Cultural Awareness
We talk earnestly about the importance of cultural awareness in our interactions with communities, but do we really understand what that means? After reading Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn (New World Library, 2002, ISBN 1577312333), I realize how far short of understanding I am. To quote the review by Kevin Roddy from Booklist, reproduced on Amazon.com:
Readers looking for another red-man-departs-wise-words-to-white-man-to-lessen-white- man's-guilt will be disappointed by the tone and content of this work. Realists wanting a truthful, fiery, and, ultimately, cleansing dialogue between Indian and white will definitely want it. Nerburn reluctantly agrees to a meeting with Dan, a Lakota elder who asks him to construct a book from a motley collection of notes, diatribes, and political and social commentaries written over seven decades and kept in an old shoe box. Void of the hypocrisy rampant in many books that have whites adopting the ways of "the great spirit," Nerburn exposes the real truth, which whites are unwilling to face: that in "the hunger to own a piece of the earth, we had destroyed the dreams and families of an entire race." Joined by a dog named Fatback, Dan gives Nerburn the ride of his life as they cross the vast Midwest in Dan's Buick. Along the way, Dan alternates between rage and melancholy, and Nerburn between shame and confusion. Nerburn unintentionally touches nerve after nerve and elicits an almost unbearable flood of anguish and despair. The truth revealed in this book will be difficult for most whites to face, but it is painfully necessary if healing is ever to begin.
When we wonder why it's so hard to enlist American Indian students in our minority student programs, or to deal with the issues of poor health and poverty in Indian communities, we might begin by reading this book. It doesn't point to any easy solutions—or any solutions at all, for that matter. But it gives a much deeper view of the nature of the problem: at root a lot more ours than theirs.