Are you a full-blooded Indian? No, I'm a pint low today, just came from the blood bank. Do you speak your language? Yup, and yours too.
With wry humor, gentle candor, and an eye for the telling detail, Jim Northrup invites readers to explore the world of today's Anishinaabe, or Ojibway, people. In disarmingly simple and direct language, he recalls key events of his own life: enduring childhood at a bleak government boarding school, facing enemy fire in Vietnam, confronting family tragedies, becoming a grandfather and an almost-wise elder. Pithy Q&A sessions and jokes offer droll commentary on his encounters with the immigrant community (his term for Caucasian Americans), while leisurely told tales echo the pace of life on the reservation and explore the meaning of ancient rituals like the harvesting of wild rice and the impact of Indian casinos on native life. With the skill he brings to weaving birch-bark baskets, Northrup intertwines laconic observation and poetic reflection in a book that engages the heart, the mind, and the funny bone.