Fresh, informative, and provocative, this collection of interviews
showcases twelve leading Native artists and activists who have
challenged and helped reshape prevailing expectations about Native
cultures and identities during the late twentieth century: writers
Sherman Alexie and James Welch, singer-songwriter and educator Buffy
Sainte-Marie, poet Elizabeth Woody, activist and AIM member Dino Butler,
musician and activist John Trudell, writer and activist Winona LaDuke,
actor and musician Litefoot, the late aids activist Bonnie Blackwolf,
and visual artists Rick Bartow, Jesse Hummingbird, and Norman Guardipee.
Engaging in their own right and offering substantive insights into
individual careers and personalities, these interviews also explore a
number of significant and often controversial intellectual, cultural,
and political issues affecting Native peoples today. Among the topics
discussed are the effects of the New Age movement and other forms of
cultural appropriation, current conflicts and disagreements within
Native communities, connections to the environment, alcohol and drug
addiction, the American Indian Movement, the blood-quantum debate,
religious freedom, the value of elders, and obligations to past cultural
traditions. The late E. K. Caldwell was a respected Native poet,
musician, writer, and interviewer. Her poetry and short stories appeared
in various anthologies, and she contributed articles and interviews to
many magazines and newspapers.
