On The Rez

Rating:
Summary: Great Reading for Young and Old Alike
Review: I find it hard to add anything new to what other reviewers have already posted. I bought the book because I visited Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee in 1974 and was curious what this author would have to say. The more I read the book the more enjoyable it became. Indians are often neglected when the subject of poverty comes up, but Ian Frazier brings it realistically to life in his book On The Rez. Also, we often don't think of Indians when the subject of racism comes up, but the story of SuAnne Big Crow prior to a high school basketball game in Lead, South Dakota, was very inspiring. It's too bad her life was cut short. She had so much to offer this country and she planned on using her talents home at Pine Ridge. This is a book I plan on donating to our high school library so other girls her age can benefit from her experiences. I know SuAnne would appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: A visit to a foreign land, right here in the USA
Review: Having worked for a few weeks on one of the Sioux Indian reservations in South Dakota, I thought this would be a great book to add to my own experiences and was not disappointed. Mr Frazier gives some excellent, if flimsily documented, summaries of the gifts that Native Americans have given to the US (including large parts of our concepts of individual rights and freedom), another creative highlighting of the history of Native American life in America, and some ideas on the current status of Native Americans (his discussions of the real effects of casinos is worth the price of the book). Mr Frazier also relates his recent experiences visiting the Pine Ridge community, and gives a reasonably good and well-told picture of the current third-world status of this particular reservation. He does not paint the typical bleak picture of reservation life, however -- many of his characters are wonderful people, they provide us with an interesting story, and not everything about their lives is grim. Mr Frazier is, however, depressingly realistic about the poor chances for much progress in the Native American situation, given (among other things) their high rates of alcoholism and dysfuntional families and their exasperating reluctance to take responsibility. Mr Frazier uses one phrase in his book which sums up the attitudes many of his characters have : "I'll repay you when I get my Black Hills money" (referring to the insistence that America should fulfill the Black Hills treaties)-- in other words, don't expect the payback anytime soon. This also seems to express the attitude that America must first give the Native Americans what is due them before they will make any meaningful change. Of course, I agree with Mr Frazier that the greater American community needs to honor its treaties and increase its involvement and funding, but that is not going to be a sufficient first step.

I gave the book four rather than five stars because although Mr Frazier gives us some wonderfully interesting information he does not provide very much quantification or documentation for them (many of his anecdotes are based on secondary sources, and I would hate to rely on many of his anecdotes during a serious discussion at a bar or at a forum). Granted, many of the original statistics probably no longer exist, but this much good and interesting information deserves the backup. If you are not the kind of reader who needs that much documentation than it may be a five-star book for you.

Rating:
Summary: A Glimpse at a Bad Situation
Review: I originally bought this book for my wife who is Native American. I had read "Great Plains" by Ian Frazier and so I knew about his love of this area. That book was also an introduction to one of the two main characters in "On the Rez"; Le War Lance. After she finished reading it, my wife said she didn't care too much to read a white man writing about Indians. It was a while before I got around to reading it and formulating my own opinion.

Having just finished it, I give this book a very good (but not outstanding) rating. Although it meandered somewhat aimlessly for awhile (was this to give us a flavor of life on "the Rez"?), the book finds a purpose and finishes strong. Essentially the saving grace of this book is the contrast it gives us of Le War Lance and his crowd and SuAnne Big Crow and her crowd. In the former, we sense the dead end life style that seems to take no prisoners. In the latter, we see the greatness that seems to rise from the ashes. In the former; dispair, in the latter; hope. Although the heroine dies a tragic death (don't worry, this isn't giving anything away), the hope continues to grow. The author, Ian Frazier, brings this out without disrespecting either side. He does show occassional disrespect for others in surrounding areas, however.

A great question that should face all of America is what, if anything, to do about Indian reservations. On the one hand, they tend to strike non-Indians as a one-way road to nowhere. On the other hand, the very thought of eliminating them for the purpose of assimulation would create an understandable furor. After all, we've already taken just about everything else away from them. Somehow, just letting things be with the various assistance programs that now exist seems to be an easy way to ignore a problem of societal neglect. Ian Frazier offers no solutions. As he mentions in his book, no Indians asked him for one. However, he does give a good glimpse at the extent of the "problem". His story about SuAnne also gives us a glimpse at where the real solution lies; leadership from within rather than policies from without.

After I finished "On the Rez" I asked my wife again about her thoughts on the book. After hearing a repeat of her complaint about a white man writing about Indians, she acknowledged that what really bothered her was that so many readers would come away with a slanted view on reservation life. Pine Ridge is the bottom of the barrel as far as Indian reservations go. I'm sorry if that sentence offends anyone but I couldn't think of a better way to put it. She's right, though. Life on other reservations would have given a brighter picture. Still, there are elements of the problems shown in this book in most reservations that I'm acquainted with. The fact that they're less severe doesn't make them disappear.

Sociologists have written many books on the subject. Ian Frazier has put a human face on it and that has made the situation much more understandable.

Rating:
Summary: A Touching, Gritty, Eye-Opening Read
Review: ON THE REZ will touch your heart with getting to know some of the Oglala Sioux who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It will also make you angry with the cold, hard facts of what the U.S. Government did to an indigenous people and their lands, and open your eyes to what day-to-day life is really like for some of our Native American brothers. Ian Frazier's smooth writing style belies some of the stories that he relates, but, at the same time, he pulls you into Pine Ridge until you can taste the dust and feel its desolation. But so too can you learn about a proud people, and no amount of hard truth can erase their inherent dignity. A suggestion to all of our Junior and Senior High School teachers: buy Frazier's book, and read the story of SuAnne Big Crow to your students. Show them the likes of a true American hero, one who is their own age. We could, and should, all learn from her. Mitakuye Oyasin.

Rating:
Summary: A realistic and inspiring book
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Native Americans, their culture, history, and present day reservation life in general. He skillfully jumps from journalistic reporting to historical analysis; from personal reflections to objective discussion of present reservation issues; and from inspiring stories of pride and heroism to depressing looks at the plight of present-day Native society. He takes inspiration from the bravery of old and new Sioux heroes, some famous like Crazy Horse, and others who should be more famous like high school basketball star SuAnne Big Crow. Intertwined with this is a frank and gritty description of the death, poverty, alcoholism, despair, and political division which characterizes reservation life today. He uses both obvious and minute details of Pine Ridge Reservation to accurately convey these realities to the reader. I recently visited many of the places Frazier described last summer, but not until reading his book did I get real feel for the significance of what I was looking at. In other words, I looked at places like Wounded Knee, White Clay, NE, and Downtown Pine Ridge as I passed through with mixed emotions. Frazier SAW these same places with similar emotions, but added tremendously to the scope and magnitude of my emotions after I was back home. The mark of a truly great author if you asked me! I fully intend to go back to Pine Ridge with a more balanced, informed, and broader perspective thanks to Mr. Frazier, and I'm sure most other readers will be inspired to go there as well.

Rating:
Summary: Review of On the Rez
Review: When one looks back upon Native American history, one would see over an eon of war, fighting, and conflict. One would also see a people who, as a whole, were oppressed and killed once European settlers arrived on the North American continent. What would follow the introduction of the European was almost half an eon of slaughter, disease, and persecution. On The Rez, by Ian Frazier, shows the Native American on reservations in present day. Specifically, Frazier looks at the tribe Oglala Sioux who live in South Dakota, and his friend Le. Being up front from the beginning, Frazier claims that the purpose of his book is to show that Native American life is not bleak, but instead full of life and full of the struggle to retain the Native American culture and pride. Frazier also claims that he wishes to be a Native American, though he knows this is impossible. While on some levels Frazier shows his belief that Native American's do not live bleak lives, in most ways, Frazier shows the opposite, that Native American life on reservations is not only bleak, but stagnant and dying.

Frazier, with the exception of being unable to prove his point, is a brilliant writer. His book, On The Rez, is written in a chronological fashion and follows all the guidelines of a non-fiction novel. While the material he presents is serious, the manner in which he portrays it entices the reader to continue reading, and allows the reader to subtlety come to terms with the broader picture of reservation life. Rather than attempt to show the reader the mindset of Le, Floyd John, and a host of other Native American's, Frazier simply relates his experiences and the stories others have told him. This allows the reader to feel as though he/she were present with Frazier during the events. While occasionally Frazier will give his opinions, the reader is usually left to come to his/her own conclusions. This style of writing, while admirable, has one major downfall; the reader is able to form his or her own opinion, one that may be entirely contrary to what Frazier intended.

Frazier states, "The Oglala still produce heroes..." (19), but in truth, the heroes the Oglala produce are unable to pull the Oglala Sioux out of the misery and turmoil they live in. These heroes produced by the Oglala, specifically SuAnne Big Crow, tend to be brilliant bursts of light in an otherwise darkness. Throughout the book, Frazier constantly comments on how often he encounters alcohol on the reservation. Without exception, whenever Frazier is with Le, alcohol is involved, usually a great deal of beer. While Frazier never states that this rampant alcoholism is a problem, he does belief that alcohol is a problem with Native Americans as a whole. This is shown in chapter seven, when Frazier describes White Clay by stating, "Even at 9:30 in the morning, White Clay effervesces and boils as if acid were eating it away." (125) The reader cannot help but be horrified at the utter chaos alcohol has caused on and around the reservation. From the enormous amount of alcohol induced fighting in White Clay to the constant alcohol related car accidents to the physical health maladies shown in Florence Cross Dog, alcohol has been the acid eating away at the Native American people.

On The Rez, according to Frazier, is an attempt to show Native American life as something other than bleak. In truth, the book shows an odd mixture of bleakness and hope. The book shows an interesting mixture of detrimental events, such as the death of SuAnne Big Crow, with heartfelt kindness, such as when Le proclaims Frazier his brother. More than anything, however, On The Rez paints a portrait of a people who, harmful though it may be, refuse to conform to anyone's idea of what they should be.
Personally, I enjoyed this book greatly. I found it to be hard to put down, and while I did not agree with Frazier on most of his points, I found his portrayal of Native American affairs to be accurate. Growing up near a reservation, and having many Native American friends as a youth, I am aware of their struggles. I am also aware of the intense desire to be a part of their lives, a desire Ian Frazier shares.

Rating:
Summary: Good but strange
Review: Frazier is a talented writer and there are some very moving passages in "On the Rez." But like some of his other books, this is a sort-of rambling patchwork without much of a unifying theme or narrative. He jumps around from one story about life on Pine Ridge to the next. And what caused me a little discomfort in reading this was Frazier's relationship with Le War Lance. They refer to each other as friends, but frankly, they seem more like two men who are using each other. From Le War Lance, Frazier gets "material" for his book and a certain amount of legitimacy as a visitor on the reservation. From Frazier, Le War Lance gets money to buy beer and auto parts, and free rides in Frazier's car. The facts that Frazier always stays in a motel when visiting the rez, and that he basically kicks Le out of his house when Le shows up unannounced & drunk on his doorstep one day, say something about the true nature of their relationship.

Rating:
Summary: Rambling and spontaneous, like rez life
Review: On the Rez by Ian Frazier. Highly recommended.

If you are looking for structure and pat solutions to contemporary Native American problems, you won't find them in On the Rez by Ian Frazier. Like the reservation life and stories it reveals, On the Rez is rambling and spontaneous.

Frazier uses his sometimes problematic friendship with Le War Lance, a Sioux from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota whom he meets in New York City, to explore Pine Ridge life today along with past and present injustices. Le seems to have no home, no permanent job, no wife, and no children. He does have family on the reservation-as well as a bottomless taste for inexpensive beer. Frazier recounts their many days spent together, whether it's watching TV while drinking beer, driving around the reservation looking for people, or facing a propane leak and potential explosion-and death. Frazier is genuinely fond of Le, but not of his drinking, and he repeatedly says how much easier it is to be around Le and his brother Floyd John once Floyd John undergoes rehab and gives up drinking. Alcoholism, diabetes, fatal car accidents, and more are part of day-to-day life on Pine Ridge.

Frazier also devotes several chapters to the life of SuAnne Big Crow, an Indian high school basketball star who led Pine Ridge's Lady Thorpes basketball team to a state championship and traveled to Europe and Australia as part of an Indian all-star team before her death in a car accident. SuAnne serves as a uniting force between Indians and their often-prejudiced white neighbors, between the lingering Red Cloud and Crazy Bull factions, and between American Indian Movement (AIM) traditionalists and "goon" progressives on the reservation. Through her athletic feats, fame, and sheer force of personality, she becomes bigger than life.

Between describing the day-to-day adventures he has with Le, Floyd John, and their family and friends and SuAnne's career and influence, Frazier turns to history in a broad sense to put life on the rez in perspective. He discusses the rivalry between Red Cloud and Crazy Horse (which lives today); the conflict between AIM, led by Dennis Banks and Russell Means, and then-tribal chief Dick Wilson and his "goons" (which Wilson turned into "Guardians of the Oglala Nation"); and the U.S. government's still-unresolved theft of the Black Hills from the Sioux. He covers topics as wide ranging as Iroquois history and Mohawks as high-rise construction workers to the storied past of famous Indian bars. He covers the rise of Indian casinos and their current status in legislative limbo.

While many Americans comfort themselves for the wrongs perpetrated against Indians-from physical violence and culture destruction to land theft-with the idea that the white man rescued the Indian from primitivism and stagnation, Frazier points out Native contributions to Europeans, such as a host of agricultural riches (failing to mention the medicinal wonders being mined in South America by ethnobotanists such as Dr. Mark Plotkin).

More importantly, Indians passed on to settlers seeking escape from European political, religious, and economic tyranny their "all-around skepticism about who and who was not great" along with some basic principles of democracy. Today, however, Frazier says, "The freedom that inhered in Powhatan, that Red Cloud carried with him from the plains to Washington as easily as air-freedom to be and to say, regardless of disapproval-has become a luxury most of us can't afford." The Indian influence could not prevent the reinvention of Europe-"early American was European culture reset in an Indian frame." Frazier quote Thomas Jefferson: "It will be said, that great societies cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break them into small ones." Where Frazier errs is in being too broad-while the free-ranging Sioux of the plains valued individual freedom, less nomadic groups such as Powhatan's and the tribes of the Iroquois confederacy placed more emphasis on leadership. Powhatan's freedom was that of a leader, while Red Cloud's was that of a Sioux.

Today, there is Le War Lance, representing Trickster-cunning, dishonest, unpredictable, selfish, manipulative-a freedom-loving survivor. There is, or was until her death, the Indian hero SuAnne Big Crow, to whom nearly every inner-city and suburban teenager and adult alike can look-sports legend, academic star, role model for peers, and point of unity among a disparate people, even today through "Happytown, USA"-the SuAnne Big Crow Health and Recreation Center founded in her memory by her mother, Chick Big Crow.

Then there are the rest of the Sioux-struggling with poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, disease, and a host of social ills that cannot be fixed through this program or that legislation. They, like Le, are survivors.

I recommend that you read On the Rez in conjunction with American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings by Zitkala-Sa and edited with an introduction and notes by Cathy N. Davidson and Ada Norris. Zitkala-Sa was a turn-of-the-century Sioux educator, musician, writer, and activist who addressed many of the same issues Frazier raises-nearly 100 years ago.

Diane L. Schirf, 13 September 2003.

Rating:
Summary: Odd
Review: Ian Frazier starts the book in a promising fashion. He mentions how many writers romanticize American Indian Tribes. Then he proceeds to do the same. He presents many facts to demonstrate a wide knowledge of many tribes. After that the book just turns into another outsider trying to show us the workings of an Indian Tribe. Frazier also features his relationship with a member of the tribe who is a drunk and undependable. Then he spends a long section on the book on a teenage girl who was a basketball star on the reservation. I found his dewelling on her creepy. In the end I could see what Frazier meant to show us.

Rating:
Summary: A Rambling, Circuitous Story Riddled with Digressions
Review: This is not a bad book. It is an example of bad editing. The account of his friendship with Le is the common thread loosely binding these scattered stories and incidents into a comprehendible book. Although the book serves as a passable primer for someone with no knowledge of modern Indian conditions and past Indian history, for the most part it smacks of editing failure.

The most glaring example of Frazier's inconsequential digressions is when he delves into the explanation of the Stealth Bomber and why it is a poor aircraft. The anecdote, albeit interesting, is so out of place that the reader is left scratching their head. Later, in chapter 8, Fraizer delves into a diatribe about the AIM movement when paragraphs before he was touring western bars from Montana to North Dakota. That begs another question: What do non-reservation bars in Montana have to do with "The Rez". Again, in chapter 9, Frazier goes from speaking of guilt for the way he treated Le, to his car wreck, to looking for a tire, to a paragraph description of a Samuel Beckett book he read while his car was being repaired. At this point the less-patient reader might yell, "Where the hell was the editor for this chapter?"

One might argue that Frazier is just writing about what interests him. John McPhee has made a successful career writing about topics as varied as geology, history, engineering, and Russian art. The difference is McPhee mostly stays on topic for the entire book. Frazier may argue that such incidentals serve to flesh-out and give a sense of humanity to a story, a point which I completely agree with. But when digressions mount and become diatribes into inconsequential, half-related topics, they serve as filler and distraction and bore the reader who is begging the author to take them somewhere other than in circles.