Spirit and Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr. Reader

I find Mr. Deloria's writing to be very engaging. If you wish to learn more about Native American Culture and History you can do so with this book along with sharing in the emotional, psychological and spiritual foundation from which the the Native American people evolved.

Spirit & Reason is a collection of 29 essays, some old, some new, covering subjects related to religion, education, social science, philosophy, and other Native American issues. Vine Deloria Jr. is an accomplished, prolific,respected Native American author whose elegant writing style, flawless presentation, and use of irony, humour and intellectual analysis are effective and unmistakable. his is a formidable voice. Describing the complexities of Indian issues and related histories of oppressive government policies, Deloria never loses his concern to build a better vision. This is exemplified in "Alcatraz, Activism & Accommodation" when he suggests: "I favored announcing that not only did Indians want the island, we wanted a federal policy of land restoration that would provide a decent land base for small reservations, return submarginal lands to tribes that had them and in some cases, restore original reservation boundaries (p. 244)." After the occupation (of Alcatraz) ended, he concludes: "The policy posture of Indians at Alcatraz was part of a historical process begun during the War on Poverty when people demanded action from the government but failed to articulate the changes they wanted (p. 247)." He comments further:"Today the government, under Ada Deer, is at work trying to create a new set of categories -'historic' and 'nonhistoric' tribes - so that benefits and services can be radically reduced. When Indians do not articulate clearly what they want, the government feels free to improvise, even if it means creating new policies that have no roots in anything except the fantasies of the creator...Lkie the activists at Alcatraz, we often mill around, keenly aware that we have the ears of the public but uncertain what to do next. Until we can sketch out realistic scenarios of human and resource goals, we continue to resemble those occupants of the Rock a quarter of a century ago: We want change, but we do not know what change.(p. 248)" Thus the wisdom of Deloria informs us today of many issues and wrongs and sufferings of Native Americans while challenging both the dominant culture and Native Americans to find new ways to create better balanced full lives for Native Americans. Challenging, subtle, sophisticated, stimulating reading is here for all modern audiences whether activist or traditional, minority or majority. Clearly, Deloria should be required reading.Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer