Title: Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
Author: Anton Treuer
Genre: Current Issues/Society
Trigger Warnings: Discussions of native genocide, racism, poverty (mentions), alcoholism (mentions)
Back Cover:
“I had a profoundly well-educated Princetonian ask me, ‘Where is your tomahawk?’ I had a beautiful woman approach me in the college gymnasium and exclaim, ‘You have the most beautiful red skin.’ I took a friend to see Dances with Wolves and was told, ‘Your people have a beautiful culture.’ . . . I made many lifelong friends at college, and they supported but also challenged me with questions like, ‘Why should Indians have reservations?’ ”
What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers—or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matterof-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what’s up with Indians, anyway.
• What is the real story of Thanksgiving?
• Why are tribal languages important?
• What do you think of that incident where people died in a sweat lodge?
White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.
Anton Treuer, author of The Assassination of Hole in the Day and many other books on Ojibwe history and language, received an Ambassador Award in 2011 from Facing Race: We’re All in This Together, an initiative of the St. Paul Foundation. All around Minnesota, Treuer has given scores of public lectures and been asked hundreds of questions—many like the ones in this book.
Review:
This is officially the 48th book I’ve completed in 2021, so not even halfway through the year and I’ve hit my total reading goal. Being able to listen to audiobooks at work is doing great things for my reading quantity this year!
I don’t have a lot to say about this book in particular. Like the title says, it answers a bunch of questions I had about Indians (whether or not that’s the correct term, it’s the one Anton uses in the book so it’s the one I’ll use in the review) but was afraid to ask for fear of them being offensive. Anton treats all the questions, even the ones that I would think were very offensive, like questions asked in good faith by well-intentioned but ignorant people, and answers them openly and honestly. And I did appreciate that. I wouldn’t say it answered all my questions about Indians, but it answered a lot of them.
Anton is Ojibwe, and he makes it clear that Indians are not a monolith and each nation and culture has differences and different opinions. He uses examples from Ojibwe culture in many places and mentions other nations’ differences here and there, but several times he answers questions with his own opinions and makes it clear that asking “what do Indians think about X?” is the same as asking “what do white people think about abortion?” – there’s a diversity of opinions.
This book really made me want to find out if the family legend about my great great grandmother being Sioux is true, and if so learn more about where she came from and that family history. Plus I feel more informed about Indian culture and concerns in general. So overall I’d say this book is a worthwile read.