It seemed like this was "required reading" for folks interested in Native American issues so I bought a used copy and it's been on my shelf for a few years. Well I started reading it and there was a few insights I gleaned but I found a lot of statements the author made that were presented as fact but he never listed his source. One particular statement he presented as fact was that the U.S. government gave Indians blankets infected with small pox. I had thought that this had been debunked and so I googled it. I found that it's a little bit of an ambiguous idea rooted some in fact and some in speculation. Small pox unquestionably was devastating t Native Americans. How the disease was actually introduced to Tribes is the question. I would not doubt the idea that biological warfare was used against Native Americans considering all the other atrocities inflicted but there doesn't appear to be any record of disease infested blankets being handed out. The only thing I could find was a record of British soldiers giving smallpox blankets out but not the U.S. government or soldiers.

I also read that a University of Colorado professor, Ward Churchill, started the "blanket" idea in book titled "A little Matter of Genocide" published in 2001. Vine Deloria Jr., in this book, published in 1969, writes "In the old days blankets infected with smallpox were given to the tribes in an effort to decimate them." Churchill says his source was a 1987 book, "American Indian Holocaust and Survival", by Russell Thornton, an anthropology professor at UCLA. But where did Deloria get the idea?

Also he writes as though every Native American thinks like he does. That's not the case, opinions greatly vary from tribe to tribe, person to person in Indian Country. Maybe I'm missing something because I didn't finish the book but that's the impression I got.

There are more mental notes I made but I'm to lazy to spell it out, lol! Besides, a word of wisdom I hears was "don't disparage the dead", so I wont talk to badly about Mr. Deloria.

One other thing. He mentions the Shoshone Chief Washakie once. I'm a non-enrolled member of the Easter Shoshone Tribe and my Great-Great Grandfather and Washakie's 1st cousin, John Enos, is buried next to him at Ft. Washakie, WY. As I said, he mentions him once in the entire book, only to say that "Washakie, the Shoshone chief who tattled on the other tribes every chance he got and finally received a nice reservation in Wyoming was another early fink who was honored posthumously as a good guy." Dude...I don't necessarily care about what people think about Washakie, I've no dog in the fight, but really? From my understanding, growing up on the Wind River, the "nice reservation in Wyoming" Washakie received, is a little more nuanced. Maybe expand on the guy a little. I think he was a good guy and recognized that fighting the whites was a losing battle and decided to save lives of his braves, women, children and elders by settling down and choosing the white way of life. Pretty wise in my opinion. So yeah, he did get a nice reservation for his people but it's much, much more detailed than Washakie "tattling" on other tribes.

I didn't finish this one, though I might yet still read the chapter on Indian Humor, and I have another book by Deloria "Red Earth, White Lies". I'll pass on reading that one. I've got enough of an idea what I'll be reading. ( )

Interesting as a time capsule. Lots of names dropped and scores settled. Not quite an entry level book, this clearly assumes at least passing familiarity with the current events of the mid 60s in both the civil rights movement and Indian affairs. Engagingly written and makes compelling points about both history and what Deloria sees as next steps for the movement. ( )

Finally sat down with a copy of this after, uh, 12 years. There are definitely parts of this that haven't aged well, but those are pretty minimal compared to the parts that have aged shockingly well. Deloria is an extremely charming, thoughtful writer that I hope to read more of. ( )

Este interesante libro, publicado en 1969, y cuyo autor es un indio sioux, explica diversos aspectos la conquista del oeste por parte de los Estados Unidos desde el punto de vista de los nativos americanos, dando cuenta de la parte más sucia de la misma. Vine Deloria fue interlocutor de las minorías pielrojas ante el gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Hasta 1994, los indios no pisarían la Casa Blanca por primera vez. Para entonces, el autor de esta reseña ya tenía este libro en su poder desde el año anterior. ( )

Modern plight of the American Indian

We are familiar with much of the story of the American Indian prior the 1890. This is the story where the history books left off. After the American Indian left the stage as part of American Folklore. ( )