Alleged Book Fraud

[supergee]

1. John Smelcer

2. Handbook for Mortals

Comments

[brithistorian]

White people always want to be Native American if they can profit from it, but never if it means living on the reservation. I'm kind of surprised that Smelcer's publisher defended him, though - from what I've seen, publishers seem to know that if you're tied to a sinking ship, the best course of action isn't to add another report.

[mrissa]

I see what you're saying here, but since I know you and know you're a person of goodwill, I'd like to ask you to reconsider your use of living on the reservation as shorthand for "the bad stuff" from two directions: first, because there's a lot of difficulty and prejudice to being Native in American culture off the reservation, and second, because a lot of people who are from there find warmth, home, and many positive things as well as the difficulties in reservation life.

[brithistorian]

You're absolutely right. I had the problems of reservation life on my mind because I'd recently seen a Twitter thread by a woman who grew up on a reservation talking about the difficulties of reservation life, but it really is an inaccurate and misleading shorthand. In the things I've read by people who were involved in AIM, they talked about going to the reservation as a healing experience after their experiences in mainstream American culture.

[mrissa]

Thanks for being willing to talk about this. I appreciate you.

[brithistorian]

Thanks for calling me on it - I'm trying to get better about it, but I still don't always think everything I say all the way through. :)

[brithistorian]

In case it's not obvious, my initial comment should have ended with "rope" not "report." And I can't even blame it on autocorrect.