“Realists wanting a truthful, fiery, and ultimately, cleansing dialogue between Indian and white will definitely want this book.” — Booklist
In this winner of the 1996 Minnesota Book Award, acclaimed author Kent Nerburn creates an incisive character study of a Native American elder, against the unflinching backdrop of contemporary reservation life and the majestic spaces of the western Dakotas. Nerburn draws us deep into the world of this elder, identified only as Dan, as we journey to where the vast Dakota skies overtake us and the whisperings of the wind speak of ancestral voices.
Dan leads us through Indian towns, white roadside cafes, and down forgotten roads that swirl with the memories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. Along the way we meet a vivid cast of characters that range from Jumbo, a 400-pound mechanic, to Annie, an eighty-year-old Lakota woman who lives in a log cabin with no running water. Throughout their travels is the story of two men, locked into their own individual cultural understandings, struggling to find a common voice.
As this spellbinding story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the power of silence, the difference between land and property, white people’s urge to claim an Indian heritage, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. This is a story of fathers and sons, of the struggle for redemption after the loss of innocence, of distinct cultures on a common land.
An unlikely cross between Jack Kerouac and Black Elk Speaks, Neither Wolf Nor Dog is full of humor, pathos, and insight. It takes us past the myths and stereotypes to the heart of the Native American experience and in doing so reveals America in a way few of us ever see. After reading this book, you will never look at America or the American Indian in the same way again.
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