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Summary: On the Rez book review
Review: The book On the Rez is a good book to read. I think that everyone who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation should read it. The first couple chapters may have been kinda boring but as you reach the middle and the end, the book just makes you want to read it some more and you don't know when to stop. I like how he talked about his friend Le War Lance. The author met Le in a street in New York City. Le was kinda crazy, he went to jail. My favorite chapter in the book was chapter 12. That chapter was about SuAnne Big Crow. I liked the part were he wrote that the basketball team was get ready to play a game and the team ws coming out to warm-up, as they were runnin around the gym SuAnne stopped in the middle of the court and threw the ball to her coach and took off her warm-up jacket and started to dance with it. Everyone was silent, listening to her sing a Lakota song, then she grabbed the ball out of her coaches hand and ran a lap around the gym and made a layup and the crowd went wild.
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Summary: One of the best books to date
Review: The author had to have really been there to know so many people from the Pine Ridge Rez. The last names weren't made up like most authors would in a book. Everything he writes is true though I've heard of a few of the people he names. I myself am from the rez and know some of the roads he travels on and what locations he refers to.
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Summary: Inside/Outside
Review: I approached this book with some trepidation when I learned that Frazier was not a Rez "insider" (i.e., not a resident and not a Native American). I was more than pleasantly surprised with Frazier's account. He provides an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the people and systems he encounters -- he does not whitewash the problems on the reservation, and locates blame not only with the US government and American racial ideology, but also (when appropriate) with individuals and groups on the reservation. However, he does not claim omniscience nor purport to speak "for" Native Americans; the reader is aware that she is reading his (informed) views, not The One Truth. While the situation on the rez is in many ways appalling, the book also shows the resilience of individuals, families and groups who live there. Frazier's self-consciousness about his own limitations as Le's friend is also refreshing. The book is well worth reading for the light it sheds on American history and current social problems and race relations.
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Summary: Flawed but Worthwhile
Review: Frazier's exploration of life on the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is riddled with flaws, but ultimately the good outweighs the bad and makes this a narrative worth reading. A major problem is one of organization--the book reads like one long, unedited magazine piece. Frazier attempts to shape the book around his friendship with Le War Lance (who is shown in his full spectrum from nasty drunk to generous friend), using that friendship as an entry point to exploring life on the reservation. Using is a key word here because unlike other travel narratives or anthropological narratives I've read, Frazier is an admitted "wanna-be" and it gets hard to ignore his function as an ATM, dispensing $20 bills hither and yon on the reservation, to keep on every one's good side. To a certain degree, the book is also about Ian Frazier, and what he's looking for--and much of the problems in the book seem to stem from his switching back and forth from an involved, emotional voice, to more distanced, documentary reportage. I kept wishing he'd just stick with one or the other, and get on with it. On a more basic level, the writing is pretty uneven, paragraphs often do not logically lead into one another and narrative momentum is often totally lost as his digressions spin out of control. On the other hand, the good bits are quite good. Most notably, one whole 50+ page section on teenage basketball star SuAnne War Crow hits on all cylinders, staying on track to hit the reader right in the gut as a human story while encapsulating broader issues of racism and inter-Indian rivalries. On a broader level, Frazier presents a nicely balanced overview of problems facing modern Indian societies today, problems not dissimilar to those of the inner-city: hopelessness and boredom coupled with poverty and abysmal health care, and the corollaries of alcohol and drugs, gangs, guns. While he dismisses the word "bleak" as having lost all meaning in its overuse with regard to life on the reservation, by the end, it's a word that's hard to escape. He uses history (somewhat haphazardly and perfunctorily) to remind us of past and recent injustices--rightfully heaping scorn on U.S. Government policies. But his goal is not so much to write history as it is to get the reader to a place beyond dry facts, and beyond the "Noble Savage" or "Drunk Injun" stereotypes. For all it's flaws, his candid portrayal of life on the reservation is unflinching and in the end, Frazier has no prescriptions or solutions.
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Summary: A Significant Read
Review: In the spectrum of stereotypes of native american persons, there is at one end the image of the proud, stoic indian and at the opposite there is the image of the long-suffering indian living in a bleak landscape of poverty. This novel goes well beyond those stereotypes to fill in the vast landscape that lies between and offers a frank view of life for the Oglala Sioux today. With unblinking honesty, Ian Frazier documents the beauty and pain, the triumph as well as the tragedy in the lives of the people he meets "on the rez" and a culture that, despite predictions to the contrary, is not disappearing anytime soon.
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Summary: Sweet&Sour
Review: I found On the Rez both sweet and sour. The story about Sueann Big Crow was great -- should be made into a movie! But all the comments by people after you learned she had died in a senseless accident is overkill. I liked the book but found that I had to convince myself to keep going during the first third to half of it. Finally Le's story got interesting and I got hooked. Would have preferred a format that separated the running commentary on history, sociology, and politics from the stories about real people. I would have read both but would have read the people stories first. Still, I highly recommend that those interested in reading a real slice about modern day Sioux life read the book. Ned Hamson
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Summary: Good insight as to what life is like on and off the rez
Review: Ian Frazier does a good job in describing his daily life interacting with the people at Pine Ridge. Since I have been there I am able to relate to several things throughout the book. However, the description of several of the historical Indian events seem to get drawn out and monotonous. Since I was already aware of the history it was nothing new to me, but another reader may deem it worthy. I especially enjoyed the story about SuAnne. People should read this book in order to get insight to another culture that lives in poverty in the U.S. and how they get by in their day to day lives.
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Summary: Interested in Contemporary Indians? There Are Better Books.
Review: Choose LAKOTA WOMAN or WALKING THE REZ ROAD. Choose PLAYING INDIAN. Choose LAST STANDING WOMAN or THE SCALPEL AND THE SILVER BEAR. These books are deeply true and born of great experience, unlike Mr. Frazier's.
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Summary: Why is Pine Ridge the poorest community in the US?
Review: Pine Ridge is famous not only because of its courageous people, the Lakota, but also because of its poverty. Ian Frazier acknowledges that it is "bleak" and at one point is overwhelmed by the violence and suffering he has seen or heard about. However, he never tried to find out why there is such poverty, was it always so and how the problem might be solved. Obviously, this book is not intended as a sociological treatise but it is not a good portrait of the community. There are a lot of reasons for the "bleakness" and they are directly related to the policy of forced assimilation that the US government has pursued. Had it dealt honorably with the Indian nations, Le War Lance would not be looking for handouts from Mr. Frazier and the reservations would be far from bleak.
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Summary: Good job, Ian...
Review: Chick Big Crow called me a few years back and asked me if I would speak to someone interested in doing a book on SuAnne. I'm constantly apprehensive of how authors portray the reservation, but decided to at least meet Mr. Frazier & visit with him. He came up to my Elementary Library and we began the first of many enjoyable conversations about SuAnne. Ian was so very interested in all of our experiences and stories about SuAnne. Most of the people in South Dakota were aware of her but I am so happy that her story is being revived for others to discover, through this book. One of the local sports writers gave me a 13x20 black & white photograph of her getting ready to make a free throw. I had it mounted & framed in the school colors and it hangs over the door in the library. Each February, I show the SuAnne video to all the classes so that she will not be forgotten by the younger students who were too little to know her. As Char Zimiga has said, "You don't know which of these little ones will be the next SuAnne." I was quite impressed with the research done and learned things about the area that I didn't know. Reading the book brought back all the happy times for a bit. Thank you, Ian, for a job well done.
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