Customer Reviews

Custer Died for Your Sins

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

First published in 1969 and reissued in 1988 with a new preface by the author, this is the one that started it all. This book is required reading and you will be tested. Best Sellers magazine says of Custer Died for your Sins, "nauseated by the traditional Indian image, (Deloria) asserts the worth if not the dignity of the redman and blasts the political, social, and religious forces that perpetrate the Little Big Horn and wigwam stereotyping of his people." Deloria shines his distinctive light on Indian missions, federal relations, Hollywood stereotypes, and community leadership, to name a few. Here began the critique of anthropology to be continued in Indians and Anthropologists, also featured on this website. One of the most notable chapters of this heavy little book discusses the Civil Rights Movement and compares Native American and African American civil rights issues.

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.

This is an all around good read. While there are problems that I had with the book the fact remains that I enjoyed it greatly as well. When I first read I said to myself "Hey this is great finally a Native American's perspective. Than I looked at the orginal publication date...1969.

Thats my only problem while it is witty and funny the issues discussed are at time too far in the past for me to understand. All I have to go upon are my own preconcived notions taught to mein history class. Mr. Deloria on the other hand was right there when all of this stuff was happening and for that reason this bok deserves some serious study.

He basically has three main points
1. That the programs set up by Whites to help Native Amerixcans have actually hurt them in the llong run(be sure to read his rant agienst Anthropologists and missionaries)
2. There are still Native Americans east of the Mississippi(Some readers will not be aware of this even today)
3. The Native Americans have power but they are kinda like the Democratic Party they just can't organize(htis hasn't changed much even today)

Overall-I loved it, its a good book to see where Native Americans were in the 60s and how things have changed(or not changed) in the lat 34 years.

This has become a period piece, as both Indians and the rest of North America have changed a lot since this was written in 1970. Though the foreword to the new edition updates it somewhat, significant chunks of the book still come across as quite dated. For example, it was clearly written during the civil rights movement, which shapes many of the issues Deloria discusses.

Still, many of his points remain timeless. Deloria is very good at pointing out how many whites patronize Native Americans while believing that they are honoring them. For example, many whites like to claim that they had an Indian ancestor - - almost always a woman, often a great grandmother, and usually Cherokee. (Funny how whites don't make such claims about slave ancestors.) These claims are rarely documented, and rarely true. Many whites like to take on a cloak of Indian mysticism, as we see in many New Age practices. This has little to do with real Native Americans, real Indian religious practices, or real people's lives. Third, Deloria launches a devastating bromide against sociologists, and by implication other social scientists, who descend on reservations to pursue their own professional ambitions without giving anything back to their subjects.

Despite making a lot of similar valuable points, the book does not make any real argument. Each chapter is a bunch of ideas, anecdotes, and observations, all strung together. There's considerable inconsistency: on one page, Deloria praises a tribe for getting funding from five different agencies to build some housing, while two pages later he says that Indians just want to be left alone. Being left alone would probably not mean depending on funding from federal agencies.

Deloria eagerly criticizes stereotypes but has more than a few stereotypes of his own. He treats all whites as if they were alike, while he treats blacks as if they were all like one another but different than all whites. Latinos exist only as Mexicans, who are treated as all alike. All anthropologists and all Christian pastors or priests are also alike. Obviously, none of these groups are homogenous, and it does not further Deloria's ultimate project to treat them this way.

Obviously, I've been pretty critical so far in this review. Yet there's a reason why people valued the late Deloria so highly. He's often very insightful and makes many great points, even if his overall argument cannot sustain close scrutiny. He's also funny, and uses humor very effectively to make his points. My high-schooler and middle-schooler each laughed out loud - - independently - - when they saw this book in my possession, and it sparked some good conversations. The whole book is like that, and would be great for a reading group.

I'll finish this review with a question: who is in the position to write a new "Indian manifesto" today? So much of the writing by and for Native Americans today comes out of the humanities and is concerned with "discourses." Deloria, and those he worked with, cared about concrete outcomes - - material accomplishments. Even when he talks about stereotypes, he's less concerned with a racist discourse in itself than thinking about how to get past the stereotypes and help Native peoples. The 1960s and the 1970s were the years of the lawyer and the sociologist, and we now live in the years of the English professor. Are Indians better off for it?

This is a great book. Vine Deloria is an interesting author and he brings across good ideas.
As for the few people who believe that they hold no responsibility because their ancestors imigrated after 1900, well that's not true. Everyone hold responsibility, because Native Americans are still being mistreated. As late as the last half of century Native women were being sterilized without being told what was happening.
Our bones and cultural are being dishonored by "scholars" And all those people who want to help Natives. They treat them like little children. If that's not disrespect...
Deloria brings out what so many want to keep hidden.
All of his books are worth reading.

Having frequently come across references to this 'classic' in other books on modern Indian affairs, I finally decided to read it. Very different from what I anticipated, this book is not a rant or the work of a bitter Oglala, but a thorough and very well thought out Indian manifesto, just as it claims to be. Unlike, say, On the Rez by Ian Frazier (which I highly recommend), it is not a quick or entertaining read. It can be exhaustingly thorough at times and I found the references to people and events contemporary to the first printing but very dated now -- e.g., long passages describing why former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall was such a disappointment -- alternately interesting and off-putting. The chapter on Indian humor, however, was well worth having to skim some of the dated stuff. All in all, I highly recommend this thought-provoking book to the serious student of modern Indian affairs.

A must read book. For all those other readers who have their noses out of joint over Mr. DeLoria's book: get over it. I'm mixed blood and I have certainly seen just about everything that DeLoria documents, and I share his sense of humor about it all. DeLoria is a very funny guy, because laughing is about all you can do in the face of such everlasting prejudice, harm, misery, and profiteering at the expense of the First Nations of America. It's not that Mr. DeLoria is a bitter guy, as some reviewers have accused, it's that the subject matter he has to report is such a black and bitter history that few White people have the guts to look at honestly. Anybody who doesn't like what Mr. DeLoria has to say better don their hip waders and do something about it; because it's the truth and it hasn't stopped -- the Republican 2000 Convention passed a resolution calling for the termination of the tribes. As DeLoria observes in his preface to the revised edition, everything comes 'round again.