"Neither Wolf Nor Dog"

 

We all start off in a unique time and place, each of us with unique advantages and limitations. At first I didn't think too much about my own starting point. Then for a while I thought others had a big advantage over me. Lately I've been seeing that my starting place, my family, and my education has been way better than most. It all seems quite unfair. Why is it like this? There's really no answer. Maybe trying to understand the unfairness would make me feel better. When I do reach some understanding, it makes me feel worse, but in a good way.

I could choose any number of unfair situations to try to understand, but let's start with the Indians. The Indians ruled North and South America for millennia.  They often fought with each other, but there was so much room that their wars became more symbolic than deadly. It was a greater honor to count coup, or touch your enemy and get away, than to kill him. Kind of like tag football vs tackle.

When the Spanish arrived in the 15th century, they brought the great gift of the horse. The Spanish didn't willingly give away their horses, but a few horses will always escape, only to be caught and bred by the Indians, who became far better horsemen than the Spanish ever dreamed of being. The Spanish wreaked havoc with their guns and their god, but again, there was so much room, most Indians continued to do fine.

The French were also more beneficial than bad for the Indians. They greatly improved Indian life by exchanging iron pots, steel axes, and guns for beaver pelts. It was the English, who came with their families and conquered the Spanish and the French and eventually the Indians, who did the real damage. The English, soon to be the Americans, came as close to wiping out all the Indians as they did to exterminating the buffalo.

I haven't known a lot of Indians or Native Americans, but Steve Reynolds has. One of his grandsons is an Ojibwa, living on the Red Cliff Reservation near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Steve has visited the reservation many times, has attended numerous pow-wows, and gotten to know many Indians. Steve has made an effort to understand native culture and society and I think he's succeeded. He's always reading books about Indians, and he said one of the best is Kent Nerburn's Neither Wolf Nor Dog, published in 1994. Steve said he's read it a few times and dips into it now and then like some people dip into the Bible.

Steve recently loaned me his copy and I gave it a go. Nerburn is a writer and publisher who was living in Bemidji when he wrote the book. After he had written two previous books about the memories of Ojibwa elders, he received a call from the granddaughter of an elderly Lakota man in South Dakota. The granddaughter said her grandfather wanted to talk to him. Nerburn left home and family and drove 500 hundred miles to see this man. It impressed me that Nerburn dropped everything to answer this summons.

The old Lakota man told Nerburn he was 78 years old and he had been thinking about whites and Indians for many years. He said he had collected his thoughts and he wanted Nerburn to make them sound good in a book so that whites would understand the Indian. Nerburn thought to himself this guy's either a crackpot or a great storyteller. As he read the numerous scraps of paper the old man gave him, he realized he was neither. Rather, he was a thinker. Nerburn was excited by what he read and said he would write the book. 

The old man treated Nerburn rather shabbily, I thought. He's constantly testing Nerburn to see if he's worthy to write the book. In fact, much of the book is the education of Nerburn into the mind of the Indian so that he is ready and able to write the book.

Nerburn goes home with the shoebox full of the old man's notes and turns them into a first draft for the book. When he returned a few months later, the old man seemed to  approve of what Nerburn had written, but he gave him no further direction. Nerburn's education is just beginning. Nerburn realizes he's dealing with "Indian time," which to an Indian means, "When I'm damn good and ready."

Nerburn retreats to his less than pleasant motel room to work on the book. He wonders how long this will take and when if ever he'll receive payment for his efforts. The next morning Nerburn returns to the old man's house in the boondocks and meets Grover, a middle aged man who is the old man's best friend. It is only at this point that the reader learns that the old man's name is Dan. Grover and Dan are their white names. We never learn their Indian names or even where they live.

Grover is just as humorous and cryptic as Dan. He intends to help with the book, and gives Nerburn some advice. "The old man will try to trick you, but you've got to be smart." Grover tells Nerburn his writing is too neat, too white. "You can't be afraid to get things dirty....Just tell the story."

The rest of the story is a series of jaunts around the countryside, usually with Grover along as driver. When Nerburn arrives one morning he finds Dan engaged in a spiritual ritual, burning sweetgrass in front of his house. He tells Nerburn he's just burned all his notes. He says he saved some of the good stuff (Ann Landers columns) but burned his own stuff. Nerburn is aghast. Dan says the book will be written in the Indian way. "I'll make talks and you watch and listen. Then you just write it down."

 As the book continues Dan reveals himself as having remarkable inner resources. Even though his vision is poor, he can see distant wildlife because "They reveal themselves to me." Though his body is frail, he can always call on inner strengths to help him hike around the rugged landscape.

During one discussion the subject of all the junk lying around Indian homes comes up. Dan realizes whites find this jarring, but Dan compares old cars to buffalo. Indians used to use all of the buffalo, and what they didn't use, they left to go back to the earth. The hulk of an old car may still have some use to an Indian. The one in Dan's yard serves as a doghouse. Or else the junk car is in the process of returning to the earth. It just takes a lot longer than buffalo bones. Dan says the junk makes him proud. It means the Indians haven't given up their old ways and become like the whites who pollute the earth with highways and malls then think it's ok because it's neat and tidy.

After a few weeks, Nerburn gets sick of the way he's being treated. He thinks Dan and Grover are just toying with him and he has a meltdown. He tries to leave for home, but his truck starts smoking badly. He manages to get it to an Indian-run repair shop which itself looks more of a wreck than his truck. Nerburn thinks his engine is fried, but the Indian mechanic says he can fix it, but doesn't know how long it will take. Just as Nerburn is trying to figure out his next move, Dan and Grover pull up in Grover's "barge-like Buick." "Saw your smoke signals," Dan says. "Thought you might need us."

Dan orders Nerburn into the back seat where his old dog Fatback is sitting. "We're going on a little trip," Dan says. The final two thirds of the book describe the few days of the trip. It's like an Outward Bound trip into the Indian spirit for Nerburn. The next morning they are on a hill overlooking a private pow-wow. Dan and Grover remove a drum from the trunk and perform a ceremony to initiate Nerburn's mission. As Grover drives his rattling Buick over the trackless hills, Dan gives a series of talks which Nerburn includes in the book. Dan constantly chides Nerburn for his lack of understanding, his blindness to the reality all around him. "You're still looking with white eyes," says Dan, angry at times, kindly at others.

The climax occurs when Dan and Nerburn spend a night at the memorial to the Wounded Knee massacre. All night long Dan prays for the spirits of the 200 Lakota killed by the U.S. cavalry and buried here. Nerburn has a rough night of it, passing in and out of dream-like visions, some horrible, others cathartic. By sunrise he's a changed man. He's ready to write Dan's book. 

When they get back to Dan's reservation, Nerburn's truck is fixed. It was just a broken heater hose. There's a hint that Dan, or more likely Grover, sabotaged the truck so Nerburn would be forced to go on his journey to learn how to write his book.

Neither Wolf nor Dog is an excellent book for understanding what happened to the Indians and why, as much as that can ever be understood. As I read through the book a second time to write my post I enjoyed it even more than the first time. It's a good book for dipping into now and then. Thanks Steve.

Bones, returning to Earth.