Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge by Vic Glover

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Cruise down the back roads of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in this bold anthology of real-life stories. Creative writer Vic Glover lays bare the challenges, history, bonds, and rich traditions that infuse the stark reality of life on the "rez." Glover introduces readers to his friends, family, and neighbors, inviting us into his private world with a trace of amusement and a poignant honesty that grabs you from the opening line and never lets go.

My Thoughts:
This book is a memoir of sorts of Vic Glover's (Oglala Lakota) life on the Pine Ridge Reservation. While only being 157 pages, I had to read this book in increments that stretched over a couple of months. Not because it was written poorly or because it wasn't interesting, but because it was a lot to take in and I wanted to process what I was reading. The book is written in short 2-4 page stories that don't have to necessarily be read in order. Each story covers an aspect of reservation life that the author ties in with his own memories. While brief, each story packs its own punch and will leave you chewing on it long after you've finished it. Some will even have you coming back to read again.

This is not, however, a book that takes the form of a lecture intended to make its readers feel guilty for their cushier lifestyle. Glover is unapologetic in his honesty and yet humble in his tone. He infuses each memory with a refreshing sense of humor making the reader feel as if they are a part of his circle. And his circle contains a wide variety of people, whether they're old friends from the reservation or people from other countries flying to South Dakota to participate in a sweat lodge. There is, throughout the book, an undercurrent of death and tragedy. You'll be reading a light-hearted story about people in his tribe and then, in one sentence, he'll mention someone's death and it's like an anvil dropping. Those are the moments that make you want to take your time with this book. You will get an insider's view into life on one of the poorest reservations in the United States. This is a perspective that needs to be known.

My Favorite Quotes:
"There are four cardinal virtues among the Lakota: Honesty. Courage. Humility. Generosity. A chief should possess and have refined them all. Some of the people have cultivated and mastered these elements of character, like the Old Man and Uncle Joe, the walking epitome of humility. Humility defeats pride. It dissipates defense mechanisms. It teaches us silence."

"You could say that many of us living up here have given up on the American dream, because we find that the values extolled and pursued by commercial, consumer-driven American society, in and of themselves are illusory, mythological, essentially empty, and selfishly unfulfilling. Where in American culture is the heart?"

I couldn't find any photos of Vic Glover, but here is some information on him from the back of the book: Vic Glover is a Vietnam vet combat medic, a former journalist, and professor of communication. He writes humor, political satire, and social commentary from his home on Pine Ridge Reservation.

***Check out the photography of Aaron Huey, a photojournalist who spent 8 years documenting life on the Pine Ridge Reservation: http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/02/20/aaron_huey_photographs_the_pine_ridge_reservation_in_south_dakota_in_his.html

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

Goodreads Synopsis: Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. 

My Thoughts: This is a book that every person should read. Having been written in 1996, I think it's still relevant. Without taking a political side, Loewen gives the cold hard facts that our high school textbooks are leaving out. Spending years (about 11) combing through 12 of the most frequently used textbooks in schools, Loewen shows us how most of these books are written in a way that encourages patriotism before truth, blind optimism over reality. I love the country I live in, despite its many shortcomings. Every country has shortcomings because they're filled with PEOPLE. And people fall short. But it's important to know the true history of where you come from. Opening our eyes to this history doesn't make us less patriotic, just more aware and better able to take care of our country. And that's the point of this book. 

I always try to understand the author's angle, the lens they're looking through and what their ulterior motives might be. Loewen writes from a pretty unbiased point of view without the rhetoric of the Republican and Democratic parties that I get SO TIRED of hearing. He's not here to make you vote a certain way. He doles out harsh truth, but leaves praise where it's deserved in a voice that is more observant and analytical than emotional. And while the title of the book might sound cruel, he also spends a chapter trying to find an explanation WHY we're using these textbooks in the classroom and it's not just the fault of the teachers. There is a larger more political issue going on here that goes beyond the classroom. Prepare to take less pleasure in some of our national holidays...

**Also, the man's Notes section in the back of the book total just over 55 pages so if you want to take this reading further then you have plenty of references to look for.

Favorite Quotes: "Lying to children is a slippery slope. Once we have started sliding down it, how and when do we stop? Who decides when to lie? Which lies to tell? To what age group? As soon as we loosen the anchor of fact, of historical evidence, our history textboat is free to blow here and there, pointing first in one direction, then in another. If we obscure or omit facts because they make Columbus look bad, why not omit those that make the United States look bad? or the Mormon Church? or the state of Mississippi? This is the politicization of history. How do we decide what to teach in an American history course once authors have decided not to value the truth? If our history courses aren't based on fact anyway, why not tell one story to whites, another to blacks? Isn't Scott, Foresman already doing something like that when it puts out a "Lone Star" edition of "Land of Promise," tailoring the facts of history to suit (white) Texans?"

"Hugh Trevor-Roper, the dean of British historians, has written, "A nation that has lost sight of its history, or is discouraged from the study of it by the desiccating professionalism (or unprofessionalism!) of its historians, is intellectually and perhaps politically amputated. But that history must be true history in the fullest sense.""

The Author

Author Tidbit: James W. Loewen helped write a US history textbook called "Mississippi: Conflict and Change" in 1974. The textbook was not approved for use in the Mississippi school systems leading to a lawsuit Loewen vs. Turnipseed. This became a historic First Amendment case.