The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

4 stars — Well, that was me stepping WAYYYYYY outside my comfort zone. In multiple ways. First, I am wholeheartedly NOT a non-fiction reader. Like, I don’t gravitate towards it at all, and this might be the first voluntary non-fiction read of mine. It helped that it was also full of humour and satire, so it was like easing me in. And secondly, I avoid my own country’s history pretty vigorously. Like, it’s so much easier to learn about things on the other side of the world, and not things in my own backyard. So the discomfort was HIGH. But I’m SOOOOO glad I finally got off my scaredy horse and jumped in, because it is never too late. And with everything going on in Canada this year with First Nations, I guess I was just finally ready to hear some devastating truths. Now, for those reasons, this was a bit of a tough read for me. Partially because I tend to be a very empathetic person, so reading about all of these things that happened and are still happening was hella hard to take. It was so much easier when I just used my white privilege to ignore it. I just felt every blow. I’m not sure if that will make sense to everyone, but it’s becoming increasingly hard to exist on this earth without being dismayed by humanity and the things we’re capable of as a collective. And the other thing that made it very difficult was the sheer amount of information in it. And, here’s the thing with me, I *hate* not knowing all the details. So passing mentions of paintings and movies and events would have me wanting to pull my phone out and start Googling. And I definitely did some of that. But then I felt a bit bogged down. It was good to have all that information there, but it was overwhelming too. I felt like the tone was actually pretty solid. You could definitely feel the author’s admittedly biased viewpoint, but I don’t feel like he was as biased as he could have been. He readily acknowledged that there were mistakes made from the “Indians” side as well. It felt more balanced than I was expecting I guess. I think I’m going to be absorbing this book for quite awhile, and of course I now want more people to read it, just to get an additional perspective on things and open eyes to all that we never learned about in our history. I also have this sense of wanting to do something and fix something, and I genuinely hope that that means I’ll pay more attention to these issues and try to lend my voice so systems can change.

Great, simple and effective story telling. For the fact finder you will googling for days. Or you can move through in a rush. I love how the author left you with a choice of how much you want to learn. Clever.

A must-read for every Canadian. King combines his personal experience & the historical realities of Colonialism in a totally understandable fashion. "It's all about the land!!"