Canada and America are very, very different. It's true that we share a language and many customs. But Americans have a very different view of the world.

I believe truly that Canada is a living history and we're going through some of the most important time in this country's short 150 years.

The beliefs of Native people are no less powerful or important just because they focus on a different "form of magic."

The world is a different place in this new century, [...]. And we are a different people. My visions still come but no one listens any longer to what they tell us, what they warn us. I knew even as a young woman that destruction bred on the horizon. [...] War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth.

From a craft standpoint, telling a story in the first-person present tense over the course of 500 pages is a daunting challenge.

There's the concept that dreams are as important - if not more important - than reality. The attention that one pays to those things in the shadows is very much a part of the Indian experience.

Fascinating, often hilarious, always devastatingly truthful, The Inconvenient Indian is destined to become a classic of historical narrative. For those who wish to better understand Native peoples, it is a must read. For those who don't wish to understand, it is even more so.