What makes this author an ideal navigator through these straits
is his insider take--his parents and their parents before them
were "Fonjalackers"--his generous knowledge, and his pragmatism
about keeping the better part of tradition while staying current
with the times. "Because we live in two worlds," Northrup writes
in a description of the custom of hulling wild rice in a pit by
dancing on it, "the music comes from a powwow tape or a rock-
and-roll radio station." In another passage, he advises making
moccasin tracks on the information superhighway by putting
gambling revenues toward a computer in every rez home. In 1991,
a university researcher in Duluth surveyed a group of fourth-
and fifth-graders in suburban Bloomington about their
impressions of Native Americans. Among their answers were these:
"They could be like us if they worked hard." "They all eat raw
meat." "They are wig collectors." "They still live in teepees,
are hungry, and probably have no clothes." "When the teacher
told us they were still