Customer Reviews

We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf

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Some thirty years after the fact, I read this and was transformed. As with everything Deloria has written, his early work is also masterful. Chapter eleven, The Artificial Universe, which outlines Euroamerican destruction of the biosphere and the consequent need to "listen to tribal people" and "adopt Indian ways," has basically become my credo. Of course, for that to happen, we must first learn to recognize and learn from cultural differences - instead of sweeping them under the rug in some vague notion of fundamental human sameness. If you can get ahold of this now rare book, it is well worth the read.

I wish the book had more clarity and organization. It mixes satire with political facts, speculations with history, purely subjective judgments and prejudices with objective needs. The tone is authoritarian and rather "macho". However, the book is worth reading (although for many, the political scene of 1960's is at this point rather too distant to relate to) because one needs to be aware of the variety of issues facing Native Americans.