The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) selected John Gritts (Cherokee) as the male Elder of the Year at its annual meeting in San Diego in October 2010. After working in Indian education for nearly 40 years, Gritts is well known in the tribal college community. He worked at Black Hills State University from 1973 until (more)
Non-Native faculty and students travel seek cultural immersions at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation and community college. “We leave the rigid academic paradigms of our linear non-Indigenous university and enter another universe…”
By Eileen Luna-Firebaugh University of Arizona Press (2007) Review by Michael W. Simpson Professor Eileen Luna-Firebaugh’s experience with tribal courts and policing are revealed in this book, along with her academic work. Law students and lawyers wanting to know more about tribal jurisdiction and how to advise tribal authorities will find it useful. It should (more)
Edited by Roger L. Nichols University of Oklahoma Press (2008) Review by Bradley Shreve Roger L. Nichols’s classic book, The American Indian: Past and Present, has been in use since the first edition appeared in 1971. Now in its sixth edition, Nichols’s book remains as relevant as ever. Much of the reason is because Nichols (more)
By Frank Pommersheim Oxford University Press (2009) Review by Michael W. Simpson In a previous book, Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life (1995), Frank Pommersheim provided an inside-out view of federal Indian law. In Broken Landscapes, he provides an outside-in look at what has gone wrong within federal Indian law at (more)
By David R. Roediger Verso (2008) Review by Michael W. Simpson With current claims of a post-racial United States and the increasing use of colorblind racism by a power elite, this book comes at an important time. It reminds us that while “the Cadillac of white supremacy has undergone centuries of model changes,” there have (more)
By Gregory E. Smoak University of California Press (2006) Review by Bradley Shreve When most of us think of the Ghost Dance, we invariably conjure up images of the Lakota and the massacre at Wounded Knee on that cold December day in 1890. Gregory Smoak’s recent book, Ghost Dances and Identity, shows that the religious (more)
By Mark Dowie MIT Press (2009) Review by Dr. James J. Garrett This book investigates and documents the role that international conservation groups play in designating global “ecological hotspots” and then in some cases effecting removal of the original inhabitants to create so-called “protected areas.” Mark Dowie illustrates how fortress conservation, the total exclusion of (more)
By Eric Gansworth Milkweed Press (2010) Review by Ryan Winn Eric Gansworth’s fourth novel, Extra Indians, opens with Vietnam veteranturned- truck driver, Tommy Jack McMorsey, and his ill-fated attempt to help a misguided Japanese tourist survive her quest to find the lost treasure of the film, Fargo. The consequences of Tommy Jack’s helpfulness lead to (more)
Despite the chill still in the air—and the snows occasionally falling—spring will soon be calling. So get ready to head into the forests and plains to harvest. You can find the fixings for a simple green salad – wild lettuce, sow thistle and dandelions—or else search out nettles and wild game. Whatever your preference, there are (more)
