Unconquered

Walter R. Echo-Hawk, a hero of persistence and one of the most thoughtful and engaging of writers, takes on the 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided in the book I am reading now. In the Courts of the Conqueror is written with such passion, wit, and candor that I literally can't put this book down. Even though it is heavy. True, it is painful to come to terms with the truth about what happens in the court system, particularly the Supreme Court. It is even more difficult to resist the flow of history and precedent and re-imaging a society based on justice. Patricia N. Limerick says in her introduction that this book is "an effective challenge to the fatalistic school of history." As such, while reading it you may be outraged and startled -- but the fact that it, and the writer, exist and fight on gives one hope. Plus, a fascinating read.

Nobody but Gerald Vizenor could write the words "cosmoprimitive casino series", or "mongrel driving schools", or describe the Band Box Diner and capture with such skewed energy what it means to be an Indian, an Anishinaabe, a human being on and off the White Earth Reservation here in Minnesota. Shrouds of White Earth is another wildly laudable work by our master ironist. A meditation on Native Art, Marc Chagall, George Morrison, The Gallery of Irony Dogs, and too much else to mention, this book is a small feast just in time for our favorite holiday -- whatever else happened on that fateful pilgrim afternoon I am thankful for Visioner, I mean Vizenor.

Can you take The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book? It isn't funny, and the pictures are brutal, but that's the real history and Gord Hill tells it in quick takes. This book is packed with information and particularly valuable for the information on resistence in British Columbia at Ts'peten and at Aazhoodena.

Lyrical, moving, quiet and profound, the photographs taken by John Willis on Pine Ridge are that rare artifact -- art that increases the dignity and beauty of the subject while remaining honest. Mr. Willis spent many years visiting and revisiting the people and places he photographed. There is a clear, deep love in many of these images. Views from the Reservation is a large photography book, a collection, but you wouldn't put it on your coffee table. I carry my copy from place to place in the house because even the endpapers provoke meditation.