Customer Reviews

Do All Indians Live in Tipis?: Questions and Answers from the National Museum of the American Indian

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I love this book! It should be in every history classroom in the United States! This book asks all the questions students ask when studying Native American history (and then some). Its question and answer format makes it accessible and easy to read. You can flip to the questions or sections that intrigue you - you don't have to read it in order.

The fact that each question is succinctly answered in a page or two will also appeal to junior high or high school students. There are eleven people from various tribes who contributed to the writing of the book. Finally, these critical questions are answered from a Native American perspective - yet still in a respectful way towards European-Americans.

The book covers basic information such as "What is the correct terminology: American Indian, Indian, Native American, or Native?" and then addresses more complex issues like, "What benefits do Indians receive from the U.S. Government." It also answers questions about Native American mascots, Hollywood actors and films, casinos, treaties, etc. In my opinion, they don't leave anything out.

Really, the only downside to the book is that because they cover so much, each topic can only be discussed to a certain extent. Yet, I'm still impressed by the amount of information they manage to cover in just a page or two. A definite winner for a comprehensive, readable book about the first peoples who lived in the United States.

This book offers bite-sized answers to questions like "Did any Indians practice cannibalism?" and "Why is there still poverty on some reservations?" and "Why do some people think Indians do not laugh or smile?" I bought it upon leaving the National Museum of the American Indian (it's a museum-affiliated publication), thinking to educate myself on the problems, myths, and realities of the Native American.

I was disappointed. The book asks all the right questions, but its answers are vaguely apologetic and defensive in tone, evading difficult or controversial topics with the kind of language a company adopts when trying to explain its way out of financial difficulties. As a writer who sometimes works with PR agencies, I recognize the language of corporate propaganda and evasion, and to my dismay I saw it all over this book. I don't appreciate being propagandized to by a book which purports to be educational. (On the other hand, I have come to mistrust museums in recent years, as they have seemingly changed their public mission from one of education to one of advocacy or, worse, entertainment.)

Over and over the book misses opportunities to be forthright, preferring instead to sidestep in order to defend the (admittedly beleaguered) image of the Native American. For example, in answer to the question "Did Indians have alphabets and writing before contact with Europeans?", the book offers this: "The answer to this question may depend on how broadly one defines 'writing.' The narrow definition preferred by academics describes writing as ...'" etc., then adds "Some Native peoples...had pictographic forms of written communication..."

In my opinion, this question needs to be answered more like this: "No, Native Americans did not use written language or alphabets before European contact. However, some groups used pictographs, which served as memory aids to oral historians..." etc., and "Many written versions of Native languages have been developed." I did not care for the book's opinion that academic definitions are narrow, and I did not need the implication that nonliterate societies need to be defended in some way. They didn't use written language. Fact. It's neither good nor bad. Move on from there to what they did use and what they later developed. The defensive approach exemplified by the answer to the language question was used again and again.

After reading this book, I was left with the feeling that, though I had learned many facts, important truths had been glossed over. I have the same sensation when I read press releases or government-issued statements. "Tipis" is worth poking through, but there must be better, more honest, less PR-inspired books out there.

If you thought you knew about Native Americans you might want to think again. This book addresses all the insidious stereotypes. Since Native Americans have a culture we see as stuck in the past, this will help get them unstuck.