There's a few scholars that object to how the italicized sections suggest that Native people are to take some part in the blame for how colonization occurred. But I say, "Yes they are." Not nearly as much blame as the colonizers, of course. But we are not just victims. I hate this idea that we are all just victimized and oppressed and etcetera etcetera. It's dehumanizing in its own way.

Sometimes, it's not getting what we want that offers us the most important Lessons

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.

As a fiction writer, of course, you need to take some leeway with certain aspects of history to make the story work.

We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.

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.

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.