Indian Voices

Listening to Native Americans

by Alison Owings

Alison Owings takes readers on a fresh journey across America, east to west, north to south, and around again. Owings's most recent oral history – engagingly written in a style that entertains and informs – documents what Native Americans say about themselves, their daily lives, and the world around them.

Young and old from many tribal nations speak with candor, insight, and (unknown to many non-Natives) humor about what it is like to be a Native American in the twenty-first century. Through intimate interviews many also express their thoughts about the sometimes staggeringly ignorant, if often well-meaning, non-Natives they encounter – some who do not realize Native Americans still exist, much less that they speak English, have cell phones, use the Internet, and might attend powwows and power lunches.

Indian Voices, an inspiring and important contribution to the literature about the original Americans, will make every reader rethink the past – and present – of the United States.

392 pp — ©2011