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Space Age Indians: Their Encounters with the Blue Men, Reptilians, and Other Star People
SPACE AGE INDIANS presents the encounters of American Indians who lived from the time when the first human astronauts ventured into space to the present day--a time known as the Space Age. Almost all the experiencers interviewed by the author have used computers, social media, and the internet, at least to some extent. While their stories differ significantly from those not exposed to all the media information about UFOs and aliens, it did not appear to influence their experience. Their amazing and sometimes bizarre stories represent just a fraction of the more than four thousand accounts the author has collected over the years of interviewing American Indians around the country about their encounters with the Star People.
- GenresNonfictionAliensMonsters
344 pages, Paperback
Published May 17, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 19, 2021
Fabulous research
This book knocked my socks off. Not because it was sensational, because the stories are believable, sincere accounts by indigenous people. Glad to see the author has more books on this subject, one with much significance for the human race.
This book knocked my socks off. Not because it was sensational, because the stories are believable, sincere accounts by indigenous people. Glad to see the author has more books on this subject, one with much significance for the human race.
March 3, 2022
Although many people, including those who study UFO abductions, consider the phenomenon largely confined to white folks and starting in 1947, there is a long history of Native American lore about "Star Men." Sometimes they are narrated as visitors from beyond the Earth, sometimes as dwellers below it, interconnected with the origins of Indian tribes. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke has devoted several books to exploring Indian interactions with UFOs and their occupants, collecting and recounting--with names changed--people's stories.
In Space Age Indians she assembles 45 personal accounts, almost all involving direct interaction with aliens, sometimes voluntary and benign, sometimes compelled and frightening. The stories recounted are all of relatively recent date; the oldest go back to the Vietnam War. Hence the "space age:" her subjects are all Indians who grew up in the years after Sputnik launched "the space age;" they are Indians immersed in both a contemporary, white-dominant world and imbued with the culture and beliefs of their people. Clarke's fascination in Space Age Indians stems from the complex interdigitation of these not wholly melded traditions that pull her subjects in different directions as they seek to make sense of their experiences.
The stories fall into three broad categories. First come those dealing with"The Blue Men" (pp. 1-103). Vietnam during the war is the setting for many. The Blue Men appear to Indian soldiers in the heat of battle or on patrol. They rescue the subjects from life-threatening situations and sometimes even cure them of wounds or disabilities. Always benign, when asked to explain why they have saved a subject, they often hint that he has a destiny to fulfill. This gives meaning to their experiences and helps to assimilate the bizarre encounters into their own, everyday lives. Encounters not in Vietnam occur on reservations but again often involve saving a life, as for instance when the Blue Men remove a stalled car from railroad tracks as a train approaches.
The second section of the book (pp. 105-196) is less cohesive, since it treats visitations from reptilian and insectoid aliens. The former are almost universally hostile and frightening; they engage in forced abductions and medical experiences. The insectoid aliens tend to be, again, relatively benign; one young woman avers she was always fascinated with insects and welcomed her encounter--which helped encourage her to pursue a PhD program in entomology. The final section (pp. 197-318) lumps together a potpourri of stories that don't fit into the other categories.
Many features of Indians' encounters will be perfectly familiar to anyone who's read the standard UFO literature. Cars stop, lights fail, electricity no longer flows; people are transported into spaceships without seeing how; there is missing time; inside the ships are other humans, often in zombie-like states; when the encounter is over, they find themselves suddenly at home, or back on the road. At the same time, though, the experiences are filtered, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the individual, through Indigenous ideas about Star Men, ancient interactions between aliens and ancestors, and Indigenous religious belief. There are strong echoes of reports of how Australian Indigenous communities understand UFOs, as laid out neatly by the anthropologist Eirik Saethre ("Close Encounters: UFO Beliefs in a Remote Australian Aboriginal Community," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13 [2007] 901-915). Especially resonant is the link to the land: both the Australians and the Indians experience their encounters--setting aside those in Vietnam--on ancestral land. In the Australian case there is an explicit sense that the UFOs "belong" to the land in the same sense as the Aborigines, and unlike the Europeans settler colonists. It would be fascinating to know whether any of Clarke's subjects had the same feeling.
It's apparent that Clarke accepts the empirical reality of the encounters she chronicles, although she never quite fully admits it. Unfortunately she doesn't ask probing questions nor does she offer any analysis beyond a couple of summary pages (pp. 319-320). Her bibliography contains both credulous and somewhat more objective, if not critical, literature, but none figures in the body of the book. This is too bad, because the material she has collected provides a rich and new set of data about a phenomenon that deserves serious study--especially from researchers who start from a neutral stance. It is clear that all of Clarke's subjects sincerely believe in the objective reality of their visitations, which have in some case profoundly affected them; the same is true of non-Indian experiencers (leaving aside the obvious frauds). One must respect their accounts, which doesn't mean, of course, that they must necessarily be taken literally.
In Space Age Indians she assembles 45 personal accounts, almost all involving direct interaction with aliens, sometimes voluntary and benign, sometimes compelled and frightening. The stories recounted are all of relatively recent date; the oldest go back to the Vietnam War. Hence the "space age:" her subjects are all Indians who grew up in the years after Sputnik launched "the space age;" they are Indians immersed in both a contemporary, white-dominant world and imbued with the culture and beliefs of their people. Clarke's fascination in Space Age Indians stems from the complex interdigitation of these not wholly melded traditions that pull her subjects in different directions as they seek to make sense of their experiences.
The stories fall into three broad categories. First come those dealing with"The Blue Men" (pp. 1-103). Vietnam during the war is the setting for many. The Blue Men appear to Indian soldiers in the heat of battle or on patrol. They rescue the subjects from life-threatening situations and sometimes even cure them of wounds or disabilities. Always benign, when asked to explain why they have saved a subject, they often hint that he has a destiny to fulfill. This gives meaning to their experiences and helps to assimilate the bizarre encounters into their own, everyday lives. Encounters not in Vietnam occur on reservations but again often involve saving a life, as for instance when the Blue Men remove a stalled car from railroad tracks as a train approaches.
The second section of the book (pp. 105-196) is less cohesive, since it treats visitations from reptilian and insectoid aliens. The former are almost universally hostile and frightening; they engage in forced abductions and medical experiences. The insectoid aliens tend to be, again, relatively benign; one young woman avers she was always fascinated with insects and welcomed her encounter--which helped encourage her to pursue a PhD program in entomology. The final section (pp. 197-318) lumps together a potpourri of stories that don't fit into the other categories.
Many features of Indians' encounters will be perfectly familiar to anyone who's read the standard UFO literature. Cars stop, lights fail, electricity no longer flows; people are transported into spaceships without seeing how; there is missing time; inside the ships are other humans, often in zombie-like states; when the encounter is over, they find themselves suddenly at home, or back on the road. At the same time, though, the experiences are filtered, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the individual, through Indigenous ideas about Star Men, ancient interactions between aliens and ancestors, and Indigenous religious belief. There are strong echoes of reports of how Australian Indigenous communities understand UFOs, as laid out neatly by the anthropologist Eirik Saethre ("Close Encounters: UFO Beliefs in a Remote Australian Aboriginal Community," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13 [2007] 901-915). Especially resonant is the link to the land: both the Australians and the Indians experience their encounters--setting aside those in Vietnam--on ancestral land. In the Australian case there is an explicit sense that the UFOs "belong" to the land in the same sense as the Aborigines, and unlike the Europeans settler colonists. It would be fascinating to know whether any of Clarke's subjects had the same feeling.
It's apparent that Clarke accepts the empirical reality of the encounters she chronicles, although she never quite fully admits it. Unfortunately she doesn't ask probing questions nor does she offer any analysis beyond a couple of summary pages (pp. 319-320). Her bibliography contains both credulous and somewhat more objective, if not critical, literature, but none figures in the body of the book. This is too bad, because the material she has collected provides a rich and new set of data about a phenomenon that deserves serious study--especially from researchers who start from a neutral stance. It is clear that all of Clarke's subjects sincerely believe in the objective reality of their visitations, which have in some case profoundly affected them; the same is true of non-Indian experiencers (leaving aside the obvious frauds). One must respect their accounts, which doesn't mean, of course, that they must necessarily be taken literally.
February 28, 2022
I wanted to give this two stars,but I just couldn't, the only redeeming factor was some of the stories were really interesting. But the rest is such a hot mess, I just couldn't.
This was my book club's pick this month. My husband and his wife had read this prior and chose it as their couple's pick. We are a very open-minded family, myself and my brother are very interested in extra-terrestrials and paranormal encounters and I LOVE books like this that are interviews with people about their experiences.
With that being said, this book was painful to get through, even for the ones who picked it. This isn't because I found the stories unbelievable, well sometimes I did, but because of Ardy's presence throughout the book and the complete lack of an editor.
I'm thoroughly convinced that had Ardy removed herself from this completely, not inserted her role in every single story, this may have been really good. But she inserted herself constantly and obnoxiously. Coming off as a horrendous narcissist. Nearly every story featured how someone was in love with her, how giving she is, showering people with gifts, and how every one invites her to their weddings. In the very first story, she states that the speaker introduces her as "the love of his life" "The only woman he's proposed to and turned him down" he never married, he met her one night at a beach party and that was it! True love! This is followed up with a story from the woman who was in love with him but accepted that Ardy was his true love. A later story describes an aging bachelor who right away says "If I was a younger man" regarding how she's wooed him, he never had any desire to marry, but after the first five minutes with Ardy, wooh buddy. She describes how she showers people with gifts and one even cried because "it was the first gift he ever received". I kept finding myself shaking the book, being like "ARDY JUST TALK ABOUT THE ALIENS". She on multiple occasions described the men as having "bulging muscles" "so tall he spilled into the aisle", and focused on how to fit one of the girl interviewees was. Then another poor soul she described as "she could be pretty" "an obvious smoker" "hadn't brushed or cleaned her hair in months" "her clothes stained and in disrepair". These descriptions are completely not needed for the stories. This wouldn't be such an issue if it didn't undermine the anonymity of the interviewees. She on multiple occasions promises to omit identities but then gets so specific that it'd be hard not to find these people. A very attractive, bulging man nicknamed Rambo wired the electrical system for the entire reservation. So we have a man who is very buff, with a movie nickname, who did a very specific thing, it wouldn't be hard to find them if we really wanted to. So either she broke her promise, or she made that completely up, causing one to question what else she made up. It became a running gag in our group to count how often she talked about herself, or how many diet cokes she drank. The follow-up blurbs were the most self-indulgent, as they offered no information on the people beyond HER role in their lives, and how SHE made them better somehow. She also used multiple opportunities to hype her books up, how you can buy them on kindle, how for someone with a very short bibliography, somehow EVERYONE she meets has read her books. When we finished the book, the general consensus was we liked the stories, but boy were we DONE with Ardy.
With this being said, the big issue for me was the lack of editing. In one scene she'll refer to someone as being in the army, and then not two sentences later say the marines. She'll say that a year went by, then the next page it was actually 3 years. Or in a story about a man with many dogs, she asked how long he's been naming them after astronomy, "since my encounter" he states "tell me about that encounter" "well Calliope was in her Kennel", oh so he started BEFORE his first encounter. She had typos everywhere, and many other inconsistencies. My personal favorite is where she describes a man who loved to read books on his kindle, but then in her follow-up blurb claims he finally entered the modern age and got an email address. You can't have an amazon account and buy books without an email. So he already had one, my guess is he didn't want to give her his main one. OR once again she embellished, bringing all of it into question.
The stories themselves were interesting, if not repetitive, they had some really interesting crossovers, most agreeing on certain experiences, telepathy, healing, the small greys being more of a serving class or even synthetic. These were super interesting. She separated the stories by type, Blue men, Bug Men, and others. However, in the middle of the blue men section, she had a story with blue men and bug men, then moved on to only blue men again. A freelance editor would tell you immediately to have that story, that features both, be the last story of the first section, to set up the second section. This might sound nitpicky, but in fact, it messed up the flow of the book. She did this in nearly every section, losing any flow she may have had. With the last section losing the most direction, and could have easily been a section on healing had she edited properly.
This all culminated in the most frustrating finale chapter, where she FINALLY states her thesis, which is such an afterthought and not supported by ANY of the chosen stories, she makes it clear early on she has thousands of stories, so if she had a clear thesis, why didn't she choose stories that supported it? The opening story has Vietnam vets who nicknamed themselves "Space Age Indians". The term "space-age" was popular in the 60s. But she hijacks this term, applies it incorrectly throughout the book, and then uses it as her thesis to refer to more of a "technological age". She claims she wanted this book to explore how these encounters are affected by the technology of the modern age, yet only one story even touches on this, the one where a man finds another man who he saw on the ship via the internet. So it feels like such an afterthought.
Then the most baffling part, which even caused my brother, who is a true believer, to question things, was the inclusion of the bibliography. This was a book of "interviews" with her own thoughts put in, primarily describing how great she is, and how hot the men are. So, what is this multipage bibliography for? Where did you reference ANY of this? This caused my club to discuss were these even interviews, like real ones, or merely fictionalized ones based on her research of other books? Why else would you have a bibliography in a book that requires no research, only an accurate recording of people's accounts? We were left baffled by it.
This book could have been good, and many of the stories are very interesting. But Ardy's constant presence was so distracting that it became a joke and caused even the biggest believers in our book club to question the whole book. This was the first time that our final meeting for a book was author-focused, and was very short, we had to really dig deep to find something to discuss that wasn't Ardy.
I beg you Ardy, if these books are so successful that people are really recognizing you on the streets, please hire a freelance editor. Please. They could bring out the actual subject matter so well, but you have to be willing to talk about yourself less.
In the final meeting, my sister-in-law opened with "this was so much worse than I remember it being". I hope my partner's and my pick doesn't suffer the same fate.
This was my book club's pick this month. My husband and his wife had read this prior and chose it as their couple's pick. We are a very open-minded family, myself and my brother are very interested in extra-terrestrials and paranormal encounters and I LOVE books like this that are interviews with people about their experiences.
With that being said, this book was painful to get through, even for the ones who picked it. This isn't because I found the stories unbelievable, well sometimes I did, but because of Ardy's presence throughout the book and the complete lack of an editor.
I'm thoroughly convinced that had Ardy removed herself from this completely, not inserted her role in every single story, this may have been really good. But she inserted herself constantly and obnoxiously. Coming off as a horrendous narcissist. Nearly every story featured how someone was in love with her, how giving she is, showering people with gifts, and how every one invites her to their weddings. In the very first story, she states that the speaker introduces her as "the love of his life" "The only woman he's proposed to and turned him down" he never married, he met her one night at a beach party and that was it! True love! This is followed up with a story from the woman who was in love with him but accepted that Ardy was his true love. A later story describes an aging bachelor who right away says "If I was a younger man" regarding how she's wooed him, he never had any desire to marry, but after the first five minutes with Ardy, wooh buddy. She describes how she showers people with gifts and one even cried because "it was the first gift he ever received". I kept finding myself shaking the book, being like "ARDY JUST TALK ABOUT THE ALIENS". She on multiple occasions described the men as having "bulging muscles" "so tall he spilled into the aisle", and focused on how to fit one of the girl interviewees was. Then another poor soul she described as "she could be pretty" "an obvious smoker" "hadn't brushed or cleaned her hair in months" "her clothes stained and in disrepair". These descriptions are completely not needed for the stories. This wouldn't be such an issue if it didn't undermine the anonymity of the interviewees. She on multiple occasions promises to omit identities but then gets so specific that it'd be hard not to find these people. A very attractive, bulging man nicknamed Rambo wired the electrical system for the entire reservation. So we have a man who is very buff, with a movie nickname, who did a very specific thing, it wouldn't be hard to find them if we really wanted to. So either she broke her promise, or she made that completely up, causing one to question what else she made up. It became a running gag in our group to count how often she talked about herself, or how many diet cokes she drank. The follow-up blurbs were the most self-indulgent, as they offered no information on the people beyond HER role in their lives, and how SHE made them better somehow. She also used multiple opportunities to hype her books up, how you can buy them on kindle, how for someone with a very short bibliography, somehow EVERYONE she meets has read her books. When we finished the book, the general consensus was we liked the stories, but boy were we DONE with Ardy.
With this being said, the big issue for me was the lack of editing. In one scene she'll refer to someone as being in the army, and then not two sentences later say the marines. She'll say that a year went by, then the next page it was actually 3 years. Or in a story about a man with many dogs, she asked how long he's been naming them after astronomy, "since my encounter" he states "tell me about that encounter" "well Calliope was in her Kennel", oh so he started BEFORE his first encounter. She had typos everywhere, and many other inconsistencies. My personal favorite is where she describes a man who loved to read books on his kindle, but then in her follow-up blurb claims he finally entered the modern age and got an email address. You can't have an amazon account and buy books without an email. So he already had one, my guess is he didn't want to give her his main one. OR once again she embellished, bringing all of it into question.
The stories themselves were interesting, if not repetitive, they had some really interesting crossovers, most agreeing on certain experiences, telepathy, healing, the small greys being more of a serving class or even synthetic. These were super interesting. She separated the stories by type, Blue men, Bug Men, and others. However, in the middle of the blue men section, she had a story with blue men and bug men, then moved on to only blue men again. A freelance editor would tell you immediately to have that story, that features both, be the last story of the first section, to set up the second section. This might sound nitpicky, but in fact, it messed up the flow of the book. She did this in nearly every section, losing any flow she may have had. With the last section losing the most direction, and could have easily been a section on healing had she edited properly.
This all culminated in the most frustrating finale chapter, where she FINALLY states her thesis, which is such an afterthought and not supported by ANY of the chosen stories, she makes it clear early on she has thousands of stories, so if she had a clear thesis, why didn't she choose stories that supported it? The opening story has Vietnam vets who nicknamed themselves "Space Age Indians". The term "space-age" was popular in the 60s. But she hijacks this term, applies it incorrectly throughout the book, and then uses it as her thesis to refer to more of a "technological age". She claims she wanted this book to explore how these encounters are affected by the technology of the modern age, yet only one story even touches on this, the one where a man finds another man who he saw on the ship via the internet. So it feels like such an afterthought.
Then the most baffling part, which even caused my brother, who is a true believer, to question things, was the inclusion of the bibliography. This was a book of "interviews" with her own thoughts put in, primarily describing how great she is, and how hot the men are. So, what is this multipage bibliography for? Where did you reference ANY of this? This caused my club to discuss were these even interviews, like real ones, or merely fictionalized ones based on her research of other books? Why else would you have a bibliography in a book that requires no research, only an accurate recording of people's accounts? We were left baffled by it.
This book could have been good, and many of the stories are very interesting. But Ardy's constant presence was so distracting that it became a joke and caused even the biggest believers in our book club to question the whole book. This was the first time that our final meeting for a book was author-focused, and was very short, we had to really dig deep to find something to discuss that wasn't Ardy.
I beg you Ardy, if these books are so successful that people are really recognizing you on the streets, please hire a freelance editor. Please. They could bring out the actual subject matter so well, but you have to be willing to talk about yourself less.
In the final meeting, my sister-in-law opened with "this was so much worse than I remember it being". I hope my partner's and my pick doesn't suffer the same fate.
March 3, 2020
As with all of Ardy Sixkiller Clarke's books I found this one, once again, very interesting and fun to read. Her writing style draws me in and makes the book a real page turner. I have read all of her books in one or two nights due to her writing style...questions, answers and a little bit of what's going on in the background as she's interviewing her subjects (friends really), as she almost always manages to stay in some sort of contact with them once she meets them, how blessed they are to know her and she to know them! The stories she relates may not be believed by all but I personally do and find her books fascinating...almost a learning experience for me. Most of them have me researching further into the field, she has become one of my favorite reads for extra-terrestrial information. I would love to know her in person, she seems quite an interesting woman and a loyal friend to the end! I hope she will continue to write even though she has slowed down her travels these days, which I was sad to hear, but thoroughly understand at this stage of my life! Thank you, Ardy for all the insight, knowledge and joy you bring to me with your books and your writing style!
July 31, 2019
Awesome
This is a great compilation of Native American UFO encounters. I have read the authors previous two, related UFO books. This one didn’t disappoint. My only wish is she lives another hundred years and continues writing as they can only enrich and enlighten those who have an open mind.
This is a great compilation of Native American UFO encounters. I have read the authors previous two, related UFO books. This one didn’t disappoint. My only wish is she lives another hundred years and continues writing as they can only enrich and enlighten those who have an open mind.
February 25, 2025
Another powerful book from this author. These encounters are so important to read about and know about, especially in western society that dismisses claims like these. Obviously we are not alone, and well researched books like Ardy’s drive home that knowledge. Excellent read.
July 4, 2020
Fascinating...I particularly loved the stories where healing occured..I will be looking up at the Stars more often..I would love to hear more about the Old Legends that were shared...
June 18, 2024
Riveting
Authenticity is the.hallmark of this collection. Each storehmis.engrossing and provides a supplement to the whole. Engaging and easy to read
Authenticity is the.hallmark of this collection. Each storehmis.engrossing and provides a supplement to the whole. Engaging and easy to read
June 28, 2019
Another wonderful book!
I have all of her UFO books and I have a great deal of respect for her. I was very interested in this book particularly because of the mention of the people air blue skin. There was a TV show about blue skinned people who still live in the same area that is mentioned in this book.
Also, at age 15I had a close encounter of the first kind in the Chicago suburban area and have read as much as I can regarding UFOs. They are real and they ARE HERE!
I have all of her UFO books and I have a great deal of respect for her. I was very interested in this book particularly because of the mention of the people air blue skin. There was a TV show about blue skinned people who still live in the same area that is mentioned in this book.
Also, at age 15I had a close encounter of the first kind in the Chicago suburban area and have read as much as I can regarding UFOs. They are real and they ARE HERE!
November 3, 2019
Very interesting stories. A few editorial errors such as; on one page she says he enlisted in the Army and on the next page she calls him a Marine. Minor errors. Overall a good book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews