Viet Cong at Wounded Knee: The Trail of a Blackfeet Activist (American Indian Lives)
Kipp, who hails from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in upper Montana, describes his path from belligerent cowboy to thoughtful leader in this slim, straightforward autobiography. Kipp's journey was far from smooth. He meandered through years of hard drinking, womanizing, an extended Marine tour in Vietnam, and finally, the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee. Beyond the reservation, Kipp discovered an entrenched racism and cultural misunderstanding between the white and Native American worlds he moved between. In a bunker with bullets whizzing a few inches from his head, he writes, "I realized the United States military was looking for me with those flares. I was the gook now." His identification with the Viet Cong launched him on a path that ultimately led back to the Blackfeet reservation, this time as an English teacher at the community college and a student of the dying "old ways." Kipp reveals the desperation of those on the reservation and looks critically at endemic problems like alcoholism. "Sadness and depression have become so commonplace that the people growing up today don't know there was a time when reservation life wasn't like that," he says. "We weep and don't know what to do to save our children..." Kipp's alternately combative and discerning prose touches on the wisdom and weaknesses of the beleaguered Blackfeet people, calling readers to value this rich thread of Native American culture. Photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.