Yes, books too.

Decided to have books as part of the blog too instead of doing separate blogs for both.
Similar to my personal blog, it's more something for me to read, like a diary instead of something for others to read [although I don't care if they do.]

Finished CUSTER DIED FOR YOUR SINS by Vine Deloria Jr.

Written in the late 60s, the book covers the issues and problems facing Indians in America [note that you rarely, if ever, see Indian people refer to themselves as "Native American."]

What I found especially interesting was his insistence that the Indian struggle was separate from the overall civil rights movement. He was very leery of the liberal tendency to lump all minority groups/issues together. Many would be surprised at a lot of other things he said too....he thought Indians should make use of the corporate model as a path toward greater sovereignty [I believe at one point he speculates that the corporate model was actually a representation of the traditional Indian way of life.] Bet the Occupy crowd would not care for that....

Deloria passed away in 2005, I've been looking to see if there's anything out there giving his opinions on what had changed and what hadn't. Some tribes have gotten more independence due to casinos and other business activities. My particular tribe has done well, although some of that might be due to our history of assimilation--we are probably more likely to embrace that kind of thing, although I think larger tribes like mine tend to make better use of casino revenues [basically the way any large government body should make use of revenue, to put it toward the community.]
I've seen smaller tribes here where I live torn apart--disenrolling members to get a larger slice of the pie.

I'll probably check out some of his other books over the course of this year.