Custer Died for Your Sins [Paperback]

Vine Deloria (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1983

In his new preface to this quality paperback edition, the author observes, 'The Indian world has changed so substantially since the first publication of this book that some things contained in it seem new again.' Indeed, it seems that each generation of whites and Indians will have to read and reread Vine Deloria s Manifesto for some time to come, before we absorb his special, ironic Indian point of view and what he tells us, with a great deal of humor, about U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists. This book continues to be required reading for all Americans, whatever their special interest.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vine Deloria, Jr., Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, is the author of a number of books and articles on events affecting the lives of American Indians. He serves as the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians and is an active spokesman and leader for the American Indian community throughout the nation.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (June 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380002507
• ISBN-13: 978-0380002504
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Swallow Your Bile and Read On, March 2, 2000

By 

Benji Hughes (Memphis, TN; United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Custer Died for Your Sins (Paperback)

So that there's no misunderstanding, I think Vine Deloria Jr is a great man. Not a perfect man, not one who's right all of the time, but a man who means well, and has done great things for Native Americans. My feelings about Custer Died for Your Sins are similar. It's a good book, this Indian Manifesto, and has the power to do great things, still, decades after its publication. But it's not perfect. If you're a Caucasian reader, you're going to get angry. Parts of the book simply aren't meant for you, and those parts that are, are very inflammatory. This is intentional. Deloria is a master of making people furious, in order to make them think. But it's also intentional, I think, because Deloria is, understandably, himself a bitter and angry man, in many ways. The book's passages on people of mixed descent are good examples. Deloria issues the blanket statement that Native/Caucasian people are, in fact, just White people with a royalty complex. He does this to make you angry, and he does this to make you think; he wants you to understand what you are doing when you claim tribal descent or affiliation, and he wants you to be sure you're doing so with the proper respect. But he's also doing it because he's annoyed, and very tired of White people who don't have said respect. He's making a mistake, though, in his implicit assumption that, somehow, being Caucasian is the default, and that to be a Native, one really should be a wholeblood. The book is also tinged with seeming contradictions (like one chapter devoted to the idea that Indians must solve their own problems because they are and should be responsible for their own lives; and then the chapter on how anthropologists are largely responsible for the problems of the modern Native American, a chapter where tribes play a largely passive role), but most of these are resolved when you consider both the complexity of the issue, and the complexity of the book. All in all, this Manifesto is *not* the place to begin one's exploration of Native issues, but it's one that *must* be read somewhere along the way.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A view from within, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (Paperback)

I think non-Native people tend to forget that Native Americans aren't interested in functioning as symbols. They have lives beyond the tribal dances they put on for tourists. They're forced to watch their religion and culture being appropriated by bored New Age types who want to be cool and hip and profound, and it's hardly surprising if some Indians, like Mr. Deloria, don't view this theft as a compliment. This book, along with the works of Sherman Alexie, represents a part of the Native community that's usually ignored by the mainstream.

70 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars and the fun continues...., May 8, 2002

By 

Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (Paperback)

What impressed me most about this book was its emphasis that imperialistic exploitation is not a dead relic of a past we Anglos are ashamed of and wish to forget. The fun continues, and it makes little difference what we call it: manifest destiny, bringing civilization to the primitives, or new world order.

Another point: we've been long overdue for a Deloria-style criticism of Anglos who exploit Indian folklore and beliefs. I refer to those who claim esoteric knowledge from Native shamans and all the rest of it. What such folks, including the anthropologists and social scientists who pretend more objectivity, never ask themselves is: do I have any right to make a profit and gain a reputation from the people I claim to have learned from? What do they get out of it? Does it benefit them or harm them? (The claim that Indian people don't need any kind of concrete benefits because they aren't "materialistic" is particularly nauseating.)

At one point, while contemplating doing some interviews with local Indians about their experience of being blinkered, baffled, and b.s.ed for 250 years, I reread parts of this book--particularly the "we want to be left alone" parts--and decided that I lacked the temerity even to ask for such interviews. Deloria suggests that no research of any kind be done that isn't approved in council and that doesn't clearly demonstrate some use to the Indians themselves. I would also suggest to other Anglo readers that before they involve themselves in matters indigenous they be very honest about their motivations--particularly where any notions of being "helpful" might occur. Our "helpfulness" has been genocidal and even now perpetrates stereotypes, as Indians may tell you if you're genuinely receptive to the feedback.

Books like this are a good reminder that the true primitive is he who goes on colonizing others--intellectually, religiously, economically--without having the courage to look at his own dark side as it flourishes in the here and now.