when he exclaims that "two cultures acted out compelling visions in a land that could support only one."

This is a truly outstanding work. In a microcosmic study, West has written a new synthesis of Western American history.

Beginning with the the High Plains environment and the resources it provided, West begins with the story of the American Indian tribes who migrated to this area and how the Plains environment affected their society and lifestyle. Then, focusing on the Gold Rush years of 1858 and 1859, he discusses how the mineral resources of the territory attracted the hordes of white settlers to the plains, as well as the nature of the people who came here and the cultural expectations they carried with them.

Finally, he discusses how the Native American and white American cultures clashed with each other and the role the environment played in that conflict. West details the power struggle that took place on the Plains and the reasons for the eventual white triumph.

This book is an important work in the history of the Overland experience of the 19th century. Alongside works such as John Unruh's "The Plains Across" (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976), it fills in some important pieces of the puzzle for one of the most crucial periods in the history of American nationbuilding.

"On the Rez," by Ian Frazier, is a captivating book should you be interested in learning more about one interpretation of what life might be like on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Many do not understand what goes through the minds of many Native Americans on the "rez" as they are stereotyped as being poor, lazy and less than "civilized." In general, many can't see why these people can't seem to "get with the program." Frazier strives to give a different point of view through the insight he gains from his close friend of more than 20 years, Le War Lance, an Oglala Sioux native.

The book is almost like a journal of their adventures and time together but it is much more than that. It's about a friendship that lasts through triumphs and disappointments and seems to have thrived deeper throughout the years. It's also about a white man's view and interpretation on what he experiences when learning about this culture. If you go into the book understanding that this is not fact, but a good and genuine view of one man's view, you'll enjoy it. If not, you'll be biased.

Culture is difficult to understand if you don't live it. The Oglala Sioux have a much different culture than mainstream America and it's all relative to what is important to you. Just because Le War Lance sees things in one light does not mean that he is the spokesperson for all Native Americans, Sioux, Oglala Sioux or his own family. It is just his view, one human, which happens to coincide with others. I think that Frazier is mindful of this but it doesn't always seem implied.

I fail giving this book a full five stars because it is my opinion that Frazier mixes facts with a feel-good story toward the last third of the book when discussing the heartbreaking story of SuAnne Big Crow. It is an important part of the book but it is a little longer than necessary to achieve what he wanted to say. However, it does denote how important her story is to him in his vision of the Oglala Sioux. While the scenarios of SuAnne are great recollections put together from his interviews, I get the impression that she is put too high up on a pedastal as a great warrior when she doesn't necessarily have to be. However, I also think that I am observant enough to know that it is a very human trait and quite a normal phenomenon among all cultures. We all need our heroes to put up on a pedastal. So, I'll not sit here and say it is right or wrong. It is a touching story, but I wonder how much is manufactured versus realistic. Regardless, I did enjoy it and it does have much merit.

Again, I recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down. I gained some insight from it and what's most important to me is that it had me wanting to learn even more about various Native American tribal cultures and experiences. I have since purchased more books and am swamped with reading material. Perhaps I'll write a book of my own some day based upon my research and discuss the proud Mandan tribe (Sioux) that a mother-in-law of mine is 100% native. Do yourself a favor, check it out!

I have read quite a bit of Native American history, but very little on contemporary Native Americans. This book filled that gap splendidly, particularly insofar as the Oglala Sioux are concerned. Ian Frazier is a wonderful author. His easy to read, conversational style reminds me a lot of John McPhee. Like McPhee, he has researched his topic thoroughly. His time spent on the Pine Ridge reservation and his intimate friendship with several tribal members allows the reader to experience a perspective that few writers could achieve. He lays out his topic in unvarnished terms. Native Americans face an extraordinarily unique set of problems to which no other ethnic group can lay claim. The picture can be dark and somber, but Frazier also manages to instill a sense of history, nobility and pride that can cut through the gloom. He conveys his fascination with the Sioux people and their struggle in an infectious and involving manner. Very highly recommended.

I admit I came to Ian Frazier's "On the Rez" hoping it would be more like "On the Road," that is, a 300-page story of drunken chaos and ripe descriptions of decadence. But Frazier's respectful historical review of how Indians have shaped our lives and their continued desecration at the hands of a well-meaning but ineffectual government gave me a renewed sense of wonder about these people. Like Frazier did as a child, we all share the belief of Indians as these mystical, spiritual folks saying things like "You are very wise, Little Flower." What Frazier does instead is take us inside the Oglala Sioux reservation--really an internment camp--and shares his journey amongh the families and stories and daily life he encounters there.

Now, one wonders what Frazier was looking for when he set out on this years-long journey. Friendship? Kinship? Closeness with other men? I was confounded by his repeated attempts to ally himself with his Indian friends, particularly Le War Lance (a/k/a Leonard Thomas Walks Out--some Indians really do have cool last names just like we imagined as children). Le provides a narrative focus for the book, and we see him at his drifting, alcoholic worst throughout. He and his brother, Floyd John, spend their days doing things like travelling a hundred miles to find a spare part for their car, then spending the rest of the day tinkering with it and drinking Budweiser. One of the funniest scenes in the book is when Frazier, driving Le and Floyd John to a propane storage facility on some godforsaken errand, almost gets blown to bits when something goes wrong near one of the immense tanks. Le and Floyd John get so joyfully wrapped up in this--chattering endlessly on the long drive home--that Frazier is moved to note that he's never seen them so happy.

Although Frazier is careful to avoid the stereotypes propagated by the media that modern Indian life is bleak, one can't help but feel the bleakness, boredom and sense of hopelessness reservations can inflict on their young. The rez is just a ghetto in the great outdoors, with all the problems facing urban ghettos today--high crime, drug use, alocoholism, unemployment, and the horrific sense of lazy entitlement that comes when generations of people depend on government intervention and provision.

After spending days and countless dollars on the likes of Le and Floyd John--Frazier readily hands the fellas money like a cuddly, human ATM--the book finds its hero. Her name is Sue Ann Big Crow, a high school freshman who's the shining star for the Oglala tribe. She's bright, articulate, funny, a friend to all and a brilliant, daring athlete. In other words, you know she's doomed from the moment you meet her. Frazier takes us through her short, strong life and wonderfully wrenches every emotion from the story of this hopeful girl and her supportive family. Thanks to Frazier, Sue Ann is a hero for the ages. And when we finally re-hookup with Le, the man seems bitter and irrelevant, going so far as to telling Frazier that Sue Ann is a phony. We don't believe a word of this. (In fact, Le's own niece disclaims the story as bull.)

I liked Frazier's style of writing--it's clear, thoughtful, funny when the situation calls for it--and I can say that, beyond learning about Le, Sue Ann, Floyd John and the rest, Frazier excellently shed light on the permeating influence of Indian culture on our society. Frazier even goes so far as to expose himself as a fussbudget, when Le drops by his home for the first and only time, unnanounced, and sets Frazier and his cute kids into a dazed tizzy. Le's drunken, sloppy intrusion into Frazier's neat world is palpable and memorable. Like the book itself.