Summary

"On the Rez" is a book about the Oglala Sioux Indians who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwestern South Dakota, a subject that many non-Indians consider to be "bleak", though that is not a word the Oglala use. Some visit the reservation out of curiosity and admiration, but others want to be Indians. The author, Ian Frazier, is a non-Indian, though he wears his hair long in the Indian tradition of the 1970s. His friend on the reservation, Floyd John, greets him as a "wannabe," and while Frazier resents the term, there is some truth to it - "I want to be an uncaught Indian like them" (page 5). In response to those who question why the Oglala do not forget the past and join "normal Americans", Frazier points out that Indians enjoy freedom, a luxury that most of us cannot afford.

Europeans...