like most collections, a lot of this was hit or miss for me. the ones that were good, though, were really powerful and made a real impression on me.

many of these read to me like they were written 50 years ago, so it's important to realize how recent this history is.

"How do you live in a time when most people believe you are dead - from a people of the past - nd you feel you have been made allergic to your roots?" -- Ben Geboe

"The rationalization of cultural genocide is simple. Americans need to have these images and names in order to deny their history, for a history wrought with genocide and a democracy riddled with evil must be denied or the foundation of the United States would crumble. American images such as Chief Wahoo and Savvy Seminole enable the oppressors more easily to accept the stealing of a people's continent and inflicting genocide upon its Native inhabitants." -- Gabriel Horn

"Racism against American Indians is so intrinsically part of America's political mythology, the truth a group of people agrees to believe about itself, that without it this country would have to do something it has never done: face colonial guilt." -- Kimberly Roppolo

"If 'real' Indians don't exist in the American mind, then hate crimes against them have no room in the American imagination of possibility. And the media, the same media that descends from that which actively promoted the extermination of Indians through the early 1900s, don't cover that continued extermination now because of their early effectiveness in our erasure." -- Kimberly Roppolo

"Perhaps there is some consolation in being the archetypes for an entire nation, particularly since that nation is still in the process of locating its own sense of self. But the cost of trading humanity and one's own languages, customs, and worldview for that dubious privilege is very high." -- Paula Gunn Allen ( )

Collection of essays about modern indigenous lived experience. Some poetry, some memoir. Various opinions about what it means to be a modern indian. ( )

This book is a collection of essays written by Native Americans of various tribes/nations and backgrounds. A wide variety of topics are covered - Native Americans used as mascots for sports teams, the loss of Native languages, racism, living in urban areas, discovering culture and history, and what it means to be Native American today.

The essays are fascinating. I can nearly guarantee that at least some of the essays in this collection will make the reader uncomfortable, and they will definitely make you think, as well. ( )

Excellent. ( )