Rez Life An Indians Journey Through Reservation Life

By David Treuer

Pg 2 Some tribes are poor but not all "In 2007 the seminole bought the Hard Rock Cafe' franchise"

The author, an Ojibwe, is quick to comment and dispose.of the stereotypes of the "noble savage" that delude and distort. Apparently the Ojibwe are the "Rodney Dangerfields" of the indian world. Not glamorous and as well known as the more.flamboyant Sioux or Apaches, yet they figure large in the histories and the carry a glorious lineage.

On visiting a family member in ICU he see the words "Rez Life" tattooed to his friends chest and hence we have our title.

Not for nothing, but to me Red Lake looks big enough to share. Putting up barriers to fishing on a big lake like that one seems a little ridiculous. And to have "so-called" conservations officers armed and dangerous chasing simple fisherman on the lake goes beyond the ridiculous to the.sublime.

The author spends the next fifty pages explaining why this is ok, but franlkly, Im not convinced.

Pg 32 Here's something you don't read in the histpry books about Valley Forge. In the winter of 1777-78 to help relieve the famine conditions happening at Valley Forge, ot was Oneida indians who "carried 600 bushels of corn on their backs" to the starving soldiers. They were rewarded by having their lands confiscated after the was was over and forced west.

I have read many histories of the revolution but have never heard this story ever. You could fill volumes of history with what is left out.

The author reminds us that indians as a rule serve in the military in large numbers. They have been represented in every American conflict from the start in the 1600's till the present day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pg 62 The author is preparing to go fishing on the lake and he see comservation officials standing by. He tells that they are there to protect the indians from the locals who sometimes abuse them. At one demonstration indians were spit on by locals bearing signs that read "save a walleye spear an indian" and this one, the authors favorite and mine, "indians go home."