I’ve been reading and watching some pretty exciting stuff (to me anyway), and thought to myself, “Ya know, you should really tell someone about this.” So I am.

Pick #1: Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder, by Kent Nerburn. Non-Fiction. Five stars, two thumbs up, and a big smiley face.

I picked this up a couple years ago at the Crazy Horse monument in the Black Hills of S. Dakota, and it has sat on my shelf since then. Last week, I forgot the book I was reading at work, and found myself in the lamentable position of going to bed with nothing to read. Well that just wasn’t going to happen, and since this was on the top of the stack by my bed, I decided to give it a try.

I had my doubts as I plowed through the two introductions; they (especially the most recent) were a little on the self-congratulatory side, and left me thinking “Oh crap, is this gonna be another one of those “Let me explain Indians to you,” kind of books, written by a white guy, and loaded with self-aggrandizement and presenting Indians as a bunch of holy men and earth mothers? (I tend toward the skeptical side, and my own experience with Indians has pretty much wrecked that romanticized, Hollywoodized, 70’s liberal view).

Boy, was I in for a (pleasant) surprise. Nerburn has written a book that I very much wished I could write. There’s nothing romanticized here. Nerburn isn’t afraid to show his white preconceptions and biases, nor is he afraid to show those preconceptions and biases getting slapped down for the (well-meaning) bullshit that they are. Dan, the Indian elder Nerburn goes on the road with, isn’t some Black Elk wannabe, full of Native mysticism. Rather, he’s an old man from an exploited, impoverished, and conquered people who has spent his life thinking and trying to make sense of his world, and the white world that surrounds his.

In a lot of ways, Dan reminds me of Jim Charging Crow, a Lakota elder that I, and others in our group, were fortunate enough to become friends with. Full of good humor, but deeply suspicious of whites and their agendas.

Nerburn’s book has opened my eyes, clarified my vision, and at least partially answered questions that I’ve had on my mind for years.

A great book, and an invaluable one for anyone who seeks to help the Sioux, or who seeks a greater understanding of America the problems that face all of us.

 

Pick #2: The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. Five stars, two thumbs up. Fiction.

A very different book, about a very different kind of Indian. The White Tiger is the story of Balram Halwai, who grows up impoverished in rural backwater of India, and how he rose from a peasant destined for a short, nasty, brutal life to become a successful entrepreneur. It’s a fascinating book: both horrifying and very funny, as it exposes the corruption rampant in India, and what happens when a man born with no options decides to make his own.

I found that, although it’s a very Indian story, that it’s also a universal story about corruption and what happens when a society rewards exploitation of the poor and the marginalized, instead of caring for them, and helping them.

A fantastic book; an easy read with some very important things to say.

 

Pick #3: Hostiles, a film by Scott Cooper. Fiction. Four stars, two thumbs up.

Hostiles, starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, and Wes Studi, is a great movie, albeit one that plays fast and loose with actual history. While it is a western, it is, like all great westerns, about much, much more than just cowboys and Indians, and gunfights. It is a movie that attempts to show the cost that everyone paid (the Indians, the settlers, and the soldiers) to make America what it is today. It is also about the racism that has afflicted this nation since the day Columbus landed in the Caribbean. More importantly, it is about overcoming that racism, putting aside the biases and hatreds that separate us, and bringing people together through mutual, earned respect.

It doesn’t attempt to stick to the facts of history, something that really bothered me the first time I saw it (as a history buff, I kept getting side-tracked by the numerous historical inaccuracies), but once I got past that narrow view, I was able to see it for what it is: a parable of America, and, as that, it succeeds admirably. It’s one of those movies that sticks with you long after the end credits roll. It makes you think: about our country’s history, and about its present, as well as about our own, individual biases and prejudices, and where they come from.

All that philosophical wonkery aside, it is also a damned fine western, with great performances from everybody in it, lots of action, and gunfights. It is also pretty bloody and brutal in it’s depiction of the violence of the old west: definitely not one for the kiddies, or the faint of heart.

It is currently available on Netflix, and on DVD, and Blu-Ray.

 

And now the Pan: Woman Walks Ahead, a film by Susanna White.

Woman Walks Ahead, starring Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Greyeyes, is pretty much the exact opposite of Hostiles: It’s based on a true story, and plays fast and loose with actual history, and fails miserably in both telling its story, and in telling a larger truth.

It is the story of Caroline Weldon, a painter and activist for Indian rights, who went to Standing Rock Indian Reservation to paint a portrait of the great Sioux chief, Sitting Bull. So far, so good. Those things actually happened. What is inexplicable to me is why they felt it necessary to airbrush Weldon’s backstory, turning the somewhat Bohemian, divorced activist with a child born out of wedlock, into a widowed, society lady. The actual Weldon’s story is much more interesting.

Less mysterious is the film maker’s rearranging of historical events, to make things center around Weldon (after all the movie’s about her). However, despite what importance Weldon may have had, making this story about her is like making Mrs. Schindler the primary focus of Schindler’s List. I’m sure Frau Schindler made some important contributions, but the most important thing was saving Jews from the death camps.

The film goes so far as to turn Weldon into the stereotypical Great White Saviour, the Feminist Icon who inspires Sitting Bull to lead his people to vote against the “Allotment Treaty”. In reality, it was the Dawes Act, and, as an act of Congress, the Sioux never got a vote in it. The movie downplays the importance of the Ghost Dance, completely screws the pooch about the death of Sitting Bull, and turns Wounded Knee – a direct result of white hysteria about the Ghost Dance, and Sitting Bull’s death – into a footnote. There is a huge, important story here to be told. Instead, they made this movie.

Maybe the biggest mystery is this: weren’t there any actual Feminist Icons to make a movie about? Surely Hollywood hasn’t told the stories of all the women who’ve made huge sacrifices for not only women’t rights, but for civil rights in general. Why take a story about a pivotal moment in U.S. history, and dump all of the truly important stuff, stuff that still affects thousands, if not millions, of Americans every day, in order to manufacture a Feminist Icon? Women deserve better than that, Indians deserve better than that, Americans deserve better than that.

It’s currently on Amazon Prime Video and DVD, Blu-ray.

 

Anyway, that’s it. If you’re going to read three books this year, I strongly suggest that you start with Thumperica! A Novel of the Ghost of America Future. However, if you’re only going to read one or two books this year, give Thumperica a pass, and read Neither Wolf Nor Dog, and The White Tiger.

If you want to see a historical movie that ignores facts to state a larger truth, watch Hostiles.

If you want to see a historical movie that skews facts in order to get everything wrong, watch Woman Walks Ahead.