SOURCE: "Tribal Tribulations," in New York Times Book Review, September 23, 1990, p. 52.

In the following review, Carlson argues that Crossbloods is an eclectic but revealing look at contemporary Native American culture.

Gerald Vizenor's Crossbloods: Bone Courts, Bingo, and Other Reports is, as the title suggests, an eclectic collection of essays and articles written over the last two decades by this prolific author, whose subject matter is Native American life and culture. Mr. Vizenor, a mixed-blood member of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe, has been a reporter and editorial writer for The Minneapolis Tribune and now teaches literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has also written two novels, Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles and Griever: An American Monkey King in China, the latter of which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1988; beautiful new paperback editions of these books are being published by the University...