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Neither Wolf Nor Dog

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Plot Summary

Neither Wolf Nor Dog

Kent Nerburn

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1994

Plot Summary
Neither Wolf nor Dog: on Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder (1994), by American author Kent Nerburn, is a collection of interviews and writings with a Dakota-elder known as Dan, who preferred to keep his real identity secret. The book’s 26 chapters follow the two men as they take various road trips through reservation land in North and South Dakota. Its format, conversations between a white writer and a Native author, echoes that of the classic tale, Black Elk Speaks (1932). Nerburn’s book won the Minnesota Book Award in 1995 and was praised for its insistent focus on the realities of Native cultures, rather than a patronizing white vision of them.

The book’s themes include idealism and stereotypes, myths, race relations, and healing. The title comes from a Sitting Bull quote that states that the projections white people place on Native Americans are grossly inaccurate.

In the introduction, Nerburn writes that the idea for this book came to him years before he met Dan. He was driving on a motorcycle through a rural area of North Dakota. He passed a placard that proclaimed that a unique looking rock nearby was considered sacred by the Lakota tribe. He realized this was emblematic of U.S. treatment of Native tribes at large: the forced enclosure of space and the trivialization of religious objects or sites into tourist items.



The book begins with Kent receiving a mysterious call from a woman on the reservation. Giving very little information away, she asks him to come to the reservation to meet an old man who wants to speak with him. With some hesitation, Kent agrees. Months pass before he makes the trip. Later, Kent finds out that the caller was Dan’s granddaughter.

When he does visit, he enters the world of the contemporary reservation, replete with a droll, obese son named Grover and a dog named “Fatback.” He’s warned right away that the old man who wishes to speak with him doesn’t like white people. Dan introduces himself, and the two have a blunt and uncomfortable conversation. Dan says that he’s getting old and wants Kent to write about his stories for future generations; he hands him a couple piles of manuscripts on tawdry paper.

Several more months pass. Kent writes up the stories that Dan had given him. He likes the tales, but he senses that they’re still “artificial.” Dan suggests he tells Kent more stories in person; Kent agrees that this would help him write the book. Dan relays stories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. The elder points out that when white tribes won battles, the history books would call it a victory; when Native tribes won, it was considered a massacre.



Dan invites Kent outside to smoke a pipe. Kent admits to the reader that he wants to, but he’s always been self-conscious of “wannabe syndrome.” Dan talks to Kent about the “reservation Indian” and what a tragedy it is that Native Americans have lost their culture. Dan fought in WWII, and the experience made him travel around the world. From the reception he received from other Americans and non-Americans, he realized that the representation of Native people in movies—often as villains or savages or the antagonists to cowboys—encouraged strangers to treat him in a specific, often subservient fashion. The image of Native Americans as “the bad guy” actually justified their persecution.

Dan talks about the difference between property and land, and how people can be moved to commit terrible acts when they consider something as property. Dan is especially sad that some tribal members are selling the opportunity to view an “authentic” ceremony to tourists. The ceremonies are sacred and shouldn’t, in his view, be available for purchase.

The two continue their talk while taking a ride around reservation lands. They pass through numerous towns that are now deserted. Kent meets several memorable characters, including Annie, an 80-year-old Lakota elder with plenty of stories of her own. She lives by herself in a cabin with no water. Kent also meets a 400-pound mechanic named Jumbo.



As he talks with Dan, Kent is continually challenged to think about events from a Native perspective; he is surprised to find himself “white-washing” much of history and several of the characters he meets. Once, when Kent is talking, Dan reminds him that there is much power in silence.

Dan tells Kent that one of the reasons behind white cultural-appropriation is that white people have lost a spiritual center and are eager to look for replacements. This explains, in part, why so many white people are willing to pay to see an “authentic” ceremonial practice.

While Dan and Kent agree that Native American people have a lot to be angry about, Dan emphasizes that there’s no peace or resolution in anger. All one can do is continue to be loyal to one’s culture and encourage society at large to respect and accept other or minority cultures. Dan says that white cultures need to view divergent cultural beliefs as valid and equal to their own.



 

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