In this book Winona LaDuke, a member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg of the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, relates a number of ways Native Americans are pursuing the reclamation of land, resources, history, memory and nomenclature in the United States. The sum total of victories so far has been unjustly few, and decidedly rage-inducing, but LaDuke finishes on a somewhat hopeful note in the final chapters. ( )

One of the hardest books I have ever read. LaDuke does not hesitate to rub our noses in the abuses perpetrated by European invaders over the last several centuries. I had hoped for more positive reports on what native communities are accomplishing, but there were only a few paragraphs on that for most chapters. The one thing I'll likely remember is a quote from Debra Harry "every day [millions of dollars of ]grants are being made ...on our behalf, for research that looks at ...the genetic basis for conditions that we suffer from, and it's completely a misappropriation of funding because if you consider our health conditions today, we live in contaminated environments, we are eating unhealthy food, we don't have access to the natural lifestyles and the foods that we've always eaten, that have sustained our lives, and so we have horrible health conditions. ...So what I'm saying is, our health conditions are a result of the environment and the economic, political, legal situations that we're in. They're not caused by our genetic, biological makeup. ...There is a reductionist view of the world through scientific eyes. You would see far more benefit in cleaning up the water, in cleaning up contaminated environments, and making sure people have access to just standard health care, ...organic gardening, all of those things that sustain healthy lives. That's where we're going to see benefits." ( )

Originally posted on my blog, http://smallpressures.blogspot.com

If the only way you have heard of Winona LaDuke was through her run for the Vice Presidency on the Nader ticket in 1996 and 2000, pick up this book right away. In fact, I will forgive you if you drift off of my blog completely to run out (or click out) and buy it right now.

Recovering the Sacred is a collection of narratives about various instances when Native Americans have reclaimed traditional lands, practices, and perhaps more importantly, food. LaDuke, a member of the Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe), is involved in The White Earth Land Recovery Project, a Minnesota project involving Native Americans recovering traditional food production. She was the first, and remains the only, activist/radical politician that I have seen on the Food Network, where she appeared to discuss Ojibwe practice of harvesting wild rice.

Like anyone else who recently went to graduate school for literature, I have read my fair share of activist writing of all stripes, usually pedantic and academic crap that takes a subject matter of great interest and importance and sucks all the life right out of it. However, what struck me the most about Recovering the Sacred was the incredible tone and the craft of writing displayed here. There are a lot of writer-activists out there who are much better activists than they are writers, but in LaDuke manages to both amuse and engender a passionate response both by how she writes as well as the subject matter.

LaDuke uses a dry humor throughout the book as she picks apart the arguments of those who oppose Native Americans' efforts, as when in response to a Vatican Observatory pronouncement (about Native opposition to a large observatory being built on sacred land in Arizona) that they "would like to learn about any such genuine concerns of authentic Apaches" she grabs you with a little mockery, opining, "Ah, the problem of finding 'authentic' Indians," and then follows it up with cold hard facts: "Not that anyone looked very hard. No formal attempts were made to meet with the Apache until four years after the project was had been proposed." Even her subject headings are kind of cute: "Raising Arizona;" in an entry about mining, "Sucking the Mother Dry;" or invoking the aura of classic Western movies, "A River Runs Through It."

So you're drawn in a little by the humor and the clear prose, but what keeps you are the stories. When reading a lot of Native non-fiction, or just thinking about the history of Native Americans, one can easily be left with a sense of hopelessness. But here, LaDuke deals out hope. Each well-crafted, well-researched story is one of Native peoples reclaiming something sacred they have lost, small victories acheived through peaceful, legal means -- quite differently than the way they lost it. It's good writing about activism at its best and most productive.