The story is told as a drawn-out series of accounts of the famous shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, but also concerning many other related events and combined with extracts of court transcripts and of the author’s interviews. Ultimately it’s never clear why FBI agents were at the shoot-out site initially, who shot whom when, and exactly what Leonard Peltier had to do with it. Most or all prosecutorial, FBI, and presented “witness” accounts seem unreliable, and there is now knowledge of either fabricated ballistic evidence or information that was withheld about ballistic evidence. The author was clearly personally involved in this, his sympathies are immediately and everywhere clear. He brings the story to us in a protracted repetitive fashion, but the main disappointment for the reader is that almost everything is left in the air, and although it seems clear that Peltier was picked by the FBI to take the fall and then received a sham trial, it is also clear that two FBI agents were murdered (it's not self-defense when you shoot a wounded man in the head), and that Peltier is a serial felon from adolescence. An account related to the author from an unnamed and disguised Indian "X" confessing to the murders given near the end of the book didn't seem to be a more reliable account than any other.
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I have had some interest in lying in the past, and I noticed that many of the stories told on both sides are of a type commonly used when lying (see the current liar-in-chief or, especially, Mr. Putin). If I ask you if you did something, a common truthful response might be "no", but a common untruthful response is, "Why would a person like me do something like that?". ( )

This is a lengthly and sobering account of the American Indian Movement in the 60's and 70's, and the continuing conflict between Native Americans and the U.S. Government. There are references to broken treaties between our government and Indian tribes, racism, and the poor conditions on Indian Reservations. The main element of the book concerns Leonard Pelteir, convicted of murdering two FBI agents on a reservation during a shoot-out between Native Americans and the FBI. Apparently, the publishing of this book was delayed by eight years due to lawsuits brought by the FBI to prevent damaging information about its conduct leading up to the incident, and during the prosecution of the case. Matthiessen was clearly sympathetic to the Indian cause, but it's not hard to understand why. The book does a good job in telling a neglected story, but it's a sad reminder of past unjustices. ( )

I cannot recommend this audio book. It was really long (23 Discs) and it was mostly depositions from trial documents.

It was interesting just the same, and I still may purchase the dead tree version for reference. It may be easier to follow then too.

Regardless if you want more information on the American Indian Movement (including Leonard Pelltere) and the adventures of the Natives versus the government in the 1970s, I recommend the autobiography of Russel Means "Where White men fear to tread" instead. There is an abridged 6 tape audio book available, but again dead tree is better. ( )

This controversial book about controversial subject (AIM and Leonard Peltiers trial) is very important in itself, because it was collected mostly from interviews quite soon after the so called "reservation murders". However, nowadays its better to be familiar with more recent material from subject and so you can read this somewhat "between the lines". As said, the book is mostly from AIM informants interview and no wonder there´s a lot of unnecessary hodge-podge (how good person someone actually is/was and so on). On the other hand there´s quite little information you can really find non-controversial (like the case itself, ´till nowadays nobody is really too sure about it), because almost everything is from interview material. But, reading with this in mind, one can find this very much satisfying, book really tries to make a complete story from all this very much. The story is told around Leonard Peltier case which is quite understandable, because during writing this he was just becoming the symbolical "indian hero", he know is made. There´s a lot stuff about AIM and governments reaction to it too, which is really the main subject of the book, but the trial case being the main plot in this.
So, to fully understand this book (and to be able to judge peoples words at the time) one needs to have read more recent stuff about this too. Of course one can start from this too, there´s much things not mentioned widely elsewhere (its over 600 pages.), but as a fact you can not rely on almost anything. This can only give one guidelines from the subject and the happenings described. ( )

By the end of the book, I felt that although this is a righteous cause, AIM is the wrong group of people.

What bothered me, what made me distrust Matthiessen, is that at several points he was rather coy, very odd in such a normally detailed work. He never does tell us what AIM claims happened at the shootout. Nor does he ever give us a coherent account of the trial. He covers the flaws in the government's story, while contorting to avoid giving us AIM's side. Which makes me wonder what he can't afford to say. He dramatically announces that someone else confessed to him, clearing Peltier, but despite this anonymous person's vow that he would come forward rather than let Peltier suffer for his crime, the latter sits in jail. Makes me wonder if Mathiessen is a little too gullible.

This could desperately have used some editting. In addition to being quite long, it is disjointed. I think that both flaws could have been simultaneously fixed, and the book would have been greatly improved. ( )