Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee [Hardcover]

Paul Chaat Smith (Author), Robert Allen Warrior (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1996

For a brief but brilliant season beginning in the late 1960s, American Indians seized national attention in a series of radical acts of resistance. Like a Hurricane is a gripping account of the dramatic, breathtaking events of this tumultuous period. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, interviews, and the authors' own experiences of these events, Like a Hurricane offers a rare, unflinchingly honest assessment of the period's successes and failures.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This highly readable history documents three turbulent years in the history of Native America, beginning in the early winter of 1969, when a few dozen activists occupied Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The American Indian Movement became prominent by that action, and Chaat and Warrior chart its fortunes through the three years culminating in both Nixon's reelection and the siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where armed AIM sympathizers held off federal agents for eight weeks. The period between Alcatraz and Wounded Knee, the authors write, "was for American Indians every bit as significant as the counterculture was for young whites, or the civil rights movement for blacks."

From Publishers Weekly

At the outset of this detailed, lively history of the American Indian protest movement in the early 1970s, its authors say that a problem with most other books on Indians (they do not use the term Native Americans) is that they were not written by Indians themselves and that, however sympathetic, they tend to portray Indians as victims and pawns. Smith, described as an activist by the publisher, and Warrior, a professor of history at Stanford, both Indians, have chosen to write about a brief period?the birth and early days of the American Indian Movement (AIM)?when American Indians were indeed politically and socially active. The book focuses on three Indian protests?the 1969 invasion and 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island; the 1972 seizure and trashing of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Building in Washington (renamed Native American Embassy for the occasion); and, a year later, the two-month occupation of Wounded Knee, North Dakota, that ended with two dead and 300 Indians under indictment (which effectively bankrupted AIM). Smith and Warrior write clearly and dramatically; they have researched and interviewed well; and although unabashed partisans of the Indian cause, they are frank and even-handed to a point that might be painful to AIM diehards. An important addition to the history of a political movement that has yet to reach its stride. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 343 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565843169
• ISBN-13: 978-1565843165
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,144,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opener!, June 29, 2000

By 

"zarings3" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (Hardcover)

I knew nothing about any of the events depicted in this book. They had been referenced in some other readings I had completed so I was seeking out more information. I felt this book was a great synopsis of the events of the Indian rights movement of the 60's and 70's. I was disappointed in the lack of information on Leonard Peltier and his situation. I wanted the book to continue for a few more years! I think it is sad that the general public has forgotten, so quickly, what occurred during this time. I was born in 1965 and I think once this movement was waning from the media, it was quickly forgotten by the majority of Americans, which is sad. I would recommend this book to anyone searching to understand the plight of the Native Americans today and the history of their search for freedom and the right to exist as they choose.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great historical read!, September 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (Paperback)

This book picks up where Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee leaves off. I was afraid when I ordered this book that it would be too politically technical, but it wasn't at all. It really held my interest right from the beginning. It's the first insight that I've really been exposed to about the Native American Civil Rights Movement. The authors really tried to be as unbiased as possible by not only exposing the deceit of the US Government, but by also exposing the weaknesses and mistakes within the Native American factions who were originally involved in the early movement. After reading this book, my wish is that some day I'd love to have dinner with Dennis Banks and Russell Means. What interesting conversation and stories they could tell!!! What true (Native) American heroes they are!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Qualified Recommendation, December 20, 1999

By 

Tim Hundsdorfer (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (Paperback)

As suggested by the title, Like a Hurricane is a dedicated history of the struggle for Native American rights. It covers the formative period, including the takeover at Alcatraz and the BIA building in Washington. It does a great job of stringing the events together and showing causes and effects.

This book is generally for those interested in modern Native American History, government tactics for derailing racial movements and people in need of background for dealing with the plethora of Native American activists communities.

I really enjoyed Like a Hurricane, but my only qualification is that the epilogue of Wounded Knee seems incomplete. What about the disappearances and murders of AIM members and supporters in the wake of WK? Given all the extraneous biographies the book covers, why not a little more depth on the aftermath of the central event? Understanding Peltier's situation (which was alluded to) requires an understanding of the context of violence and repression on Pine Ridge following the WK uprising. Nevertheless, excellent background work and a fantastic piece of qualitative research.