Tonto's Revenge: Reflections on American Indian Culture and Policy

by Rennard Strickland, Charles F. Wilkinson (Foreword)

How do Native Americans maintain their identity and culture in a hostile society, and to what end? Tonto's Revenge is a passionate attempt by a leading Native American scholar to reassess the Indian world view and its importance to all Americans. His deeply felt essays project a vision of how Native Americans can recapture the power of their cultural legacies. "What we have witnessed over the last five hundred years," states Rennard Strickland, "is the domination of an ideologically superior world view (that of the Native Americans) by a technologically advanced but spiritually bankrupt civilization (that of the discoverers)." He proposes a reversal of this pattern, arguing that "values must prevail over technology," especially if people are to attain balance and peace with themselves and their surroundings. He delineates the enduring cultural heritage of Indians in essays on law, literature, history, art, film, and culture.

Genres: Native American

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Walter Knapp]

The book is a series of lectures given by professor Strictland regarding different elements of law and policy that have effected Native Americans over the last 500 years. If Indigenous law interests you, this is an excellent book.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essays and speeches from a former UO professor regarding Indians and film, art, and legal questions around the displacement of native peoples. A law prof, Strickland's not radical, by some definitions, but the issues he deals with are by their very nature radical, as they get to the root of genocide, cultural appropriation, and American conquest.