A book about modern Indian life written by a non-Indian. It looks to be a pretty accurate description, neither too laudatory nor too demeaning. I've been a fan of Sherman Alexie and a couple movies I've seen about Rez life, and I've known a couple of Rez Indians so it looked interesting. I got it for half price at a tiny independent bookstore downtown that's closing after 20 years because the landlord decided out of the blue to double the rent. Why do people do that.
Ian Frazier, the author, talks about how the general myth about Indians is that their civilization was destroyed when the white Europeans came and took over the land. He points out that the story is much more complicated. Pilgrims learned about corn and peanuts and many kinds of beans and tomatoes and potatoes and squash and tobacco from the natives, and soon these became the cash crops that created the new nation. The Indians' lack of hierarchical government and general egalitarianism also rubbed off on the settlers, leading to their declaring independence and writing a Constitution and Bill of Rights based largely on Indian principles.
Home 
