Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation

by Michael Powell

The moving story of a Navajo high school basketball team, its members struggling with the everyday challenges of high school, adolescence, and family, and the great and unique obstacles facing Native Americans living on reservations.
 
Deep in the heart of northern Arizona, in a small and isolated patch of the vast 17.5-million-acre Navajo reservation, sits Chinle High School. Here, basketball is passion, passed from grandparent to parent to child. Rez Ball is a sport for winters where dark and cold descend fast and there is little else to do but roam mesa tops, work, and wonder what the future holds. The town has 4,500 residents and the high school arena seats 7,000. Fans drive thirty, fifty, even eighty miles to see the fast-paced and highly competitive matchups that are more than just games to players and fans.
 
Celebrated Times journalist Michael Powell brings us a narrative of triumph and hardship, a moving story about a basketball team on a Navajo reservation that shows how important sports can be to youths in struggling communities, and the transcendent magic and painful realities that confront Native Americans living on reservations. This book details his season-long immersion in the team, town, and culture, in which there were exhilarating wins, crushing losses, and conversations on long bus rides across the desert about dreams of  leaving home and the fear of the same.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Native American, History, Basketball, Indigenous, Audiobook

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chinle, Arizona, Navajo nation where basketball offers much to players and their family, fans. This sport is King here and coaches come and go. They are expected to win. So, yes the sport is a big part of this book, and the authors descriptions of the matches, some of the both exciting. Mostly basketball, but not all. This is also a look at those who live on the reservation, the lives of the players, present and last, and the teachers and others who try to make a difference.

The author does a fantastic job, interviewing a wide range of people. Aunties, uncles, those clinging to the old ways and those trying to embrace the new. Poverty, bad habits, lack of opportunity keep many of these people at or below the poverty level. Despite this, the reservation is their home and many who leave return and some never leave at all. Cultural practices are noted, the games with possible curses, between the Apache and Navajo are outworldly. Superstition rules!

Also part memoir as the author chronicles his own experiences in Chinle, a place and a part of the country he came to fully embrace. So, this can't and shouldn't be written off as just another sports book. It is indeed, so much more.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful and insightful book by Michael Powell who spent a lot of time in the Navajo Nation and documented not just a basketball season, but the players, coaches, family members and the problems on the Nation.
Following the fortunes of one team, the Chinle Wildcats, Powell is able to show all of the issues that surround life on "the Rez", and documents problems that envelope the entire team and nation. From fractured families, to horrific living conditions, lack of running water and electricity, alcoholism, lack of jobs and an amazing love of basketball we see all the good and bad of this area. We are introduced to the team members and their families, families who many times will follow the team on 10-hour round trips to ballgames. Powell makes friends with most everyone and details all the difficulties these young men face at home, at school and on the court as they have to regularly play bigger and "whiter" teams. But the team, at times, are their own worst enemy as they bristle at the coach, get upset when he gives negative comments and incurs the ire of not just the player, but his family and fans if they feel he is playing favorites (even though those players are the best on the team). Things get better for the team by midseason and the players finally come to realize that maybe, just maybe, the coach knows what he is talking about.
The TV rights to the book were purchased by Netflix and will be made into a fictionalized series, one that I can only hope will be as good as this very special book!

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long-time resident of Southwest Colorado I have made numerous journeys through the Navajo reservation. It is a land of breath-taking beauty, and in places, extreme poverty. Isolation, limited employment opportunities, homelessness, and wide-spread alcoholism can make for a very harsh and bleak life, but basketball unites far-flung communities and provides hope across the reservation. There, basketball is a passion and has been for generations.

“Canyon Dreams” tells the story of the Chinle high school boys basketball team’s attempt to become state champions, but that’s only a part of the story. Michael Powell immerses the reader in a richly detailed exploration of Navajo history, culture, spirituality, and the landscape of this vast and sparsely populated area of the US. He is a talented sports writer, but it’s this immersion in the Navajo world and people that make this book so remarkable. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

My brother just finished this and gave it to me. I do have a "thing" for Arizona so I'm hoping that this will be fun. It's been a while since I read any non-fiction so that's another reason for me to read this.

So, we're off and running(literally) with the Chinle High basketball team. They're off to a rough start but better times loom ahead - I presume. The author provides all kinds of background to his story: cultural, historical, athletic, geographical and geological. It's all good to me. I've never been anywhere near Chinle or Canyon de Chelly, but I remember Mesa Verde archaeology friends(summer of 1973) telling me that I needed to go there. Maybe some day ... I had my chance in the winter of 2007 but didn't make it. There's a U. S. highway(191?) that runs north and south the length of eastern AZ and Chinle is on it's more northern part. It's called the Coronado Trail after you-know-who. I've only been on a bit of it east of Safford on my way to Silver City, NM.

Getting towards the homestretch in this enjoyable read(made better if you are experienced with Arizona(mostly) geography and have a Delorme Atlas). Not great literature but capable enough and possessing of a compelling subject matter.

Now finished with this interesting read. The author presents a pretty comprehensive view of life on the Navajo Reservation OUTSIDE of the fortunes of the Chinle High basketball team(boys). Some of that life is pretty challenging and some is pretty rewarding. There's no mention of AA and AA meetings, though alcohol and drug abuse is a BIG problem. One thing is for sure: life in Phoenix/Flagstaff/Denver/Albuquerque/Tucson is a far different thing than life on the rez. This is a recurring theme in the book and Mr. Powell does a good job of presenting both sides of the issue.

3.5* rounds down to 3*.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

On a native American reservation in northern Arizona, there is a small patch of land where Chinle High School sits. However, nearly everyone on the 17.5 million acre reservation knows about the school because of its basketball team. At the school and the surrounding community, the game and the team are a passion. The love of the game has been passed down for generations. Journalist Michael Powell follows the team for one season and his observations are the basis for this excellent book.

Basketball is only a part of the story. Powell intertwines stories from many different Navajo people – young and old, male and female, players and spectators, even the coach himself – in order to illustrate much about life on the reservation for everyone as well as the excellent basketball played at the school and on the playgrounds where it is known as “rez ball.”

The reader will learn about the hardships endured, the traditions and respect for nature embedded in Navajo culture and oh, yes, how important the basketball games are for everyone, not just the players. The perspectives of the players are also interesting lessons in the conflicts they face – do they work on their games in the hope of gaining a college scholarship? By doing so, they will have to live life outside of the reservation, something many of them have never experienced, but on the other hand, many see no hope for improvement in their lives if they stay.

Powell writes with equal excellence about basketball and native American culture, both the beautiful and the ugly. I found this mixture an excellent narrative about the entire culture fascinating and when the Wildcats kept winning and kept advancing, I couldn’t help but cheer them on as hard as I would for my favorite college or professional teams. Any reader interested in native American culture as well as basketball should add this one to their library.

I wish to thank Blue Rider Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Kelly]

Like all good nonfiction sports stories, it's not really about the sport. It's about the culture surrounding it. In this book, we get to watch a Navajo Nation basketball team seek glory on the court during a tough season. The story follows the individuals lightly, instead focusing on what it means to grow up in this part of Arizona at this time in history, particularly as it comes to the challenges of modern Native life. There is a lot of pain and hurt, as well as a lot of hope -- and it's through basketball so many can rally around and cheer for something outside of personal challenges.

Powell's writing is smooth and engaging, and though it's not from the perspective of a Navajo writer, Powell spent time on the reservation and clearly worked hard to bring as many of those voices to the story as possible. He does it well, and I'd put this book up there with the (myriad!) other great nonfiction sports stories that look at the power a collective game can have on an otherwise challenged community.

The audiobook is fine -- Darrell Dennis is clearly as enamored with the story as Powell is and that comes through in his performance.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a unique book. It's about the Navajo peoples' (in small-town Arizona; Chinle and environs) strong interest in high school basketball. It kept reminding me of the "Friday Night Lights" high school football obsession of small-town Texas, and illustrates how fiercely something can bind a community, even if larger urban areas may find the "thing that binds" kind of trivial. In this book, the Navajo people being portrayed will wait outside for hours for bleacher seats to these games, cram in as standing-room-only if needed, and stay afterwards for hours to discuss game strategy (sometimes argumentatively) with the coach.

But really--this book is only 10% basketball. I wouldn't have liked it so much otherwise. It's about the Navajo people, culture, history, the basketball interest and other interests, the scourge of alcoholism in their community, the hardscrabble way in which they live (without electricity or running water in many cases), and most poetically, their strong relationship to nature.

No mainstream American culture that I can think of (generalizing here) spends so much time communing with nature. Being outside, hiking, watching the sky, observing animals, etc. And what a beautiful part of the country this is. The author described it vividly and movingly.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title says, this is a story of a basketball season on the Navajo Nation. In particular it focuses on the Chinle High School team that is making a run at the Arizona state championships. It is beautifully told. Powell has a deep respect and love for the region and it comes through in his descriptions of the landscape and the people. The book follows the coach and several of the main players on the team. From here, there are many tangents into the biographies of these individuals, as well as historical accounts of the Navajo. It is part history, part memoir, part ethnography, part sports story. Powell explores, through this basketball team, what living on the reservation is like for many Navajo. He looks at how this affects, positively and negatively, the players on the basketball team. There is also a lot of what you would expect from a sports book: coaches giving life advice, comebacks, underdogs. But it mostly avoids cliche and tells us a good story of how the team grows and develops through the season--both as a team and individually.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down because it should have been better.

Powell is a talented writer. The story, like the mesas of the Navajo reservation, is beautiful and compelling and haunting, spun with despair and greatness.

However, the narrative was jarring and sometimes hard to follow. It felt like the premise was following a championship bound team of hard scrabble Navajo, interspersed with vignettes and portraits of the land, the people, and the players.

What resulted, however, was a closely collated collection of gorgeous scraps of story, like bits of beautiful paper shoved together in a file.

Even with the jostling of stories, the rough scrabble narrative, it is still worth a read, and a beautiful examination of the Navajo through their love of the game.

[Ryan Barthelmess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the Book Canyon Dreams by Michael Powell a lot, therefore I gave it five stars. I liked how Powell brought me into the life of living on the reservation and the different struggles they had to go through. The Book was about the Basketball players at Chinle High School in Arizona. It goes through the lives of the kids and some lessons they have learned and difficulties they have gone through such as no electricity or running water. Additionally we learn about the coach and athletic director who also lived on the reservation and help the kids achieve their goals. The coach isn’t only a coach but he is a mentor for the kids and he pushes them to their limits in life and in basketball to try and win the state championship. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in Basketball and learning about struggles on reservations and the lives of Navajo natives.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I can understand a bit more of the struggles of American Indians and reservation life after reading this book. In a way, it's almost sad that the author felt the need to wrap the story around the playing of "rez ball" (a variant of basketball) to make his points. The stories told include problems of alcohol, family dysfunction, poverty, and, frankly, government ineptitude, without ever explicitly addressing that element.

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is far more than just a story of a high school basketball team. It is also the story of the Navajo people today; their culture, their hopes and dreams, and the reality of their lives. And it's about the lives of many individuals: the team's coach, the parents, the players on the team, and how all this comes together when the team is playing. I had no idea how strong a place basketball holds with the Navajo, and the discussion of the games is riveting, particularly when the team reaches the state playoffs. This part of the book is incredibly exciting. I'm so glad that I was able to get to "know" these people through the author's outstanding reporting. I had respect for the Navajo, their beliefs and way of life, through the Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn mysteries written by Tony Hillerman, and this book reinforced and enriched those feelings.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am currently living & working on the Navajo Nation, near Chinle, so I thought this book would be interesting. However, the author’s flowery, over-descriptive prose and metaphors, miles-long run-on sentences and awkward turns of phrase distracted from the overall story. I found it tedious to get through this book.

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I think I read some weird Non-Fiction. I mean I really don't care about Basketball. Good thing that while this is about Basketball it really is not about Basketball at all. It's a fascinating portrayal of a community, beautifully written, looking beyond what shooting hoops could mean other than simply winning a game. So yes, I dare say this is not weird but interesting and even heartfelt Non-Fiction.

I read "The Only Good Indians" last spring and Basketball features heavily into plot and setting, the game has a significance among the natives in the story and that reminded me that I also had added this book here to my TBR a few moons ago, and wouldn't now be the best time to get to it? I honestly would recommend this to anyone who read the Stephen Graham Jones novel and wondered "why so much Basketball?", this book will have some insights. Into the cultural symbolism, why this ball game in the first place ("combining a millenia-long native passion for endurance running with a cultural emphasis on group rather than individual accomplishment"), how it can motivate and unite a group of people that have been treated harshly by life (to say the least). Some people might think the general public's obsession with sport is ridiculous (I definitely have agreed and disagreed with that sentiment in the past) but it is a true cultural phenomenon that can tell you so much about people. And I think it is actually interesting to do a little peeking behind the obvious and sociologically and psychologically looking at what happens when groups get enthused about a ball.

Powell is a journalist, so he comes with the outsider look but due to his wife working as a midwife in the Navajo community years prior and them living there for a while he has connections and at least a few personal insights. Plus, he approaches this opportunity with a lot of heart and motivation. He does the right thing, he lets these people mostly speak for themselves and paints this colorful picture of the Navajo Nation and this Basketball team. The sanctuary that High School Basketball manages to be among them, the hope and possibilities it can offer its young players but also the unifying light it holds for the older generations. He portrays a world where tradition and modernity meet to sometimes get along and sometimes with the need to battle it out, a place haunted by its past for better and for worse. I learnt things about the traditions and the language of Navajo, the cruel discriminations its members often face when venturing out which can lead to a cycle where people don't leave the reservation and face a life with few opportunities. These kids on the team are like rockstars in their own right but with that also face immense pressure. I learnt about the lands, the history, the believes. I learnt about Rez ball.

Powell doesn't turn himself invisible, he shares his own observations and how his time here effected him but he knows his place, he knows this is not his story. He is just hear to listen, learn and get it out there. And I am glad I could participate.

So, yes, if you love Basketball or if you are of native ancestry, this might hit differently, hopefully even stronger but maybe you could catch misrepresentations that I couldn't. I experienced this as a beautiful book on a culture that I was happy to learn more about. But I also loved that it was set in a place that I personally was lucky enough to have visited a few years ago. Canyon de Chelly is a gorgeous landscape, we took a Navajo led tour and we loved it. I felt like in the beginning the book was a bit slow, and yes a bit too much on Basketball with a few too many people but staying patient paid off. You get to know these people, their world and their worries. It was a journey to go through the season and the ending was bittersweet.

3.5*

[Matt Zar-Lieberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basketball has achieved a following across the world and as Michael Powell illustrates in Canyon Dreams, the sport’s influence has managed to seep into the cultural fabric of the isolated and rugged terrain of the Navajo Nation in the American southwest. The book provides a snapshot of life on “the rez” through following a season with the Chinle High School basketball team. Though the basic premise of “a year with a high school team that has some interesting characteristic” is standard for the sports genre, Powell elevates above the mini-genre by taking more of a sociological approach to his subject. Canyon Dreams is really a nuanced and detailed depiction of Navajo Nation life, where understanding “rezball” and the passion it inspires is essential to understanding Navajo life.

The central figure in Canyon Dreams is Raul Mendoza, Chinle’s septuagenarian and old-school coach who is equal parts mentor/surrogate father and basketball tactician. He’s certainly not the only high school basketball coach fitting that description, but what makes Mendoza especially compelling is that he has achieved this success largely through coaching undersized teams composed of athletes from local tribes. Not only do many of his players have to contend with alcoholism, drugs, and poverty impacting their families but they are also generally much smaller than their competition across the state.

Powell embedded himself in the Chinle community while writing the book and spends plenty of time with Mendova and gets to know everyone on the roster through extended interviews and home visits and accompanying the team on some of its interminable bus rides across the state. Basketball is hugely popular in the Navajo nation (Chinle has 4,500 residents but its basketball gymnasium accommodates 7,000 and is always packed with all members of the community during games), but Powell also profiles former Chinle players and the school’s valedictorian to shed light on the challenges that face those who leave the rez and the pressures many deal with to remain within the community even if there might be brighter prospects elsewhere. There are some long stretches of the book without any basketball action where Powell documents life on the rez, hiking its canyons, visiting the trailers and hogans where most residents live, and driving by the stretches of liquor stores that are pockmarked across its roads, and these were my favorite portions of the book. Chinle’s basketball exploits were reasonably entertaining and Powell writes about them well (though like many sportswriters he occasionally falls victim to some pretty weak and forced metaphors), but he really uses basketball as a springboard to explore greater Navajo culture, and this made Canyon Dreams a particularly engaging read for me.

Powell is a writer for the New York Times and his book reads much like an extended version of one of the paper’s Sports of the Times columns. This shouldn’t be surprising given the book developed out of a 2017 profile of Mendoza Powell wrote for the New York Times for that exact column. With its broad scope, there is definitely enough quality material to sustain a full book and there wasn’t any padding. Overall, Canyon Dreams is a fascinating look at a culture that will be unfamiliar to most readers and I’d expect it to end up as one of my favorite sports books from 2019.

8.5/10

[John Pehle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation is and isn't a book about basketball. In a story sympathetically told by Michael Powell, we follow the Chinle High School Wildcats through a season but this book also addresses additional topics that include the psyche of "the other", the various spiritual influences on "The Rez", educational opportunity, and economic oppression/terrorism. The cast of characters is large: we meet Coach Raul Mendoza, players like Cooper and Angelo, and a dizzying array of parents, relatives and hangers-on. Not a single character study is wasted in the narrative, each exposing a facet of life on the Navajo Nation and the joys and burdens that accompany that life. While basketball provides the central narrative thread (and I had no idea how big basketball was in the Navajo community that overlaps the state of Arizona), there are also triumphs and tragedies off the court and those stories add every bit as much to this moving story. Coach Mendoza is a true "Zen Master" (minor apologies to Phil Jackson) and a genuine educator. Author Powell was granted close access to Menodoza's team and within the community. He made excellent use of that trust.

[Marina DeCotiis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book and am rly interested in the subject but I agree with many reviewers who’ve said that the focus of the book is too scattered. The book is about a high school basketball team in Navajo Nation but Powell also includes stories about life on the reservation that go well beyond providing context for the experience of the team. He spends many chapters on stories and issues that don’t relate to basketball (e.g. alcohol and drug abuse on the reservation). He doesn’t approach these issues with enough nuance and the resulting narrative is disjointed. I think this was the case because Powell needed to fill space to create a full length book. Powell’s season-long reporting on the Chinle High basketball program probably would’ve been better suited as a long form magazine piece or something. Or, a full length book about basketball could’ve included the history of the sport in Navajo Nation and/or portrayals of the girls basketball team to create a fuller narrative.

[Relena_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This does do a good job of chronicling individual stories and pointing out ways in which Dine are not monolithic, but there are a few places I have problems:
1) this is a general problem with nonfiction books where everything is building to a will-they/won't-they moment, but the history isn't famous "everyone already knows" type stuff: don't give away the ending in your pacing. It's annoying.
2) there isn't enough interrogation of the author's position. How does his presence affect the story? We get glimpses of almost-interrogation (some parents being cool to him because he eats with the coach a lot, a few reflections on giving rides, etc.) but it's never really looked at in terms of the potential effect on the boys, and it's way too sporadic
3) there are definitely points here that play into potentially harmful tropes
4) the audiobook is narrated by a First Nations Canadian who I know from a lot of Own Voices work. His presence here, in a book by a White author in a culture so far from his own is a bit jarring

[Katrina Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can I rate this a 3.5? There are some aspects of this book I loved: insight into the inspiring Navajo/Diné culture, the true story of teamwork and resiliency that took this team to the championships. However, I can't tell if the writer lost sight of his purpose half way through the book, or if he decided to write the second half like a Navajo story: more circular, less linear. Was this story supposed to be an introspective into his experiences on the reservation with a basketball team added, or a basketball story with culture added? The title suggests it's a basketball story, but the end of the book rushes toward the championships after getting bogged down in interesting, but not always relevant side stories.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting more basketball, but I found this probing of Navajo culture, religion, and contemporary challenges very interesting. Powell focuses more on players’s life challenges, families, and clouded futures than on their basketball. His openness to Navajo spirituality and cultural imperatives is refreshing and welcome. He is not an anthropologist or sociologist, dissecting the community. He is as seeker after its wisdom. You will be well prepared for this book if you are a fan of Tony Hillerman’s mysteries which are set in this milieu.

[Lisa Lewton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much to admire in this book. It’s writing is impressive, elegant and inviting. All the way through, readers follow a basketball team and enter into much more than a sport. It’s incredible that he can commentate a number of games and yet still keep each one interesting.

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story of the Chinle HS basketball team's season search for a state championship. Even more is the story of the individuals, Navajo culture and interactions with society. Not always an easy read as the story wanders and you have to put it together.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Examines why res-ball (sic) is so important as well as following the team and its coach.

[Jim Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this sport because it takes five people playing together like musicians. What's so difficult about that to understand?

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about teens and also culture and a sense of belonging.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sounded like an interesting read where journalist Michael Powell chronicles life of Navajo high school team that has to overcome struggles that come with living on a reservation as well as the "normal" high school issues such as school, family, teenage years, etc. Powell takes us through the team's year, detailing what members go through, a bit of history of the Navajo Nation.

The story was interesting but ultimately predictable. Don't get me wrong-I'm glad this story was written down and the team did as well as it did. But Powell wasn't the one to tell the story--it could be my personal aversion to books written by journalists but he couldn't make it interesting or compelling at all.

It was also personally rather disappointing because I had some holiday time dedicated to reading this, hoping it would be a good read to lose myself in, but not so much. I do think it's important for people to read this story, especially since a lot of people's knowledge of Natives in the US might be limited to awful Hollywood stereotypes, vague notions of reservations, the Najavo Code Talkers, etc. So I was glad to read this side, too, since this is part of their story and is not limited to what many people might think of when they hear "Native American" or "Navajo" etc.

It's my understanding that the documentary 'Basketball or Nothing' also tells the story of Chinle High School basketball team, so I'll be checking that out, too. Would recommend this book as a library borrow.

[Elizabeth Hayhoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the Netflix movie Rez Ball and decided to read the book.
So disappointed in the movie, now that I am reading the book. How could they change the coach to a woman who is a Navajo yet the whole book is about the Mexican coach who was NOT Navajo????

Anyway the book is full of history about the Navajo nation. Also so interesting about life on the reservation and who knew that they are so into basketball???

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn't do anything for me particularly because I couldn't get in to the author's writing-- I don't know if I felt like he was trying too hard (because he's non-Native) or because it didn't elicit any emotional response from me- it read too journalistic when he was trying to go for embedded storyteller of the importance of basketball in the survival of the Indigenous tribe in the Canyon area of Arizona.

I wasn't connected and didn't understand why HE was telling the story nor the patience to find out. Was it the perspective of the sport? Was it about overcoming? Perseverance? Indigenous populations?

It was an "eh" for me.

[Ryan Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powell writes a beuatiful portrait of life on the Navajo nation, told through the lens of a basketball season. While this book is ostensibly a profile of a basketball team and its coach, its scope is much larger than that. This is a wide ranging look into the struggles and beauty of modern day life on the reservation.

Powell suggests that the central tension for young people on the res is between tradition and modernity. On one hand, these young people often grow up with the traditional Navajo ways of knowing, with animist spirits and deep spiritual connection to the natural world. This kind of belief system, this culture, can only be found here, and people don’t want to abandon these traditional ways, especially as the threat of cultural obsolescence grows. On the other hand is modernity - the allure of a college degree or a high paying job in Phoenix or Albuquerque or Flagstaff. The draw of these forces is obvious - lift the family out of poverty, break the cycle, etc. Each person in this novel has wrestled or will soon wrestle with this conflict, and the choice is personal for everybody. On both ends of the spectrum, there are inspiring choices being made. Some people attend Ivy League colleges, some serve as educators or officials on the res, some work faraway to make ends meet for their family.

Despite the difficult economic circumstances of this land, Powell portrays a land of extreme beauty and a people with a rich spiritual life. The ancient traditions and beliefs live on in modern day Navajo nation, and while they have intermingled with western religions over the years, the connection between land and people is still very strong.

On a different note, I was a junior power forward for one of the Valley of the Sun teams in this conference. While I never played chinle, I played against ALA, fountain hills, and alchesay. I recognized the names of the Alchesay stars who bounced us from the playoffs my senior year (in humiliating fashion). Reading this book has given me a whole new perspective on those matchups. It was always obvious that there were stark differences between us and them. And it was always a fun curiosity that the res teams would pack nba arenas with fans. But I now have a better grasp of just how much these games meant to them, and just how different our lives are. After reading this, I have a lot more respect for these res players who have gone through so much more than those of us in the valley. I regret that I never took more of an initiative on making connections across those games, as I think they presented a very unique opportunity for cross cultural communication at a very young age.

I hope all those players are doing well now, whatever that looks like for each of them.

[John McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author chronicles the lives of young native Americans men who play basketball under the coaching of an intense, perfectionist coach while reconciling their lives within the clans and communities they live in on the Navajo reservations. On that level, the book truly succeeds.

There were times, though, when I wasn't sure what the story was--was it the family lives of these children, the problems of poverty and alcoholism which pervades the reservations, the inability to remain on the reservation if you wanted to find work. These themes all are part of this mosaic of boys playing basketball (I know--I played basketball on school teams from ages 11 through 18) and all these factors can determine how a team jells. But, there were times when I wasn't sure how some of these topics illustrated the boys' lives or their ability to play championship games. There also was the ending--after the team played its last game of the season, the book ended with no follow-up of what direction the boys or other characters featured in the book, except one, took.

It is difficult to write books (as opposed to stories or columns) about sports or sporting events and Powell did a workmanlike job of developing his themes. He has this writing quirk, however, that some writers have of repeatedly using metaphors or similes to explain or describe something he's attempting to tell us. On some pages, there are 4 or 5 examples of this and virtually every page has them. It is annoying to have to shift the brain from reading the story to analyzing a metaphor in order to understand the description the author wants to make. I don't view such writing as clever. I view such writing as a failure to find the words to actually describe what one is trying to write. Jason Matthews, who actually knows something about the spy game, does this so often in his novels that he sometimes is incomprehensible. My opinion, and it's more personal preference than anything else, is that every description--a scene, an event, an emotion, a characterization--must stand its own and it's up to the writer to see it clearly enough and understand its meaning to be able to replicate it on the written page.

Basketball on the reservation is well known as sport without boundary, which is what makes it exciting and pure, and a worthy subject. I guess I expected a swish when I started reading this book but got something close to missed free throws. (See what I mean about the use of metaphor?) If you've played basketball, you'll know what I mean.