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Good Friday on the Rez: A Pine Ridge Odyssey
Good Friday on the Rez follows the author on a one-day, 280-mile round-trip from his boyhood Nebraska hometown of Alliance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he reconnects with his longtime friend and blood brother, Vernell White Thunder. In a compelling mix of personal memoir and recent American Indian history, David Hugh Bunnell debunks the prevalent myth that all is hopeless for these descendants of Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull and shows how the Lakota people have recovered their pride and dignity and why they will ultimately triumph.
What makes this narrative special is Bunnell's own personal experience of close to forty years of friendships and connections on the Rez, as well as his firsthand exposure to some of the historic events. When he lived on Pine Ridge at the same time of the American Indian Movement's seventy-one-day siege at Wounded Knee in 1973, he met Russell Means and got a glimpse behind the barricades. Bunnell has also seen the more recent cultural resurgence firsthand, attending powwows and celebrations, and even getting into the business of raising a herd of bison.
Substantive and raw, Good Friday on the Rez is for readers who care about the historical struggles and the ongoing plight of Native Americans, and in particular, that of the Lakota Sioux, who defeated the U.S. Army twice, and whose leaders have become recognized as among America's greatest historical figures.
Good Friday on the Rez is a dramatic page-turner, an incredible true story that tracks the torment and miraculous resurrection of Native American pride, spirituality, and culture―how things got to be the way they are, where they are going, and why we should care.
What makes this narrative special is Bunnell's own personal experience of close to forty years of friendships and connections on the Rez, as well as his firsthand exposure to some of the historic events. When he lived on Pine Ridge at the same time of the American Indian Movement's seventy-one-day siege at Wounded Knee in 1973, he met Russell Means and got a glimpse behind the barricades. Bunnell has also seen the more recent cultural resurgence firsthand, attending powwows and celebrations, and even getting into the business of raising a herd of bison.
Substantive and raw, Good Friday on the Rez is for readers who care about the historical struggles and the ongoing plight of Native Americans, and in particular, that of the Lakota Sioux, who defeated the U.S. Army twice, and whose leaders have become recognized as among America's greatest historical figures.
Good Friday on the Rez is a dramatic page-turner, an incredible true story that tracks the torment and miraculous resurrection of Native American pride, spirituality, and culture―how things got to be the way they are, where they are going, and why we should care.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 6, 2017
The first thing that needs to be made clear is that this is not written by a Native American author. I didn't realize that until I started reading the book.
The author is a white man who has lived on or near the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation off and on through his life. He is going to visit a man who he met when the author was teaching school on the reservation. Vernell White Thunder was one of his students in the 1970s.
The road trip is used as a narrative device to comment on events from history and current events that affect life on the reservation. As the author passes towns where events occurred, he discusses them. This is a good introduction to the history of United States military treatment of the Native people. He also touches on:
systemic and institutional racism faced by the tribe
poverty
the effects of alcoholism
the importance of Wounded Knee (both the massacre in the 1800s and the uprising in the 1970s)
As he gets closer to the reservation, he gives more information about Vernell. He is looking for Perrier and Dinty Moore beef stew to take to Vernell. He tells some jokes that Vernell tells that are very self-deprecating. I have seen reviews that tear this book apart because of this. In every case, the reviewer stopped reading the book at this point because they felt that the author was negatively portraying a native man. I thought that was interesting. I think it is more of a statement of the inherent expectations of the reviewer than the author. They seem to assume that Vernell is going to be a poor man living on the reservation who needs beef stew as charity and that this author is exploiting him.
When you meet Vernell, you find out that he is:
an entrepreneur
a mentor to local teens
the owner of a resort that gets guests from all over the world
a successful rancher raising buffalo and horses
a large landowner on several reservations
the son of a respected chief who was was taking over more of his father's duties as his father's health declined
Vernell White Thunder is so cool that he's almost a rock star.
The author discusses the changes that he has seen in younger Native generations. He hopes that today's young people are the Seventh Generation since the military suppression of the tribes that were foretold as the generation who will live up the tribes again. He is hopeful because of the resurgence of tribal language speakers and young people proud of their history.
The author died before publication of the book so it was bittersweet to read about the wonderful things that he wanted to live to see this generation accomplish. Although it discusses a lot of dark history, at the end this is a hopeful book. It is a testament to the people of Pine Ridge and one enduring friendship that started there.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
April 17, 2018
This is my second book this year about the plight of the Lakota Sioux. The first was fiction One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus. Good Friday on the Rez by David Hugh Bunnell is non-fiction. Both are difficult to read.
If you are interested in the plight of the Native Americans in and around the Dakotas, most recently in the news protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, this book gives the story with the extra impact of someone who was there.
For my detailed report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/0...
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20... for book recommendations.
One Thousand White Women: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/0...
If you are interested in the plight of the Native Americans in and around the Dakotas, most recently in the news protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, this book gives the story with the extra impact of someone who was there.
For my detailed report: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/0...
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20... for book recommendations.
One Thousand White Women: http://1book42day.blogspot.com/2018/0...
June 28, 2017
Good Friday on the Rez is an effective combination of personal memoir and history organized around a road trip on Good Friday. Author David Hugh Bunnell, back in his hometown of Alliance, Nebraska, sets out on a visit to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, looks up Vernell White Thunder, a former high school student of his who has become a close friend . This a friendship that lasts the rest of Bunnell’s life. The drive is 280 miles round trip, and all along the way, Bunnell stops every few miles to remember his history and the history of the Indians of the area and their frequently disastrous interactions with white America.
Burnell talks about Wounded Knee, both the 1890 massacre and the 1973 takeover which he witnessed. He also was present years ago for the trial and conviction of the Hare Brothers who killed Raymond Yellow Thunder in his home town. In 1973, he was supported the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, packing up his car with food and supplies to take to the AIM members. It was hair-raising going through both FBI and AIM roadblocks, placing himself in real jeopardy
Much of this story focuses on his long friendship with Vernell White Thunder, an accomplished man who has opened a thriving B&B with horse riding tours of the Black Hills and who also raises horses and buffalo – a venture he went into with Bunnell. Their friendship is deep, they stand with each other through hard times and grief.
Good Friday on the Rez is an enjoyable book. Bunell is more successful than most in stepping back from his whiteness and recognizing racism and its pernicious effects. He cared deeply about the Indians of Pine Ridge and Rosebud and the injustice they have endured. Nonetheless, there were times when his whiteness interfered with his understanding. For example, when AIM members were asked to come to Pine Ridge and organize resistance to demand justice for the murders of Yellow Thunder, this is what he wrote, “By seven thirty a.m., a caravan of crazed, radical Indians was on the road, headed for Pine Ridge.” Crazed?
I don’t know what reaction is appropriate when someone who was minding his own business and a couple racists beat him up, kick him in the head, strip him of his clothes, throw him in the trunk of their car and drive him to a bar to shove him inside, stripped and beaten to humiliate him and then later, go back and hunt him down and beat him some more. I think his crazed is my appropriate.
He seems to think AIM was somehow dangerous and threatening, inappropriate, and too radical. How can you be too radical in the face of racist genocide? So, yeah, I think that no matter how “woke” someone may think they are or may try to be, when white supremacy is challenged in ways that are not suitable for Hallmark cards, the “woke” go back to sleep. AIM did nothing violent in Alliance. They gave speeches, chanted, and drummed. The menace was in Bunnell’s mind, not in AIM’s actions–even with the perspective of hindsight.
This demonstrates a perceptual flaw that afflicts many of us. In most countries, the state has a monopoly on violence, but in the US, whites have a monopoly on violence. White supremacists and nationalists walk around with their open carry semi-automatics and rifles to display their monopoly. While there is no legal basis on this monopoly, we all know that only white people can do this.
Recently some white militia dominionists occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge with firearms, damaged the facilities and used threats of violence to hold the refuge hostage. They were indicted and acquitted. The members of AIM occupied their own damn land and were, and still are, perceived as terrorists by many. Leonard Peltier remains the longest incarcerated political prisoner in the world. When LaVoy Finicum was killed by state police due to his involvement in the occupation, no one even considered felony murder indictments of his co-conspirators, though such ironic indictments happen to people of color every week as a matter of course. You break the law, someone dies, you get indicted with felony murder…unless you belong to a white supremacist militia.
But Bunnell is a good storyteller, engaging and able to condense the important elements of a story into short and effective stories. I am less convinced by the conceit of this round trip from Alliance to the reservation and back again, with stops all along the way at all these memorials and touchstones of Lakota history and his personal history. That is one long, long day. He fit a lot into that one day trip, more than seems likely. I get it, it seems a way to tell the stories of his life. I thought the frame he hung his story on was intrusive and too cute by half.
It’s an enjoyable book, but it does not break new ground. Ian Frazier’s On the Rez is much better, more self-aware. Like Good Friday on the Rez, it is a book about a white man visiting his friend from Pine Ridge. One more white friend visiting the rez memoir and we have a sub-genre.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
Burnell talks about Wounded Knee, both the 1890 massacre and the 1973 takeover which he witnessed. He also was present years ago for the trial and conviction of the Hare Brothers who killed Raymond Yellow Thunder in his home town. In 1973, he was supported the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, packing up his car with food and supplies to take to the AIM members. It was hair-raising going through both FBI and AIM roadblocks, placing himself in real jeopardy
Much of this story focuses on his long friendship with Vernell White Thunder, an accomplished man who has opened a thriving B&B with horse riding tours of the Black Hills and who also raises horses and buffalo – a venture he went into with Bunnell. Their friendship is deep, they stand with each other through hard times and grief.
Good Friday on the Rez is an enjoyable book. Bunell is more successful than most in stepping back from his whiteness and recognizing racism and its pernicious effects. He cared deeply about the Indians of Pine Ridge and Rosebud and the injustice they have endured. Nonetheless, there were times when his whiteness interfered with his understanding. For example, when AIM members were asked to come to Pine Ridge and organize resistance to demand justice for the murders of Yellow Thunder, this is what he wrote, “By seven thirty a.m., a caravan of crazed, radical Indians was on the road, headed for Pine Ridge.” Crazed?
I don’t know what reaction is appropriate when someone who was minding his own business and a couple racists beat him up, kick him in the head, strip him of his clothes, throw him in the trunk of their car and drive him to a bar to shove him inside, stripped and beaten to humiliate him and then later, go back and hunt him down and beat him some more. I think his crazed is my appropriate.
He seems to think AIM was somehow dangerous and threatening, inappropriate, and too radical. How can you be too radical in the face of racist genocide? So, yeah, I think that no matter how “woke” someone may think they are or may try to be, when white supremacy is challenged in ways that are not suitable for Hallmark cards, the “woke” go back to sleep. AIM did nothing violent in Alliance. They gave speeches, chanted, and drummed. The menace was in Bunnell’s mind, not in AIM’s actions–even with the perspective of hindsight.
This demonstrates a perceptual flaw that afflicts many of us. In most countries, the state has a monopoly on violence, but in the US, whites have a monopoly on violence. White supremacists and nationalists walk around with their open carry semi-automatics and rifles to display their monopoly. While there is no legal basis on this monopoly, we all know that only white people can do this.
Recently some white militia dominionists occupied Malheur Wildlife Refuge with firearms, damaged the facilities and used threats of violence to hold the refuge hostage. They were indicted and acquitted. The members of AIM occupied their own damn land and were, and still are, perceived as terrorists by many. Leonard Peltier remains the longest incarcerated political prisoner in the world. When LaVoy Finicum was killed by state police due to his involvement in the occupation, no one even considered felony murder indictments of his co-conspirators, though such ironic indictments happen to people of color every week as a matter of course. You break the law, someone dies, you get indicted with felony murder…unless you belong to a white supremacist militia.
But Bunnell is a good storyteller, engaging and able to condense the important elements of a story into short and effective stories. I am less convinced by the conceit of this round trip from Alliance to the reservation and back again, with stops all along the way at all these memorials and touchstones of Lakota history and his personal history. That is one long, long day. He fit a lot into that one day trip, more than seems likely. I get it, it seems a way to tell the stories of his life. I thought the frame he hung his story on was intrusive and too cute by half.
It’s an enjoyable book, but it does not break new ground. Ian Frazier’s On the Rez is much better, more self-aware. Like Good Friday on the Rez, it is a book about a white man visiting his friend from Pine Ridge. One more white friend visiting the rez memoir and we have a sub-genre.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
February 7, 2019
It ended up being more of a history book than I was expecting. I was hoping to learn more about the present day people and not so much about the unfortunate history. Still it was interesting and I enjoyed it.
February 25, 2022
A really interesting read!! I bought it from a small bookstore in Nebraska and appreciate the familiarity of the places mentioned in the book. I ate at the same Arby’s the author talks about at the beginning of the book! Also, the poem at the beginning was very profound and captivating! I gave it a 3 because I didn’t really say an arrival point at the end.
June 25, 2017
Where to start. First off, Bunnell does a piss-poor job of locating himself within the narrative; it took me two chapters to figure out that he was, in fact, not Native American himself. From therein it was impossible to ignore the Benevolent Paleface tone of his writing, conferring insider status on himself while talking about how he's known some bigots who are great folks so long as you don't mention [laundry list of races and sexualities] to them.
I was willing to let that go as a wry joke that didn't translate well, but eventually Bunnell reaches the Rez and meets up with his Native friend. They talk about the rough economy and other current events, and then Bunnell reminisces about the old days, particularly a conversation that went like this:
FRIEND: Man, brother, I wish you never taught me to read.
BUNNELL: Why?
FRIEND: Because I might have been an ignorant Indian, but I was happier!
That was where my effort to make it through this book ended.
I was willing to let that go as a wry joke that didn't translate well, but eventually Bunnell reaches the Rez and meets up with his Native friend. They talk about the rough economy and other current events, and then Bunnell reminisces about the old days, particularly a conversation that went like this:
FRIEND: Man, brother, I wish you never taught me to read.
BUNNELL: Why?
FRIEND: Because I might have been an ignorant Indian, but I was happier!
That was where my effort to make it through this book ended.
September 2, 2019
David Hugh Bunnell writes a wonderfully informative book, and is uncannily similar to author Kent Nerburn-both are white men with love and passion and more towards those Native American in culture, practice, and much more-it is these writers I am thankful for. Through them, I have learned even more NA history, and how they deeply share and care.
June 8, 2017
Good Friday on the Rez is the tale of one man returning to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, place where he once taught in the local school. When I checked out the book from my local library I thought it was the author on the front cover, and was actually a little surprised when a few chapters into the book I put two and two together and realized the author (now deceased) was white. Even after finishing the book, I'm not sure how I feel about that. The late Mr Bunnell was obviously someone who cared about the Lakota people and is not looking to exploit them the way that white people have historically, that exploitation being a large part of the book. Being white myself, even after having the priviledge to work with Native people at a job I had for two years in college, I know I can't help but feel a little guilty by association just the same. However, when Mr Brunnell writes of someone singing "an old Lakota song" I can't help but ask myself, how would you know? Does simply living among, and befriending these people make you an expert?
I've been reading a lot of Native American related work lately, for no particular reason. Sherman Alexie, Joseph Boyden namely. And though I did enjoy GFOTR, it's Mr Bunnell's writing style that for me was the drawback. We get a bit of an ADD retelling of him visiting his old home, jumping back and forth in time and from subject to subject. One minute he's talking about four locals that had mysteriously died in jail and without getting to the bottom of that he's off to the drunks in Whiteclay, before literally heading down to the road to give even more and more brief little segments on meeting Jane Fonda, an Indian (accidentally?) murdered by some racist teens, raising buffalo, WWII bombing, and much much more. These are all interesting things but they're barely introduced before he's on to the next making me wonder whatever happened to something 30 pages back.
So again, I liked it. But you're going to have to focus if you want to keep up.
I've been reading a lot of Native American related work lately, for no particular reason. Sherman Alexie, Joseph Boyden namely. And though I did enjoy GFOTR, it's Mr Bunnell's writing style that for me was the drawback. We get a bit of an ADD retelling of him visiting his old home, jumping back and forth in time and from subject to subject. One minute he's talking about four locals that had mysteriously died in jail and without getting to the bottom of that he's off to the drunks in Whiteclay, before literally heading down to the road to give even more and more brief little segments on meeting Jane Fonda, an Indian (accidentally?) murdered by some racist teens, raising buffalo, WWII bombing, and much much more. These are all interesting things but they're barely introduced before he's on to the next making me wonder whatever happened to something 30 pages back.
So again, I liked it. But you're going to have to focus if you want to keep up.
June 12, 2017
I learned a lot from this book and I am grateful to the author, who was born and raised in Alliance, Nebraska, for opening my eyes to many issues concerning the Native American experience in Nebraska. (The author's father was the editor of the Alliance newspaper for many years.) The excellent bibliography at the end of the book will guide my further reading in this area.
That said, I was really struck throughout the book by the extreme contempt he has for the communities and white inhabitants of the Nebraska Sandhills, and for their lifestyles, personal feelings, and ways of looking at the world. It engendered in me a distaste for his dismissive attitude toward the people of my state. If change is to come, it will come from changing the attitudes of people on a person-to-person level. It can't be wrought by angry, almost mindless condemnation.
That said, I was really struck throughout the book by the extreme contempt he has for the communities and white inhabitants of the Nebraska Sandhills, and for their lifestyles, personal feelings, and ways of looking at the world. It engendered in me a distaste for his dismissive attitude toward the people of my state. If change is to come, it will come from changing the attitudes of people on a person-to-person level. It can't be wrought by angry, almost mindless condemnation.
June 14, 2017
On Good Friday 2014, David Bunnell drives from the town where he grew up in Nebraska north to the South Dakota border to visit his long time good friend, Vernell White Thunder. David had been a young teacher at a reservation school when he and his wife got acquainted with Vernell, a school kid who hung out around the government teacher housing. David shares his memories along the drive as well as some of the history of the Lakota, and his adventures on Vernell's dude-catering and bison-raising ranch as he and Vernell drive around looking at some of the sites there. The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the most impoverished, anguished places in the United States and this very personal story begins to show why--the long Good Friday of the Lakota people. But David also found reasons to hope as he experiences the renewed pride and culture of the people.
May 23, 2018
I have enjoyed reading it. It's easy to read and through his one day travel the reader can learn a lot. There's a lot of history in a few pages.
Through Vernell life we also can learn a lot about the evolution and overcoming of great Lakota people. The hard experiences he had lived, made him a wise man with his special sense of humour. I can recognise him every time I read a joke ,or in the way of explaining things, sometimes very short explanations. I had the luck of knowing Vernell in 1999 when I travelled to South Dakota ( I'm from Spain).
Reading this book the hours passed quickly.It has made me smile, also cry..and thinking a lot.
My best wishes for Lakota people, to be again as great as before white people arrived to disturb their lifestyle in the past. You are in the right way.
Through Vernell life we also can learn a lot about the evolution and overcoming of great Lakota people. The hard experiences he had lived, made him a wise man with his special sense of humour. I can recognise him every time I read a joke ,or in the way of explaining things, sometimes very short explanations. I had the luck of knowing Vernell in 1999 when I travelled to South Dakota ( I'm from Spain).
Reading this book the hours passed quickly.It has made me smile, also cry..and thinking a lot.
My best wishes for Lakota people, to be again as great as before white people arrived to disturb their lifestyle in the past. You are in the right way.
June 20, 2017
This book takes place over the course of one day. David Hugh Bunnell, who created some very influential technical and computer magazines, including PC World and MacWorld, drives from his childhood hometown of Alliance, Nebraska, to Pine Ridge, SD, which are less than three hours apart. Along the way, he writes about personal memories, historical events, and current observations as he travels to meet his long-time friend and one-time buffalo-herding business partner, Vernell White Thunder. Bunnell, who passed away in October 2016, was an excellent writer and story teller. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the American West - it's not for the faint of heart, as well as about Native activism and life on the Pine Ridge reservation.
August 11, 2017
Good Friday on the Rez follows the author on a one-day, 280-mile round-trip from his Nebraska hometown of Alliance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he reconnects with his longtime friend, Vernell White Thunder. In a mix of memoir and American Indian history, David Hugh Bunnell debunks the myth that all is hopeless for these descendants of Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull and shows how the Lakota people have recovered their pride and dignity and why they will ultimately triumph. This is a great book for people who are concerned about the future of the native Indian tribes. While most of what we see and hear is negative, this novel displays the hard work done to ensure these people survive with their traditions.
February 19, 2021
A quiet beautiful book about a white man whose life intersected with the Pine Ridge reservation throughout his life. Reading it felt like sitting in the car with him as he went back to visit his good friend Vernell White Thunder. It went into alot of Lakota history on a small level (families and schools) and a larger level (AIM, Wounded Knee and Crazy Horse) and a few myths. There is hope and anger and sadness. I wasnt expecting to be this moved by it. The book is made even more quietly devastating because the author died after writing it so it is almost like a goodbye love song to his friend and the land and life. Devastating and quietly beautiful.
June 15, 2018
The author grew up in Alliance Nebraska, and I found this book to be a great June read. His return to the Pine Ridge and Gordon area was full of history and interesting detail. A part of me objects to the depiction of Gordon and Alliance as racist, but the struggles were real. I was a teenager when Russel Means and AIM invaded Wounded Knee in 1972, and emotions were raw and escalated at that time. Can you imagine the era if we had Social media and 24 hours news.
I highly recommend the book for anyone from Nebraska.
I highly recommend the book for anyone from Nebraska.
October 9, 2018
I only gave this book three stars because the author's ranting asides about the culture he grew up in was jarring at times. He made it abundantly clear that he had nothing but contempt for his hometown and most of the people in it. The parts of the book where he described his one-day road trip to Pine Ridge, South Dakota from Alliance, Nebraska were interesting and well-written. The interspersing of Lakota history and culture with his friend Vernell's life was also interesting. Toning down the rhetoric a bit would make the ideas in this book more open to more people.
July 18, 2019
4.5 A one day trip - with another trip, and many memories and histories embedded within - to visit his Native American best friend out on the Rez in Nebraska.
It takes a while to unfold the different layers of narrative, but a fascinating book.
A lot of reviewers mention the author's anger. I didn't find this an angry book. Obviously, he is dealing with a sad part of our history, and anyone who lives near a reservation is aware that these things continue to this day. But, his writing is very factual and caring.
It takes a while to unfold the different layers of narrative, but a fascinating book.
A lot of reviewers mention the author's anger. I didn't find this an angry book. Obviously, he is dealing with a sad part of our history, and anyone who lives near a reservation is aware that these things continue to this day. But, his writing is very factual and caring.
October 21, 2021
This was a pretty even mix of memoir and non-fiction. It was sad to see that the realities of indigenous people in the US are just as bad as here in Canada, but not surprising. I appreciated the perspective of a white guy who spent his whole life visiting the Rez, but I wouldn’t have picked this from the library if I realized a white guy wrote it (next time I will spend more than 30 seconds choosing my book!). Would much rather learn these stories from the people who have ownership of them!
September 2, 2017
This was one of those books that t0ok me back to another time in my life. As he described Pine Ridge and it's people I remembered my good times, my not so good times and my sad times on Pine Ridge. My love for the people and their ways was front and center through every page. I recommend this book highly.
May 4, 2019
As the cover says this book is an Odyssey. It tells the story of one day of travel on the rez. Giving much history, personal observations of the author and comments on situations on the reservation in today's society.
I found it very interesting and poignant. Beautifully written. It made me want to trace the author's travels with book in hand.
I found it very interesting and poignant. Beautifully written. It made me want to trace the author's travels with book in hand.
March 8, 2021
This book was published after the death of the author, resulting in some confusion. Historical facts cited will need confirmation. It is a personal account which includes cultural information about the Lakota tribe, and their modern-day adaptation to being pushed onto the reservation (Pine Ridge). Also describes white brutality and condescension, often sanctioned by local authorities.
March 1, 2024
I grew up in one of the border towns in the book and knew some of the people the author writes about. I haven’t lived there for over 40 years but remember well how the Lakota were talked about; being told there were some “good” Indians. Sadly, I never knew how brutally they were treated by local and county police until I read this book. Shameful.
May 27, 2017
*Received as a Goodreads Giveaway*
Good Friday on the Rez was beautiful. Equal parts accounting of Lakota history and a tale of friendship, Bunnell writes with heart. Having spent time myself in Pine Ridge, it was a moving story.
Good Friday on the Rez was beautiful. Equal parts accounting of Lakota history and a tale of friendship, Bunnell writes with heart. Having spent time myself in Pine Ridge, it was a moving story.
June 2, 2017
Short memoir is a form that I'm enjoying more and more. Told from several perspectives, this book is a nice mix of personal anecdote, historical fact, and cultural commentary. I read far to few books that aren't available as ebooks and this one was worth it (if less convenient).
June 25, 2017
I won this book via Goodreads First Reads. Having worked on a reservation in the Pacific Northwest for about 20 years, I was eager to read the author's perspective of Pine Ridge and also to learn about the culture and history provided. This book was very interesting!
August 24, 2017
The book was interesting but I had trouble with the David Bunnell own racist and bigotry views. His hate of everything and everyone that has a different viewpoint overshadowed has real message about how Native Americans have been mistreated.
October 25, 2017
A great book about a "white dudes" involvement with the Lokota tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His involvement in various historic events is substantial, as is his friendship with his former student. Written in a laid back way that brings a humorous edge to various difficult situations.
November 28, 2018
I loved all of the history, particularly Nebraska Native American history, described in this book. The way that David Bunnell presents his journey to his hometown of Alliance, Nebraska is engaging and informative. There was so much presented in this book that I did not know.
December 18, 2017
I won this book through Goodreads. Really heartwarming and beautifully written. A must read.
June 1, 2017
It had good moments but was also inconsistent in tone. Nonetheless, a nice read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews