Rating: 
Summary: Don't "Rez"ist it
Review: Frazier's book details the life of the Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge reservation. The story mixes past with present, as Frazier follows the life of his friend Le War Lance. He details the battles with alcoholism and racism that Native Americans face today. He also examines that hope that exists for these people living in desperate conditions.Most importantly the book is not boring while providing useful information. You can actually enjoy reading it and learn something useful in the process.
Rating:
Summary: The Rez
Review: I gave the book 4 stars because I liked the fact that Frazier apparently wrote what he
saw without remarking on whether what he saw, was in his opinion, good for the betterment
of the Oglala and the Pine Ridge Reservation.
I grew up very near a Sioux Reservation, but there was total separation between the Native
Americans and the 'town-folk.' I saw them walking along the road as Frazier descibes,
I saw them in town buying "fast-food" and liquor at the first of every month. I saw the abandoned
cars sitting along the highway - left where they quit- sometimes sitting there for many weeks before
they mysteriously disappeared. I saw the little children sitting on the curb on my small town Main Street
waiting for their parents to come out of the bars - (one full block at the end of Main Street was bars -
at least two of these catered mainly to the Native American population.)
I heard on a daily basis the negative remarks made by my community members - (my father
amongst the worst) about the people of the Reservation across the river.
Frazier gave me some insight as to what happens on
a daily basis on the reservation which was so close to me but might has well have been a foreign land.
However, contrary to his belief that life on the Reservations is not bleak, I found the book to show
a very bleak future for a group of people who seems to be waiting for someone or something
to fix their situation. They somehow seemed to see SuAnn as able to pull them up --
and when she died, they memorialized her and went back to waiting for someone or something
else.
Certainly an informative book -- but I read that last page, closed the book and wondered, "Will
the situation at Pine Ridge and other South Dakota Reservations change in my lifetime, and if so,
what will it take to make that change?" Frazier did not set out to answer this question and he doesn't.
Who will?
Rating:
Summary: close to home
Review: I grew in the Dakotas so this book brought back many memories. It's a good combination of Indian history and current conditions.
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 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: Interesting
Review: I purchased this book planning to write something involving Native Americans myself, mainly for research puposes. I thought it gave a very honest description - as much as an outsider can, anyhow - of what life is like on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The respect and esteem which Frazier holds the Oglala people in, and the delicateness with which he treats their lives in this narrative, reveal a gentle man who is genuinely perplexed and concerned with the problems of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Of course, he tries extremely hard not to be condescending, and I think he succeeds to the degree that, once again, an outsider can. He has shown a lot of guts writing about the Oglala Sioux, being white and taking on this subject, he has opened himself up for some nasty criticism. But his willingness to cross boundaries is also the strength of this book. As for "making up" the portion involving SuAnne , I have no idea what this "reviewer" is talking about. I have the book right here and have read the notes and by that account Frazier has used standard jounalistic practices - interviews, newspaper clippings - to research SuAnne's life.
Rating:
Summary: A visit to a foreign land, right here in the USA
Review: Like too many 'anglos' Mr. Frazier thinks he can get all his info about Indians through one interpreter -- in Mr. Frazier's case it's a boisterous (sic) drunk. There is so much more complexity of reservation life that Mr. Frazier refuses to ignore, or is just too naive to be aware of. Mr. Frazier is a modern day 'anthropologist' in the worst sense of the word -- carefully documenting social interactions of a couple of players, who in the end are hardly representative of a greater culture. That being said, I think that Mr. Frazier occasionally captures the mood and the hopelessness of the reservation. But to read the book, you would believe that there is little optimism or reason for living on the Rez. Mr. Frazier fails to capture the obsurd humor and in many cases the unfailing optimism that permeates the lives of the Indians he is observing. If you are looking for a better account of the 'modern Indian,' try Reservation Blue by Sherman Alexie.
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: 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: Odd
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.
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