Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder: Amazon.ca: Kent Nerburn: Books

Product Description

From Library Journal

Non-Indian theologian and editor Nerburn attempts to "bridge the gap between the world into which I had been born and the world of a people I had grown to know and love" by narrating the fascinating toils and truths of Dan, a 78-year-old Lakota man.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Readers looking for another red-man-departs-wise-words-to-white-man-to-lessen-white- man's-guilt will be disappointed by the tone and content of this work. Realists wanting a truthful, fiery, and, ultimately, cleansing dialogue between Indian and white will definitely want it. Nerburn reluctantly agrees to a meeting with Dan, a Lakota elder who asks him to construct a book from a motley collection of notes, diatribes, and political and social commentaries written over seven decades and kept in an old shoe box. Void of the hypocrisy rampant in many books that have whites adopting the ways of "the great spirit," Nerburn exposes the real truth, which whites are unwilling to face: that in "the hunger to own a piece of the earth, we had destroyed the dreams and families of an entire race." Joined by a dog named Fatback, Dan gives Nerburn the ride of his life as they cross the vast Midwest in Dan's Buick. Along the way, Dan alternates between rage and melancholy, and Nerburn between shame and confusion. Nerburn unintentionally touches nerve after nerve and elicits an almost unbearable flood of anguish and despair. The truth revealed in this book will be difficult for most whites to face, but it is painfully necessary if healing is ever to begin. Kevin Roddy

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First Sentence
I go to the phone on the second ring. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put it down, May 16 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads With an Indian Elder (Paperback)

This is a well-written book that does the unusual. It can make readers see through someone else's eyes. I felt completely drawn into the story and the perspective of the Native Americans featured in this book. The author made these people seem like friends and I was sorry to leave them behind when the book ended. While they don't speak for all tribes and all peoples, it's an enlightening glimpse into the lives and outlooks of some of the Lakota people.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Change in Perspective, April 20 2004

By

Adam W. Bayes (Winchester, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads With an Indian Elder (Paperback)

Every so often, a book comes along that really begs the reader to question his or her belief system, and how those beliefs became a part of their personality. It is often difficult to find a bird's eye view of the subtle idiosyncracies of the average everyday white american lifestyle. Often it takes a foreign perspective, much like DeToqueville's Democracy in America, to comment on what is really going on socially, politically, and economically in a certain place.

Kent Nerburn eloquently relays the teachings and stories of the Old Man in Neither Wolf Nor Dog in this sort of way. From the perspective of an elderly Native American, I was able to partially understand why there is such a gap between Native America and the rest of the country in terms of communal relations, and even everyday interaction. Much of this is due to the mystification of Native America through Hollywood films and frontier novels written by romanticizing white writers.

White America doesn't really understand what it is really like on reservations, and can't possibly comprehend what it is actually like for a population that deals with it's painful history every second of every day; a people lamenting the loss of their ancestoral lands, way of life, and culture.

Nerburn uses the Old Man's narrative to help explain what goes on in the mind of many Native Americans, and how Native America really views the capitalist white society's dealings with race, the environment, history, family, interaction with one another, and employment, among others. In my view, this is the most valuable portion of the book, and the section from which I gained the most perspective. In sometimes complex, but often quite simple terms, the Old Man offers commentary on the roots of our value system, which, after reading his description of our culture, seems very selfish, ignorant, arrogant, and at some times, preposterous. The dichotomy between the two cultures helps to bridge a gap between our two very different, yet forever interwined cultures.

Much like Saul Bellow's Seize the Day, this book deals with a very painful subject: genocide. In Bellow's novella, the topic was the Holocaust; in Nerburn's, the decimation of the Native population of this country. Both touch on the same theme, the inability to move forward as a human race without acknowledging, understanding, and finally accepting the tragedy and horror inflicted upon our fellow man by our ancestors. Only then can we hope to truly live as one people, sharing one land, accepting eachother as brothers and sisters in a world blessed with differences.

I recommend this book to anyone searching for answers, anyone plagued by a feeling they can't quite explain, and anyone who wishes to better themselves by finally asking the questions about human existence that couldn't be more important.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The most powerful book I have ever read, Nov 4 2003

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Sandi Pleune (Mandeville, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads With an Indian Elder (Paperback)

This is the most powerful book I have ever read about the Native people of this land. Since reading it, I have gotten several copies for my friends and loved ones and they have all reported being powerfully touched by it. I can't recommend any book more strongly!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Neither Wolf Nor Dog
Finally, a book about indians that tells it the way it was and the way it is today. At first I thought Old Dan was full of BS. Read more

Published on July 16 2003 by Michael Pate

1.0 out of 5 stars Which tail is wagging which wolf?
I was unable to get a focused "world view" from of the main characters of this book. For example, the author views a Park Service roadside plaque about the Lakota and... Read more

Published on Feb 14 2003 by Dave Roe