Viet Cong at Wounded Knee: The Trail of a Blackfeet Activist

by Woody Kipp

It was at Wounded Knee, huddled under a night sky lit by military flares and the searchlights of armored carriers seeking him out, that Vietnam vet Woody Kipp realized that he, as an American Indian, had become the enemy, the Viet Cong, to a country that he had defended with his life. With candor, bitter humor, and biting insight, this book tells the story of the long and tortuous trail that led Kipp from the Blackfeet Reservation of his birth to a terrible moment of reckoning on the plains of South Dakota. Kipp’s is a story of Native values and practices uneasily crossed with cowboy culture, teenage angst, and quintessentially American temptations and excesses. As a boy, Kipp was a passionate reader and basketball player, always ready to brawl and already struggling with discrimination and alcoholism in his teens. From his tour of Vietnam as a Marine to his troubled return, from his hell-raising as a violent, womanizing, hard-drinking horse breaker to his consciousness-raising as a college student and foot soldier in the American Indian Movement, Kipp’s memoir offers a unique, firsthand view of the enduring power—and the vulnerability—of Blackfeet culture, of the difficulties inherent in cross-cultural understanding, and of the urgent necessity of overcoming these difficulties if the essential heritage of Native America is to survive.

Genres: Native American, Politics

166 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical work traces the path of Woody Kipp's life from his childhood on reservation land in Montana through combat in Vietnam, studies at university, and activism as a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970's. (The author promises a second volume, beginning with his spiritual awakening smoking the peace pipe at Mt. Rushmore, but to my knowledge it is not yet published.)

Kipp is unreservedly forthcoming about his alcoholism, drug use, and marital infidelity, letting his own life tell the story of what is essentially a cultural occupation, the impact of white man's vices on a people whose cultural context is essentially incompatible with them. I chose this book for information on the occupations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the town of Wounded Knee by AIM activists, but in the end I found Kipp's description of this cultural occupation far more enlightening.

Viet Cong at Wounded Knee is an inviting and illuminating read.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed Kipp's writing style, I kept waiting for him to tell me that he had an awakening and turned his life around. While I think he learned lessons along the way, he left me wondering how he managed to always return to his teaching position. He also left me wondering if he has written or will write a sequel that transforms his life away from the almost self-destructive decisions of the past.

Want to be able to recommend this book, but I'm not sure of what you will think of me perservering and reading from cover to cover while hoping for a better outcome.

[Patrick O'Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woody Kipp is not afraid to take a real hard look at himself, and then let the reader do the same. With out holding back, nor told with guilt or shame. Kipp depicts a frame of mind, a sense of time, a piece of history that this generation most likely doesn't know about. A deeply moving, and at times sad realization of shifting values and ideals as Kipp evolves into a conscious warrior.

[Deena]

Teaching for 211.