Rating: 
Summary: Get Over It, Read It, and Do Something About It
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Still Relevant
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an easy read -- but worth the effort!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Swallow Your Bile and Read On
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Swallow Your Bile and Read On
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Swallow Your Bile and Read On
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Part Rant, Part Manefesto
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Part Rant, Part Manefesto
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The More Things Change, the More they stay the same
Review: Vine DeLoria really gets the point across that change has become stagnant in Indian Country, and that we must be the agents for that change. We have free will, but we need to let the white man and his government know that we don't want his sympathy or money or BIA control -- just leave us alone. An independent Indian is the most dangerous one: To liberals, because they can't use us as their hair shirts anymore and to conservatives because they fear us laying waste to the myth that they are the ones fighting for freedom. Freedom for whom? Anyways, Mr. DeLoria has put my feelings into words quite succinctly.
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