Yes, I started late, but I also had a harder
time with the reading this year. Some books are more dry and academic, and
slower reads, which I expect, but then being ill really slowed me down. Because
of that, I am actually not finished with one of the books, and yet this still
seems like the time to write about it. Some of that may be issues with that
particular book, which I will get into.
The People Are Dancing Again: The History of
the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon, by Charles
Wilkinson
This may have ended up being the book that
resonated the most, due to it being local. I have been some of these places,
the author taught at U of O, and a lot of it is just close to the heart. That
being said, it may not be the best written, with the tone varying widely. In
the beginning when they are covering the tribal life before the arrival of
white explorers and settlers, it is really dry and slow-moving. It picks up in
interest as we get more to the initial period of conflict and removal, and then
as we get to the fight for reinstatement and modern day, the text really comes
alive but starts jumping around a lot.
That being said, in addition to value for
Oregonians, there are some really important inclusions here. The Siletz tribe
were terminated and then reinstated, and the book does an excellent job with
covering the costs of termination, as well as providing hope that it does not
have to be permanent. There is a lot of good news in the book about what can be
accomplished, as well as the obstacles. And even if it at times does make the
tone uneven, there are real benefits to having an author who is passionate
about the subject.
One thing that was a little disappointing,
though not a flaw of the book, is that it mentions a short film that was made
by the Siletz in 1977 as they were working on reinstatement, and I was not able
to find it anywhere. I would like to see that.
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and
the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American
History, by S. C. Gwynne
This is probably the best written. My only
complaint is that at times the author seems a little condescending, and that’s
towards everyone – not just the people he is writing about, but also the
reader. That does not go through the whole book, and the book covers an amazing
scope. You do learn about the Comanche, but also other tribes, and how the area
was settled, and the rise of the Texas Rangers. There is a stunning amount of
research, and a lot of interesting information to be found.
The Mototcycle Diaries: A Journey Around
South America, by Ernesto “Che” Guevara
This was my Latin American entry, and it sort
of falls short for history, because it is really more of a travelogue. At times
it hints at the history and the resulting present situation, but it is
ultimately pretty light. However, if you want to know more about Che Guevara, I
think it is an essential starting point, and the descriptive language is often
beautiful. My translation was by Ann Wright, and I thought she did a great job.
Reclaiming Their Voice: The Native American
Vote in New Mexico & Beyond, by Dorothy Fadiman
This is my video contribution, a short (about
40 minutes) documentary of efforts to increase voter participation among the
Laguna people of New Mexico. In light of recent attempts at voter suppression,
this seems particularly important. The first round got several people
interested, but registrations had not been processed and there was a shortage
of provisional ballots, so many people could not vote. That could have been a
permanent setback, but they came back, found ways of resolving issues, and
increased voter interest by focusing on a local issue. I still think every
state should move to vote by mail, but working within the existing system is
important, and some people really made a difference here.
Where White Men Fear to Tread: The
Autobiograph of Russell Means, by Russell Means and
Marvin J. Wolf
Okay, here’s the one I haven’t finished yet.
I am on the last section, and I should have it done this week.
My first year in college I was taking a
communications/media class that I skipped a lot, which may have been part of
why I read the entire book, not just the assigned chapters. (I did that in
other classes too, where I did attend, so it may just be a nerd thing.) One of
the extra things I read was an essay by Russell Means. It was fascinating, but
also bitter, and I was not sure if I could trust what he was saying, especially
his criticism of other AIM members. So later, when he started an acting career,
I thought maybe he had mellowed. Maybe not.
That’s still how I find him. Some things he
writes could be true, but there are things that are at least exaggerations, if
not completely false, and so I find him an unreliable narrator. If I liked him
better, it might help, but while I care about him, I don’t like him. He is so
quick to label others as sellouts, phonies, liars, crooks, and thugs, and he
seems to do it with no sense of irony when he is by his own account doing many
of the same things.
This is important, because many of the
actions he takes are things that would normally be wrong. There are extenuating circumstances where
you can see doing something extreme, but to make that allowance I want to have
more faith in his judgment, and I can’t. He complains about things that are
awful the same way he complains about things that are really petty.
Contrasting it with Vine Deloria, whom Means
considers a friend, Deloria says a lot of harsh things about white people, but
because he seems pretty meticulous in his research, and to be taking it all
less personally, that helps me to not take it personally and focus on what he
is saying.
Reading Means is more like reading The
Autobiography of Malcolm X, except that with Malcolm there was a sense that he
was cut off if the midst of change, and we don’t get to see how he would have
turned out. With Means, he had a lot of time and opportunity, and he had some
real gifts of intellect and charisma, and so there is this frustration that he
could have been so much more. And he was a lot, I’m not denying that, but I
still feel some loss. And yes, there is plenty to be bitter about, but it just
doesn’t help.
In some ways I feel like the reason I am
summing up my reading without finishing it is that I have demoted him to just
regular reading, and not history reading. I think it’s really more that this
just feels like the time to write about it, and that in the blog I need to move
on, but my feelings are all roiled here.
So, what are the key lessons from this round
of reading? Actually, a lot of that has gone into yesterday’s post and will go
into tomorrow’s post, on a more general level. Specifically, I have been
thinking about the isolation.
If we were going to look specifically for
colorblind solutions to racial problems, my vote would be for working against
poverty. Many of the more insidious results of racism come down to economic
inequality, which also functions brilliantly to perpetuate those results and to
perpetuate the racism, and that focus on poverty would include strengthening
education.
However, if we were addressing poverty, we
would probably focus on urban first, and it would be easy to completely forget
about what is happening on the reservations. We have done too good a job of hiding
the Indians, making it really easy to ignore their problems, including things
like this:
Having read this article before watching Reclaiming
their Voice just made it resonate that much more. Who courts the Native
American vote? Okay, there are weird things happening there on the Republican
side now, with more of a focus on keeping minorities from voting than gaining
their votes, but still, how many Democrat campaigns pay attention? And this
isn’t just about the presidential election. Governors, senators, and house
members, on the state and federal level, all matter, but they need to believe
that votes can be gained or lost to care. The Siletz did a lot of work on
getting their reinstatement and the new land and the casino, but they needed
the cooperation of elected leaders to make it work.
So, voter registration and engagement is
something that Indians need to do, and really all people need to do. For
non-Indians, I guess my first thought is just to be more aware. Don’t let them
be out of sight, out of mind. Read. Talk to people. Reach out.
Linking to the last two summaries for
suggestions of reading and viewing material.
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