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Paperback
Publisher: Native Voices
ISBN13: 9781570671654
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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This title was among the winners of the 2006 Skipping Stones Honor Awards for Multicultural & International Awareness Books. Keeping Heart on Pine Ridge is an intimate look at contemporary life with the Lakota people on Pine Ridge Indian Rerservation, near the Black Hills in South Dakota. Insightful stories of compassion, despair, humor, and spiritual growth are drawn from two years of daily life in a strong and tormented community. Firsthand accounts of sundances, commodity foods, sweat lodges, drunken driving, and the Sacred provide the fabric through which Glover weaves his incisive wit and wisdom on the social and political forces that have challenged his people and made them stronger.
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| this book is well written |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Learn what it's like on the rez.written well with humor and feeling. Received book quickly.
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| Enjoyable Read |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I enjoyed this book of essays by one of Pine Ridge's own journalists. There is humor, some sadness, but overall an unapologetic and honest account of day-to-day life on the reservation.
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| It shouldn't work, but it does. |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Vic Glover is an Oglala Lakota who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He's seen the outside world, including a tour as a combat medic in Vietnam, but this is where he wants to be.
The book consists of anecdotes from daily life, each 2-10 pages long. There is no particular flow or rhythm to the stories that I could see. Some are funny, ironic, or touching, but most are just slices of life as lived on the reservation.
It shouldn't work, but it does.
The foundation for Glover's life, and for the life of his friends and family, are two sacred gatherings: sweat lodges and Sun Dances. More than half the stories involve a sweat lodge, getting ready for a sweat lodge by going out and getting a cord of wood in the truck, or drinking coffee after a sweat, or whatever. Glover doesn't lecture or explain, he just tells, and over time you build up an understanding of the lodge. He spends less time on the Sun Dances, which are only a summer tradition anyway.
The rhythm of life on the rez includes truck repair, mud, and far too many automobile fatalities. It's underpinned by outsiders who bring money, "commodity" food, volunteer time, and search for spirituality. Do they give, or do they take? Do the Lakota take from them, or give? These unanswered questions pop up again and again.
It shouldn't work, but it does.
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| Beautiful and True |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Hoka Hey,
Vic, I've read your book twice.
Because each time I read it, I feel closer to the Rez and all my friends on Pine Ridge.
You speak with truth and kindness and humor and a deep and abiding love for a very strong and resilient people and nation.
Thank you. Wopila.
To anyone who wants to understand contemporary Indian life, this is a must read. Never pedantic, Vic Glover shares the stories and challenges that face these great people unvarnished and true.
Read it.
m.
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| Pure Pine Ridge...well, a pretty good recollection! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I lived on and off the rez for a few years and I miss my relations. I also miss the beauty that can only be found on those back roads when you are "running the gauntlet" because,well, that's what you need to do (enit, Mom?). Side street sunflowers and the Trash Pile where one man's trash is another's treasure. Say hello to Fernando's Hideaway, Butch's Road and that old tree where Uncle Wayne (Wine, to Robbie) danced before that school bus came over the way to see him do so (I wasn't there but I won't forget that story every). What about Grandpa Moses (Bullbear) who was pulled over by the Chunksa's who told him that he was going to jail and so he said "So what?", draining the rest of his galleon of wine. And rightly so, considering it is a so-called "dry" rez. As though if! (that was for Tammy). There are deer people (Pearly Gates told me this one), there is so much going on there all the time and yet as Sandra would say it can be heaven on Earth. Rick knows...thank GOD you didn't leave us, bro...and Mom? Well she might think I forgot her but no WAY in the world! Not when we've all had such good times by Lacreek, the River, Denby Dam and who can forget, right there in the middle of it all Big As* Bats? Anyway, there's too much to describe in one review but I will say the book captures the spirit of the Rez, it's occupants, non-occupants and then some. I personally hope I never see the Tall Man. So I'll say a great, big "oi oi!" to Mom and the rest of the Harvey-Bullbear clan out there and tell them I've read this book and I had to break down and cry because I miss you all so much. Pine Ridge aka Wine Ridge, hau hau! Mikey, I lost the weight you predicted that I would (you're just like Uncle Lawrence!) Joey, Jamie and Ruben..I love you! Marky, Jeanie, Stevie, Mary and Nonnie...I love you! Deb, Randy, J.D., Kami and all those new little ones I haven't yet met but hey man, I love you all! Aaron, Cassie, Ritchie, Samantha, Shirley...gosh I can't remember everybody's name anymore! Sheesh, I better get my arse out there for summertime shenanigans! Hey Mom, I'm sending you some mun for your Mad Dog so don't worry...a great BIG letter too, because there hasn't been a day gone by when I've forgotten you or anybody, just because I run a library you knwo? Anyway, it'll come before Christmas. God Bless you in your time of sorrow for Aunt Zella's passing, btw. Mitakuye Oyasin. And let's not forget the BEST radio station...ata KILI! Pine Ridge ROCKS xoxo Kelly xoxo
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