Indian Resilience and Rebuilding

Native American activist Russel Means once said that the “tribal governments” were in fact alien to his people. It was not the natural way they’d done business historically, never along the lines of American democracy, with voting and representatives. The first part of this book is about the way in which the reservations didn’t work, with the parceling of land among the tribes leading to failure. Land wasn’t allotted to families, and war booty was shared. Great leaders derived power from how much charity they could give, and a warrior’s wealth was in the respect he got.

    Donald Flixico’s book Indian Resilience and Rebuilding is based on extensive research, and he does a great job explaining the 150 year effort to survive under the US system. Some benefited from the Federal aid packages, others didn’t, and some would accept or resist efforts to educate Native American children in the US model. The AIM brought attention to these problems, but eventually split. There were some leaders like Wilma Mankiller who made strides in bringing in clean water, sewage lines, jobs, education, and fighting alcoholism. But the Cherokee Nation has had trouble for years with corruption, and casinos can’t cure everything.

   Casinos, crime, family violence, repatriation, and reparations are all covered here. But most of the problems seem to involve a lack of strong leaders to get things done. I also wonder if the problem has to do with nomadic tribes settling into permanent homes, as is the case in Saudi Arabia. With a modern welfare state, the old way of sharing the prize disappears, and the family heads can lose their standing, leading to depression. If modern ways meet traditional society, the women may object to traditional roles, and could that lead to conflict? With any kind of modern government, you’re going to attract corruption, and the people running for office may have axes to grind. Perhaps Russel Means was right in that modern government systems would not work on a reservation.

    

    I would not recommend reading this book alone. Other texts on Native American philosophy should be read along with it to get a broader understanding of the clash between traditional societies and modern habits.