Rating: 
Summary: Could not put it down
Review: Every so often, a book comes along that really begs the reader to question his or her belief system, and how those beliefs became a part of their personality. It is often difficult to find a bird's eye view of the subtle idiosyncracies of the average everyday white american lifestyle. Often it takes a foreign perspective, much like DeToqueville's Democracy in America, to comment on what is really going on socially, politically, and economically in a certain place.Kent Nerburn eloquently relays the teachings and stories of the Old Man in Neither Wolf Nor Dog in this sort of way. From the perspective of an elderly Native American, I was able to partially understand why there is such a gap between Native America and the rest of the country in terms of communal relations, and even everyday interaction. Much of this is due to the mystification of Native America through Hollywood films and frontier novels written by romanticizing white writers. White America doesn't really understand what it is really like on reservations, and can't possibly comprehend what it is actually like for a population that deals with it's painful history every second of every day; a people lamenting the loss of their ancestoral lands, way of life, and culture. Nerburn uses the Old Man's narrative to help explain what goes on in the mind of many Native Americans, and how Native America really views the capitalist white society's dealings with race, the environment, history, family, interaction with one another, and employment, among others. In my view, this is the most valuable portion of the book, and the section from which I gained the most perspective. In sometimes complex, but often quite simple terms, the Old Man offers commentary on the roots of our value system, which, after reading his description of our culture, seems very selfish, ignorant, arrogant, and at some times, preposterous. The dichotomy between the two cultures helps to bridge a gap between our two very different, yet forever interwined cultures. Much like Saul Bellow's Seize the Day, this book deals with a very painful subject: genocide. In Bellow's novella, the topic was the Holocaust; in Nerburn's, the decimation of the Native population of this country. Both touch on the same theme, the inability to move forward as a human race without acknowledging, understanding, and finally accepting the tragedy and horror inflicted upon our fellow man by our ancestors. Only then can we hope to truly live as one people, sharing one land, accepting eachother as brothers and sisters in a world blessed with differences. I recommend this book to anyone searching for answers, anyone plagued by a feeling they can't quite explain, and anyone who wishes to better themselves by finally asking the questions about human existence that couldn't be more important.
Rating:
Summary: A Change in Perspective
Review: Every so often, a book comes along that really begs the reader to question his or her belief system, and how those beliefs became a part of their personality. It is often difficult to find a bird's eye view of the subtle idiosyncracies of the average everyday white american lifestyle. Often it takes a foreign perspective, much like DeToqueville's Democracy in America, to comment on what is really going on socially, politically, and economically in a certain place. Kent Nerburn eloquently relays the teachings and stories of the Old Man in Neither Wolf Nor Dog in this sort of way. From the perspective of an elderly Native American, I was able to partially understand why there is such a gap between Native America and the rest of the country in terms of communal relations, and even everyday interaction. Much of this is due to the mystification of Native America through Hollywood films and frontier novels written by romanticizing white writers. White America doesn't really understand what it is really like on reservations, and can't possibly comprehend what it is actually like for a population that deals with it's painful history every second of every day; a people lamenting the loss of their ancestoral lands, way of life, and culture. Nerburn uses the Old Man's narrative to help explain what goes on in the mind of many Native Americans, and how Native America really views the capitalist white society's dealings with race, the environment, history, family, interaction with one another, and employment, among others. In my view, this is the most valuable portion of the book, and the section from which I gained the most perspective. In sometimes complex, but often quite simple terms, the Old Man offers commentary on the roots of our value system, which, after reading his description of our culture, seems very selfish, ignorant, arrogant, and at some times, preposterous. The dichotomy between the two cultures helps to bridge a gap between our two very different, yet forever interwined cultures. Much like Saul Bellow's Seize the Day, this book deals with a very painful subject: genocide. In Bellow's novella, the topic was the Holocaust; in Nerburn's, the decimation of the Native population of this country. Both touch on the same theme, the inability to move forward as a human race without acknowledging, understanding, and finally accepting the tragedy and horror inflicted upon our fellow man by our ancestors. Only then can we hope to truly live as one people, sharing one land, accepting eachother as brothers and sisters in a world blessed with differences. I recommend this book to anyone searching for answers, anyone plagued by a feeling they can't quite explain, and anyone who wishes to better themselves by finally asking the questions about human existence that couldn't be more important.
Rating:
Summary: Neither Wolf Nor Dog
Review: Finally, a book about indians that tells it the way it was and the way it is today. At first I thought Old Dan was full of BS. But the more I read the more I knew he was speaking the truth. I was truely sad when I reached the last page of the book, I wanted it to go on forever.
Rating:
Summary: And the Pain Goes On
Review: I felt so guilty after reading this excellent book. I am one of those people Dan has such contempt for - a white person drawn to Indian philosophies and spirituality. To my shame, I have read books by those Native Americans who try to package Indian beliefs for the whites and, worse, books by white writers claiming to have native mentors. In fact, I was about to choose yet another of these books from the bookshelf when I picked up "Neither Wolf Nor Dog" instead. I now feel like burning all those other books.
Kent Nerburn shows immense sensitivity in the way that he handles his growing relationships with the Native Americans, and I felt for him as he began to take on more and more of the white guilt personally. The Lakota elder, Dan, is indeed one of life's philosophers and all of the "monologues" that he delivers to Nerburn are full of thought provoking truisms. For example, his thoughts on the differences between how much talking Whites and Indians do:
"Our elders were schooled in the ways of silence and they passed that along to us. Watch, listen, and then act...That is the way to live.
....With you it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the kids who talk the most in school. In your work you are always having meetings where everyone interrupts everyone else... You say it is working out a problem. To us it just sounds like a bunch of people saying anything that comes into their heads and then trying to make what they say come around to soemthing that makes sense."
Having sat in a lot of business meetings, this really hit home!
It was naive of me not to realise that there were still so many differences between the whites and the Native Americans, but this book really brings it home - there are still issues today, over and above the sharp fact that there was so much tragedy and injustice in the past still to grieve about.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a real interest, not just in the facts of the past, but in understanding how Native Americans think today.
Rating:
Summary: Every school and every university should teach this book
Review: I just read this for a class at Michigan State University. I never thought much about Indians before this class. This book told me more than any book I've ever read. When I'm a teacher I'm going to make every student read this book. I don't care what class it is. I wish I would have read it in high school. Now I wish every student in the university had to read it. If you are a teacher now, make your students read this book if you are studying Indians or minorities. It is the best book ever on the subject. I read it with Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. Those two are the best. That's the truth if you want to know what a student thinks. Every student in the class read it even those who don't read anything. Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Great read on American Indian History.
Review: I read this book and couldn't put it down. I'm part indian, but unlike what Dan said.....It was my great grandfather. And it wasn't Cherokee, it was Ottawa. My grandmother always told me that the white people treated the indians terrible. And this book was a eye opener to what really happened. Those that think it wasn't a good book....well that is your opinion. But I'll bet you've never been exposed to any predjudice. Being white gives us many things that others don't have. What I enjoyed most out of this book was when Dan said, " You came to this country because you really wanted to be like us. But when you got here you got scared and tried to build the same cages you had run away from. If you had listened to us instead of trying to convert us and kill us, what a country this would be." Makes you really think doesn't it? Like a previous reviewer....my book will stay in my library for many years. And God Bless the teacher that used this book in her class. We need to understand something before we can fix it. Maybe Nerburn's book will be the starting point.
Rating: 
Summary: Which tail is wagging which wolf?
Review: I was unable to get a focused "world view" from of the main characters of this book. For example, the author views a Park Service roadside plaque about the Lakota and declares he saw "the living belief of a people reduced to a placard.... named, framed, incarcerated...) Maybe so, but is that so much different than researching, composing, titling, pitching, selling, publishing, promoting, advertising, and retailing a book about Indians? If not, is he really going to "place this book before you, like the tobacco before the Buffalo Rock, as a simple offering." like he says in the introduction?
Dan's own perspective of his world view is certainly clear, to himself that is. He sees everything as absolute, unless his own agendas require otherwise. For instance, he stands firmly behind a hands-off policy when it comes to natural resources, unless he wants to drive somewhere. But what really throws me is an Indian, a tribal elder no less, asking a white man to hide him, to "cover my tracks, as if I am being hunted" Granted, nobody said he was perfect and besides, he's got everyone so cowed, it really doesn't matter anyways. Oh wait... is he being a trickster? That sly old fox! Too bad the joke is on him as his published nuggets of cultural wisdom are widely embraced and profited upon by white-owned publishing corporations and "new age" practitioners alike. And don't forget about the film thats in the works!
Rating:
Summary: Great read on American Indian History.
Review: I'm Lakota from Paha Sapa. I think the people who want to know if this book is true are all white people. I don't care if everything in it happened. It is true. That's how we were raised. We tell stories that have our truth. I think Dan taught Nerburn this. There are clues. It is very smart like an Indian. Nerburn couldn't make these things up. There is an Indian telling this story. I think the old man was a trickster. He knew how to make wasichu crazy. Nerburn did a good job. This is how the world looks to us. You should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Mystery Tour
Review: Life on a Rez as seen through the eyes of different people can be quite enlightening, as can a journey over time and space. In today's world we carry presumptions, and bias that blind and inhibit without any awareness. Here is a quest to dispell that blindness so that a true book may be written. Always interesting, full of fun and good humor and lots of wisdom. An excellent grounding book! Here's to you, Ben, and Grover! You definitely are not "Neither Wolf Nor Dog."
Rating:
Summary: Like jumping into an glacier fed mountain stream...
Review: This book is not only some of the most absolutely delicious writing I have ever found, but the content was truly ephiphany. Having lived for many years in a community that was filled with Native People, I always had the eerie feeling that I was somehow disingenuous when I was with them, (but couldn't quite figure out why). After reading this, I now understand. I cried all over the book, and belly laughed out loud. If white Americans are ever to hope for forgiveness for the gaping wounds and scars left by what the European people did to the Native People on this continent, we are first going to have to fully understand what happened, and then own the stinging, horrible truth of our ancestors, and our continuing racism. It comes to us, bitterly and sweetly, from the mouth of a Lakota elder, his friends and family, through the courageous pen and heart of Kent Nerburn. The last time I read a book that had as much impact on me as this one, it was Stienbeck's "Grapes of Wrath".
|
