The New Indians

The word has reached few of the white man's settlements, but an Indian "uprising" (ideological, social, legal, political) is underway on reservations. The "new Indians," college educated, but contemptuous of industrial civilization, spurred by a growing anger, are on the move. "Red Power" is their cry. Stan Steiner has wandered for a number of years among the country's Indian tribes, listening to them talk as they rarely do to an outsider. In this understanding and moving book he tells us what he has learned. That includes many dramatic narratives: the Washington State "fish-in" of tribes, some armed, intent on saving ancient fishing grounds; the return of GI warriors from foreign battlefields to be purged of the alien spirit; the "Battle of Santa Fe," where the government held a conference on Indian Affairs but barred the doors to Indian leaders; the "Red Muslim" movement: ABC Americans Before Columbus; the lonely life of tribesmen in cement prairies of the Western cities; the Uncle Tomahawks whom made accomodation with the Great White Father; the poor, the alienated, the unemployed, the exploited, unaffected by the government's War on Poverty. The tribal leaders, old and young, come alive in Stan Steiner's vivid portraits -the Episcopal Archdeacon, a Souix who, after forty years in the church, still, very privately, beats his tomtom in his urban cellar ("Quietly so the Lord won't hear me"); Anne Wauneka, the great and regal Navajo; Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson, young Iroquois Nation leader; Vine Deloria, Jr., Standing Rock Souix advocate of Red Power; and many others. The Indian, long silent and "stoic" has found his voice, vibrant, eloquent. Chapters include: The Case of The Deerslayer; The Warriors Return; The Powwow of The Young Intellectuals; The Red Muslims; The Fish-in Within The Fish; The Academic Aborigine; The Great White Father Myth; The Christ Who Never Came; War on Hosteen Poverty; The Changing Women; Red Power; Warpath on The Reservation; and more.