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Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
Audiobook5 hours

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask

Written by Anton Treuer

Narrated by Kaipo Schwab

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

"I had a profoundly well-educated Princetonian ask me, 'Where is your tomahawk?' I had a beautiful woman approach me in the college gymnasium and exclaim, 'You have the most beautiful red skin.' I took a friend to see Dances with Wolves and was told, 'Your people have a beautiful culture.' . . . I made many lifelong friends at college, and they supported but also challenged me with questions like, 'Why should Indians have reservations?'"

What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers-or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matter-of-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what's up with Indians, anyway.

White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 26, 2017
ISBN9781541477384
Author

Anton Treuer

Anton Treuer,/strong>, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, is the author of Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask and thirteen other books on Ojibwe history and language.

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Reviews for Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask

Rating: 4.260000122666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Touched on many topics that Non-Natives should know. Natives are real, yo!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This excellent book was full of well-presented information that challenged the stereotypes and mistaken beliefs about natives in the US. I learned so much that I had never heard or read before. I was outraged by the litany of injustices done to Indians during the US government’s campaign of genocide against our country’s first inhabitants. I was very pleased that there were suggestions at the end of the book about how to be of help to native people and groups. This kind of information is often lacking.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a great read and a good introductory text into the topic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Does what it says on the tin, really, with the book set up with frequently asked questions (asked of Treuer at his speaking engagements, I gather) and his considered answers, grouped into chapters by theme. Very occasionally a little dry, but mostly fascinating, well-written, and wonderfully educational. My only quibble would be that sometimes I knew so little that I didn't even understand the questions, and I think in almost every instance Treuer could have eliminated resulting confusions with one or two sentences of simple explanation before going into his lengthier, detailed answers. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a primer of sorts, aimed at helping white Americans to "understand, rather than imagine" their native fellow citizens. Presented in a Q & A format, based on the author's public appearances with the same goal, it is easy to take it in small bites for better processing. Although it did not really tell me everything I'd like to know about Native American culture and history (there are at least 50 books in my catalog tagged "Native American" and reading ALL of those would not fulfill that need), it is a good jumping off place for further reading. It covers a lot of ground in a generalized way, from the arrival of Europeans on the North American Continent to the politics of the reservation in the 21st century, and offers a suggested reading list for deeper exploration of what it means to be Indian.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a very interesting book set up in a question and answer format, with major chapter headings of topics. I found the voice of Treuer to be persuasive and generally non-combative, although the Indians as a whole have quite a bit to complain and be angry about. I believe that Treuer's vision is one of mutual understanding, respect, and growth. There were some topics that Treuer persuaded me on, such as the retention of cultural customs, especially tribal language. I also was persuaded about naming, how it is important to consider and respect what a group prefers to be called. I also am thinking about the custom of sports teams that have Indian mascots and such. This is a complex situation, especially when there is divergence of opinion in the local tribes (for example, I understand that the Ute tribe is comfortable with the University of Utah using the Utes as their mascot).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anton Treuer takes on a variety of questions that people outside of the American Indian / Native American community may be wondering but don't want to ask. He breaks it down by topic (terminology, politics, education, etc.) and in question-and-answer format takes on a variety of topics from "What terms are most appropriate in talking about North America's first people?" to "What's the real story about Columbus?" to casinos and language/culture.As I think almost any book in a Q&A format will be, this is a mixed bag. Some questions and their answers were perfect - I was most interested in the terminology and history sections - some were things I already knew, and others were questions that I never would have thought to ask, or at least wouldn't have phrased in the way he does ("Do all Indians have drinking problems?" or "Why do Indians have so many kids?"). He states in the Introduction that, of course, he cannot speak for all Indians, some answers would be heavily influenced by the fact that he is most familiar with Ojibwe culture, and he sometimes will give his opinion. It was obvious when it was opinion, and it's obvious that keeping language and culture alive is really important to him. Which brings me to the next difficulty with the format, and that is the repetitive nature of it. Sometimes to fully answer a question - especially if a reader is picking up and reading only the sections most pressing to him/her - he had to repeat what he'd said in another one, and when he does so it's often verbatim or close to it. Lastly, though he did a thorough job or including books and other resources to check out for more information and really good end notes, I was completely flummoxed by one issue. On page 138, he quotes the superintendent of a Pennsylvania boarding school for native children, Captain Richard Henry Pratt, as saying: "Our goal is to kill the Indian in order to save the man." Appalled by such a statement, I looked up the end note to find "Captain Richard Henry Pratt, as cited on Wikipedia." As a reference librarian who, admittedly, uses Wikipedia as a starting point, this really bothers me to see as the end note in a published text. I tested to see if I could get a more reputable source, and it's not hard: the Wikipedia entry now (I do want to note that the book was published in 2012 and looking at the Wikipedia entry today, the source is noted as accessed in 2014, so the entry has changed from when he looked) has a link to NPR that has a more thorough quote, with context, that is in fact worded "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." This is from a speech in 1892, and it bothers me to know that with a little quick research I could find a better source than he did. Granted, it doesn't change the meaning behind it, but to include it in direct quotes and have it slightly off and cited by Wikipedia makes me just a little uneasy about taking his word for other answers, and giving this book a wholehearted recommendation without a caveat. Perhaps Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask should be more of a starting point and introduction to the topic, but if you're really interested in more detail follow it up with more research and check his facts. It certainly covers a lot of topics broadly, and leaves you the resources to continue learning.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The author did a fairly good job of answering questions about Indians. As someone who spends a lot of time around Navajos, it was interesting to read the perspective of these issues from someone from another tribe.