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On the Rez

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 721 ratings · 90 reviews

On the Rez is a sharp, unflinching account of the modern-day American Indian experience, especially that of the Oglala Sioux, who now live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the plains and badlands of the American West. Crazy Horse, perhaps the greatest Indian war leader of the 1800s, and Black Elk, the holy man whose teachings achieved worldwide renown, were Oglala;...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published May 4th 2001 by Picador (first published 2000)

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Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

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Jan 02, 2013 Lesley rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really tried with "On the Rez". After hearing conflicting opinions from other readers, I forged ahead and gave it almost 150 pages--but I can take no more!

The book contains some interesting information and anecdotes, but it runs all over the place. Frazier doesn't seem to have a clear purpose for what he's writing about. The stories almost seem better suited to magazine pieces (which may be what he originally intended?).

One thing that bothered me greatly was Frazier's stating that while many...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Angela rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: My mom. She read it first and liked it.

I really didn't enjoy this book, I think because I have a significantly different philosophy than the author. The story is an autobiography of sorts, about a man who really, really wishes he were born an Indian (Native American), so he spends a lot of time visiting a reservation and "making friends" with the inhabitants, who basically use him for money and car rides... Which he acknowledges but still seems to really enjoy, kind of like the little kid who always gets made fun of but still wants t...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: awareness, biographies, native-american

Loved it! Sue Anne Big Crow. You can't be from South Dakota and not know that name. Whether you are white, brown, black, green or purple, South Dakotans know Sue Anne Big Crow. She is an iconic myth that I bet if I was back home now, young people would probably wonder if she really even existed. She was an Oglala Sioux from the Pine Ridge Reservation. She came from a huge family. She was Basketball Royalty, tragically died in a car wreck in 1992. For those who knew her, thier grief is still real...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is an enormously powerful account of the history of the Oglala Sioux and their current lives on the reservation at Pine Ridge. Mr. Frazier juxtaposes the 'evil ("mistakenly called bleakness by others") with the promises, hope and brightness of youth.

Ultimately, this is the inspirational story of SueAnn Crow, a promising student athlete with a wonderful life before her. It appears that success in this culture is not received well. Standing out as 'better' is inappropriate and SueAnn's g...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Stop added it

Read the STOP SMILING interview with author Ian Frazier

Of No Fixed Accord
By Nathan Kosub

(This interview originally appeared in STOP SMILING The Documentary Issue)

Ian Frazier is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he began his career over 30 years ago. In April 2005, he revisited the legacies of Baghdad's historical invaders. ?It seems that so much of the foolish and horrible things that people do come from being adrift in the world,? Frazier told me. Against that, a book is ?an efficient way...more Read the STOP SMILING interview with author Ian Frazier

Of No Fixed Accord
By Nathan Kosub

(This interview originally appeared in STOP SMILING The Documentary Issue)

Ian Frazier is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he began his career over 30 years ago. In April 2005, he revisited the legacies of Baghdad's historical invaders. ?It seems that so much of the foolish and horrible things that people do come from being adrift in the world,? Frazier told me. Against that, a book is ?an efficient way to record something? ? to situate a person or an era. Frazier's non-fiction includes chronicles of family, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Great Plains. He lives in New Jersey, and is currently at work on a book about Siberia.

Stop Smiling: There's an article in your recent collection about walking in New York in a place where a violent crime occurred. Over time, the memorials and the record of what happened there become less and less. Does it seem that that happens all too quickly? That it's forgotten and becomes just a place again? Or is that a necessary reaction?

Ian Frazier: You end up with so much ? the weight of the past is so huge ? that sometimes you want to forget it. America was founded on that ? the idea that, well, we're not going to worry about the stuff that happened before we got here. A lot of the country is a place where, especially out West, you're beginning anew. Nobody cares who you were in Philadelphia. You're in Wyoming now, and whoever you are is who you're going to be. Not who you were before.

There's a parallel phenomenon that I noticed when I was doing the book about my family. The people who know their ancestry usually have children who want to marry somebody who doesn't know his or her ancestry. You get so fed up that you want to marry someone who says, ?Yeah, I know who my grandfather was, but before that, I don't.?

That, I think, is a natural phenomenon that naturally limits the amount of information that you have. If both sides of your family save everything and know everything, as a kid you get that and you're buried under it. Physically. It's such a huge amount of stuff. The amount of stuff that physically I took from my parents' apartment when they died is a lot. If you imagine that piling up over generations, pretty soon someone's going to have a house that's full of nothing but handwritten genealogies.

Read the rest of the interview...(less)

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May 19, 2012 Ronald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Page132: "Why do neon signs look more beautiful in arid places? Take the signs of Los Angeles of Las Vegas, for example--maybe it has to do with the clarity of light in dry desert air. The neon signs of the bars by the railroad tracks in Billings used to be something to see, especially on a summer evening when the sunset was fading in the west and the wind brought the smell of dust and cattle and diesel exhaust. Prominent among these signs was one for a bar called Casey's Golden Pheasant. On top...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Jana Kaplan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-reading

I read this book in preparation to volunteer on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota through a program called Re-Member. If this book were a compass, it would bring you, the reader, to all points on the rez and through history. It gives a precise and detailed account of what REALLY occurred between the Indian and White Man back in the day, as well as today. It is informative and although it ends abruptly, I believe it gives a non-native person the truth about life on the rez. It ain...more

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May 04, 2010 Daniel Lotspeich rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book seems to have drawn more criticism than is perhaps fair, given the author's apparent intent and targeted audience. Readers already steeped in Oglala Sioux history, the history of the American Indian Movement, or that of the Pine Ridge Reservation, may find the book lacking in details and specifics. If you already have an advanced degree in Native American Studies, this book probably is not for you. However, as somebody who has always wondered what goes on farther down those dirt roads...more This book seems to have drawn more criticism than is perhaps fair, given the author's apparent intent and targeted audience. Readers already steeped in Oglala Sioux history, the history of the American Indian Movement, or that of the Pine Ridge Reservation, may find the book lacking in details and specifics. If you already have an advanced degree in Native American Studies, this book probably is not for you. However, as somebody who has always wondered what goes on farther down those dirt roads than I have ever had the chance to travel, I found this book illuminating. Ian Frazier mentions in the opening paragraphs that when people hear that he is writing about life on the reservation, typically they respond with a variation on how "bleak" it sounds. He goes on to say that "bleak" is a word not used by any of the Indians encountered in the writing of the book. Through reading the book, the reader comes to see that there is far more going on in the life of this community than the bleakness that makes it onto the CBS Evening News every few years, when some new tragedy unfolds.

Granted, Frazier at times wanders off topic. His digressions, nonetheless, reveal certain elements of his character, which added even more intrigue to the book. Not trying to represent himself as a disinterested observer and eschewing the stale objective phrasings of an academic, Frazier's character seems to show through like some sort of mellowed out Hunter S. Thompson (Gonzo journalist after a stint in AA, perhaps). His telling of his conflicted relationship with Le War Lance: topic for his book, fitful friend, charity-case/lout-in-need-of-beer-money, brother. The book is part history lesson, part personal memoir, sometime adventure story, at times sweetly saccharin, at times hinting towards an ironic humor that may be more essential than fully revealed. Ultimately, it is readable and it has instilled in me a desire to learn more about American Indian history and modern Indian affairs.(less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Aquavit rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Frazier again knocks it out of the park with this book, a very honest and not editorialized/moralized tale of historic and modern life on (primarily) the Pine Ridge reservation of the Oglala Sioux. I thought the story was refreshingly told, with lots of interviews and historical documents but none of the insipid kinds of commentary that usually follow. The state of affairs here is the result of complicated interactions of history, temperament and greed with blame falling to all parties involved,...more

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Nov 19, 2009 Braden Canfield rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, sociopolitical

I have been out to Pine Ridge Reservation many times. Saw much of what this book describes first hand.. even met a character or two that get mention herein. Loved the book and have a deep love for the place. The people there carry and live with such a grand mixture of devastation and tragedy on the one hand, bravery and perseverance on the other. I truly believe that the ethnic cleansing that occurred as part of the darker history of our country's birth is not only our greatest shame but stands...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a beautifully written, compassionate look at the Oglala Sioux indians on Pine Ridge Reservation. Frazier's book brought tears to my eyes with the story of a young female athlete and her incredible story. He also had me howling with laughter at times. Frazier is a master at finding the intimate details of a given place and its people, as I found out when I read 'Great Plains' years before. This book will not only educate, but will stimulate your empathy toward a great people, who hav...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Stew rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating first-person account of one man's experience of befriending a resident of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
I normally don't care for the New Yorker style first-person, narrator-centric style of storytelling, but this book could only have been written in this style.
The biggest flaw of this book is that Frazier hits the reader over the head with a history lesson first.
The Lakota history could have been woven into the narrative more artfully.
Nevertheless, a great rea...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: society

Another one of those "3 or 4?" reviews. Frazier is engaging and sympathetic, and the prose is excellent, but the book has some real flaws. The structure of the book feels loose; while it very roughly follows a chronological path of his own experiences (using them as a trunk from which to branch off) it has a tendency to feel meandering as it goes off onto the branches. Frazier is honest in showing that this is a portrait of the Oglala through his own eyes--he doesn't make a pretense of it being...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Guna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a non-fiction account by a Lakota "wannabe" of the modern-day Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Frazier befriends some members, and follows them through their day-to-day lives. He also has a fairly extensive account of a modern-day hero, SuAnne Big Crow, a star basketball player. Like many other accounts, this speaks of the bleakness and 'evil' on the reservations, but also about the good which can be found. Frazier also does not presume to tell us how to solve all t...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, nonfiction

On the Rez was on a recommended reading list in Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading. When I was at the Euless Public Library, it was one of the few titles I remembered on my to-be-read list. I had put it on the list because the description of the book said that the approach to talking about Indians was different. It neither patronized or aggrandized Native Americans and their cultures.

I vaguely remember one of my literature professors telling us that there are two stor...more On the Rez was on a recommended reading list in Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading. When I was at the Euless Public Library, it was one of the few titles I remembered on my to-be-read list. I had put it on the list because the description of the book said that the approach to talking about Indians was different. It neither patronized or aggrandized Native Americans and their cultures.

I vaguely remember one of my literature professors telling us that there are two storytelling techniques. As Americans we're trained in linear storytelling. It shows up in our five-paragraph essays. In the introductory paragraph, we explain what we're going to write about. In the three detail paragraphs, we provide details and examples to support what we just said. In the concluding paragraph, we describe what we just said and reinforce our claim or thesis statement. We really hammer in the lesson.

In other traditions of storytelling, the storyteller dances around the thesis/main idea/moral of the story. The storyteller tells a story which exemplifies the moral of the story; the reader/listener is expected to find the moral on his/her own. The storyteller doesn't *tell* the moral of the story; each listener/reader is expected to find the moral, or point of the story, for himself/herself. Each person is expected to apply the story to himself/herself and figure it out.

I was also told that the circular style of storytelling would be found more often in cultures with strong storytelling traditions: Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans, for example.

The authorIan Frazier, wrote On the Rez in the circular style, which can be quite intimidating/confusing to those of us used to linear writing. Ian Frazier is simply describing his experiences on the reservation. While he admires the Oglalas and their culture, he is realistic about them, too. He renders them human with all the human qualities we'd find in any of our friends and family. They aren't stereotypes.

And that's what makes this book good. It's not about the pathos of the broken spirit of the Native American. Nor is it about the stoicism of the proud Native American, standing against the modern American culture. These are people who live their lives, holding on to their culture, as best they can. There are triumphs and their are losses. They continue.

I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to take a step back and really think about American culture. Are we a melting pot, a stew, a gumbo? If so, how do we meld with Native American culture? This is definitely a thinker of a book.(less)

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Feb 24, 2011 Lisa Eggers rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to like this and I gave it every chance, but alas... it was just too all over the place. And the details were excruciating. I wanted a great inside look at life on the rez, past and present. Instead it was a lot of boggy history I either already knew or forgot on purpose, or intricate descriptions of boots, beer cans, and western movies. This is already in my going-back-to-the-lib pile. Even thou, I still have high hopes for Travels in Siberia, which I plan on getting to one of t...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply a beautiful book. Not perfect, but it seems wondefully true to what the author thinks, experienced, and learned, and to what he couldn't resolve.

"The real issue is that Indians' relationship to this country is still that of the colonized, so that when non-Indians write about us, it's colonial literature. And unless it's seen that way, there's a problem.What really bothered me about Ian Frazier's book is how everybody kept talking about it as some sort of special work, and it's not. It's a...more Simply a beautiful book. Not perfect, but it seems wondefully true to what the author thinks, experienced, and learned, and to what he couldn't resolve.

"The real issue is that Indians' relationship to this country is still that of the colonized, so that when non-Indians write about us, it's colonial literature. And unless it's seen that way, there's a problem.What really bothered me about Ian Frazier's book is how everybody kept talking about it as some sort of special work, and it's not. It's a really ordinary book. There are flagrant inaccuracies. The galley had at least fifty historical errors. And I really had a problem with the point of view. What happens is that anybody can write these kinds of books about Indians, but the same does not hold true with any other group. Indians have so little political power."http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/...

I understand that Sherman Alexie would be rightly offended by a lot of details and attitudes that don't strike me (http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jan/...). He has a point that such a book might not be lauded if about any other group rather than Indians. Whether there are any books by white people moving into a black or latino ghetto, or an English-ancestry yuppie moving into a bad white neigborhood on the south side of Boston, or a straight man living in a gay-dominated neighborhood, I don't know. Then again, no other entities in the U.S. make up separate nations.

That said, my biggest disagreement with Alexie is how I perceived this book - and that reflects who I am (an outsider, a white person). At no point while reading did I take the primary tone of the author as being that of a white person trying to explain the Indian (Ogalla) world to outsiders. I took it as a white person trying to understand and make sense of his relationship and his identification with this tribe. Frazier lays on the line without defense where he is coming from - I have a fascination with this group to which I do not belong, and I want to explore the meaning and strength and very fundamental hard limits to the extent of this identity. And that is honest and imperfect. And it is inherently a non-Indian perspective. I can't really argue with Alexie's opinions about whether that perspective should be offered and praised so highly in the first place. But I can identify strongly with that perspective. It's the reality of being in a group that has the luxury of being a cultural consumer in the U.S., rather than a heavily victimized (and nearly exterminated group). But if reading a book about Crazy Horse leads me to things like feeling a greater sense of responsiblity for drunk homeless people in Rapid City SD - and then to other places I live by logical extension - then I think that's a good thing even if Crazy Horse would have killed me without a thought had he seen me along Rapid Creek back in the 1860s'.
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Apr 04, 2012 Jennie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: important-but-craptastic

Just spit it out, Man! What is it that you are trying to tell me? What kind of book is this? Argh!!

I usually get through books quickly, I can't help it, I'm a compulsive reader. This book was challenging for me to finally finish. Frazier does a terrible job with a fascinating subject and I find that almost unforgivable. The idea of a memoir laced with history and research sounds fantastic, unfortunately the result leaves a lot to be desired.

Frazier really, really needed to figure out where he w...more Just spit it out, Man! What is it that you are trying to tell me? What kind of book is this? Argh!!

I usually get through books quickly, I can't help it, I'm a compulsive reader. This book was challenging for me to finally finish. Frazier does a terrible job with a fascinating subject and I find that almost unforgivable. The idea of a memoir laced with history and research sounds fantastic, unfortunately the result leaves a lot to be desired.

Frazier really, really needed to figure out where he was going with this book BEFORE he started writing it. If you want to write a memoir go for it (although I loathe him and I would have bailed on one); if you want to write a history/present account please do so (the topic would have been great, but his style is boring as shit). Did I mention that this book just didn't work???

And really, what is it with white people wanting to be Native American? Seriously, its a fetish that is absolutely out of control and fueled (I would guess) by unwillingness to confront racism and white guilt. Because its not just a "wow, this culture is interesting, let me learn more" kind of obsession. Its a "I desperately want to be you and let me immerse myself in the parts of your culture that make me feel interesting" type of obsession. Its reprehensible and repugnant and reading about his fanboy hero worship just made me feel fucking dirty. And yes, I feel that I can justify my opinion here. Frazier spends so much time talking about his friends, but from what he describes its not any kind of healthy relationship. They stop by drunk, they ask for money, they disrupt his relationship with his family. He's always bailing them out of trouble and they don't seem to want anything to do with him unless he's doing something for them. The relationships he has in this book just make everyone involved look bad.

You know what I would have preferred? (I mean other than literally anything else) A book about the Lakota written BY a member of the tribe. Or just a memoir of experiences/relationships on the reservation.

The actual information about the Lakota is interesting. There is a lot of history, particularly more recent history which I found interesting. I didn't have a lot of knowledge on the subject and now feel that I am at least a novice. The small dose of politics we are treated to is also illuminating and would prove for a fascinating read on its own.

I've read a number of books on race relations, racial tensions and integration in America. Every single other book I have read has been better than this one. A combination of hating the author and poor structure ruined what could have been a good read. I'm disappointed and will not be reading anything else by Frazier.(less)

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Dec 11, 2012 Jeremy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Quotes:

Russia and Ireland grew no potatoes before travelers found the plant in Indian gardens in South America; throughout Europe, the introduction of the potato caused a rise in the standard of living and a population boom. Before Indians, no one in the world had ever smoked tobacco.

“I talk to you because you have a curious mind and an innocent heart. And you’re not my friend. You’re my brother.” Le War Lance to the author

“Well that’s the Indian way. We’d rather laugh about still being alive th...more

Quotes:

Russia and Ireland grew no potatoes before travelers found the plant in Indian gardens in South America; throughout Europe, the introduction of the potato caused a rise in the standard of living and a population boom. Before Indians, no one in the world had ever smoked tobacco.

“I talk to you because you have a curious mind and an innocent heart. And you’re not my friend. You’re my brother.” Le War Lance to the author

“Well that’s the Indian way. We’d rather laugh about still being alive than moan about how we almost died.” Le War Lance

Of the ten poorest counties in the United States in 1990, four were on Indian reservations in South Dakota… according to the same census, the richest place in America is Falls Church, Virginia… The wealth of the suburban D.C. counties is due to their closeness to the capitol, with income from government-related businesses such as lobbying, law, and consulting firms. Like the poorest place in the country, the richest places get their money mainly from the federal government.

So much is wrong on Pine Ridge. There’s suffering and poverty and violence and alcoholism, and the aura of unstoppability that repeated misfortunes acquire. But beneath all that is something bigger and darker and harder to look at straight on. The only word for it, I’m afraid, is evil.

Good appears most vividly in resistance to its opposite; that’s what heroism is about, after all. The more you see of Pine Ridge’s bad side, the more you long for evidence of good, and the happier you are when you find it. Great good does exist here, too, in the lives of people who hold fast to it and serve their neighbors without much encouragement or reward, and in the steadfastness of the good old Oglala culture that endures.

As actual advice to the Oglala, however, I have none. Advice from authors and others – representatives of the church, or officials in the government – usually has not worked out too well in the past. Besides, no Oglala has ever asked me.(less)

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Apr 28, 2010 Anne rated it 2 of 5 stars

The fact that it took me about five months to finish this book is a pretty good reflection of my thoughts about it. I orginally picked up this book, by regular New Yorker contributor Frazier, because it focuses on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota - the most impoverished reservation in the United States. I was interested in learning more about the Lakota, Oglala Sioux past, and about how people are living on the reservation today. The book is billed as just this - Frasier's observations...more The fact that it took me about five months to finish this book is a pretty good reflection of my thoughts about it. I orginally picked up this book, by regular New Yorker contributor Frazier, because it focuses on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota - the most impoverished reservation in the United States. I was interested in learning more about the Lakota, Oglala Sioux past, and about how people are living on the reservation today. The book is billed as just this - Frasier's observations and research about the reservation. In addition, Frasier seeks to demonstrate the hero culture of the Lakota - their reverance for heroes, and their desperate need for heroes in a culture that has been systematically destroyed by the United States government. Frasier's history is thorough, and his respect for the Sioux lends itself to a thoughtful and rich narrative about their culture. But, it did not seem as if Frasier had a unifying idea about where he wanted this book to go, or necessarily what story he wanted to tell. He talks about several individuals he has befriended on the reservation - not all painted in the most positive light. And then, about half-way through the book, he dives into the story of a female high-school basketball star in the community, who tragically dies, but not before she brings hope to the reservation. The book seemed disjointed, which is probably why I had a difficult time sticking to it. Frasier succeeds in presenting the brutal reality of hte life on the reservation - of demonstrating the effects of poverty, alcoholism, and uncertainly on the Oglala people. I think the book I wanted to read would have focused more on the Oglala individuals - tralking about their own pasts, what being a part of the nation means to them, and what they want for the future of their people. I think there are a lot of other books out there that will help me piece together the history and the narratives that I'm looking for - Frasier's book isn't the entire picture, but it's certainly started me on my way.
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Jan 18, 2009 Heather rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-this-book, memoir, non-fiction

I can't believe so many people rated this book 4-5 stars. Some people, I noticed, read it for a class. I can see how they might rate it higher when they're viewing it as a textbook; as a textbook, I admit it's better than most I've had to read. But for pleasure reading, I wouldn't recommend it. Although, I did pull one quote from it that I will chew on later.

The critics applaud Frazier's "keen eye for detail", but I would categorize it as more of a nauseatingly overdone & boring eye for deta...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: peace-corps, non-fiction

The most compelling aspect of this book, for me, was the way the author inserted himself into the narrative. Sometimes when I am reading non-fiction, that kind of subjectivity bothers me, but in this case, I think the book wouldn't have been a success without it.

Frazier's connection to, and his quasi-obsession with, the Oglala Sioux, is recounted in this memoir-esque book. He builds the story off of his on-again/off-again friendship with Le, who lives in Pine Ridge on the Sioux reservation. The...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Carl Williams rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-and-reread-for-classes

There are a great number of weaknesses in this book. The author doesn't resonate being the center of them all I suppose. But....

But every high school student should read the story of SuAnne Big Crow, a Lakota Sioux high school student on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Not because she was one of those phenomenal athletes, though she was. not because she was smart and got good grades, though she did. In a world where the label of "hero" is quickly given SuAnne Big Crow was a real lasting hero....more

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Jan 17, 2009 Dorothy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Frazier has the social sensibilities of a skilled archeologist paying sharp attention to dialect, landscapes, sounds, and political nuances, and artfully describing them in clear, concise and easy to understand language.

Having grown up in Lakota territory, his words resonate the truth of what I know first-hand.

This is not only a book about the Lakota (aka Sioux), it is a book about American society and who we have become.

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May 29, 2011 Noel Bass rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ian Frazier takes a fickle approach to this book. It starts with almost a text book of information, but in an instant, as if to take a deep breath, changes into a journal. By the tail end of the book we are suddenly following a sports hero. There is a lot of humor in this book, but almost incidentally rather than pre-conceived. Through all the grief and hopelessness and disparity, he finds beauty through the people and land.

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Jan 13, 2011 Joe Henry rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was on the Re-Member suggested reading list for our church youth mission trip to the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD. The annotation: “A contemporary book about life on Pine Ridge from a white man’s perspective. You will enjoy reading about and then encountering many locations.” Frazier is a good writer. Like the week on Pine Ridge itself, the read was provocative.

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Sep 02, 2012 Sage rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this book after having visited the Pine Ridge Reservation and found it to be fairly accurate. It is not a book giving a historical account of Native American life, specifically, not of Lakota history. It is telling of current Lakota life. I don't know that it exemplifies the pride of tradition, family, and the reasons for staying in such a poverty ridden area.

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Jul 28, 2007 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone curious about Native Americans

I love this book. It gives me insight into a culture which is unlike yet intertwined with my own. Growing up white in western South Dakota generally meant ignoring the fact that the poorest county in the nation is an hour and a half from my home. Ian Frazier comes into the Pine Ridge reservation as a friend to one man, and he gets to know people and tells their amazing stories.

I think my favorite thing about this book is Frazier's tone. So frequently when you hear about the Lakota peoples the st...more

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Apr 21, 2009 Karen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this as a selection by my book club but found it to be a rambling memoir. Those who were not familiar with problems on the reservation--poverty, alcoholism, violence--found this a depressing selection. The best part was about SuAnne but even then, Frazier went on and on with each basketball play that wasn't even important to his point.

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Jan 18, 2013 Susan Grodsky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Well written and heart felt, though it's hard to read page after page that details the violence and hopelessness embedded in Sioux culture. Frazier gets that the violence is a symptom and not a cause. But he doesn't even attempt to explain the self destructive behavior he describes so vividly.

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About Ian Frazier

Ian Frazier (b.1951) is an American writer and humorist. He is the author of Travels in Siberia, Great Plains, On the Rez, Lamentations of the Father and Coyote V. Acme, among other works, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He graduated from Harvard University. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ianfra...

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Books by Ian Frazier

The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days: A Novel

Gone to New York: Adventures in the City

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Trivia About On the Rez

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Quotes from On the Rez

“America is a leap of the imagination. From its beginning, people had only a persistent idea of what a good country should be. The idea involved freedom, equality, justice, and the pursuit of happiness; nowadays most of us probably could not describe it a lot more clearly than that. The truth is, it always has been a bit of a guess. No one has ever known for sure whether a country based on such an idea is really possible, but again and again, we have leaped toward the idea and hoped. What SuAnne Big Crow demonstrated in the Lead high school gym is that making the leap is the whole point. The idea does not truly live unless it is expressed by an act; the country does not live unless we make the leap from our tribe or focus group or gated community or demographic, and land on the shaky platform of that idea of a good country which all kinds of different people share.

This leap is made in public, and it's made for free. It's not a product or a service that anyone will pay you for. You do it for reasons unexplainable by economics--for ambition, out of conviction, for the heck of it, in playfulness, for love. It's done in public spaces, face-to-face, where anyone is free to go. It's not done on television, on the Internet, or over the telephone; our electronic systems can only tell us if the leap made elsewhere has succeeded or failed. The places you'll see it are high school gyms, city sidewalks, the subway, bus stations, public parks, parking lots, and wherever people gather during natural disasters. In those places and others like them, the leaps that continue to invent and knit the country continue to be made. When the leap fails, it looks like the L.A. riots, or Sherman's March through Georgia. When it succeeds, it looks like the New York City Bicentennial Celebration in July 1976 or the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963. On that scale, whether it succeeds or fails, it's always something to see. The leap requires physical presence and physical risk. But the payoff--in terms of dreams realized, of understanding, of people getting along--can be so glorious as to make the risk seem minuscule.” — 6 people liked it

“Would Crazy Horse have spent this much to remodel a kitchen?” — 3 people liked it

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On the Rez

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