Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder - Softcover

Nerburn, Kent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1577312333 ISBN 13: 9781577312338

Publisher: New World Library, 2002

1996 Minnesota Book Award winner ― A Native American book

The heart of the Native American experience: In this 1996 Minnesota Book Award winner, Kent Nerburn draws the reader deep into the world of an Indian elder known only as Dan. It’s a world of Indian towns, white roadside cafes, and abandoned roads that swirl with the memories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. Readers meet vivid characters like Jumbo, a 400-pound mechanic, and Annie, an 80-year-old Lakota woman living in a log cabin. Threading through the book is the story of two men struggling to find a common voice. Neither Wolf nor Dog takes readers to the heart of the Native American experience. As the story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the difference between land and property, the power of silence, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. This edition features a new introduction by the author, Kent Nerburn.

“This is a sobering, humbling, cleansing, loving book, one that every American should read.” ― Yoga Journal

If you enjoyed Empire of the Summer Moon, Heart Berries, or You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, you’ll love owning and reading Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn.

About the Author:

Kent Nerburn was born and raised near Minneapolis, he studied American Studies at the University of Minnesota, then went on to Stanford University to study Religious Studies and Humanities, then to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley. After several years living in Europe he returned to Minnesota and worked on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation helping students collect the memories of the tribal elders. He has been writing about Native American history and culture for over twenty years.

From Booklist:

Readers looking for another red-man-departs-wise-words-to-white-man-to-lessen-white- man's-guilt will be disappointed by the tone and content of this work. Realists wanting a truthful, fiery, and, ultimately, cleansing dialogue between Indian and white will definitely want it. Nerburn reluctantly agrees to a meeting with Dan, a Lakota elder who asks him to construct a book from a motley collection of notes, diatribes, and political and social commentaries written over seven decades and kept in an old shoe box. Void of the hypocrisy rampant in many books that have whites adopting the ways of "the great spirit," Nerburn exposes the real truth, which whites are unwilling to face: that in "the hunger to own a piece of the earth, we had destroyed the dreams and families of an entire race." Joined by a dog named Fatback, Dan gives Nerburn the ride of his life as they cross the vast Midwest in Dan's Buick. Along the way, Dan alternates between rage and melancholy, and Nerburn between shame and confusion. Nerburn unintentionally touches nerve after nerve and elicits an almost unbearable flood of anguish and despair. The truth revealed in this book will be difficult for most whites to face, but it is painfully necessary if healing is ever to begin. Kevin Roddy

• Publisher: New World Library
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1577312333
• ISBN 13: 9781577312338
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 304