Certainly I'm angry at the way Indians have been treated and continue to be treated. But I don't think it's a helpless emotion.

I grew up in a storytelling culture, a tribal culture, but also in an American storytelling culture.

"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes," I said. "By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."

and then she asks me how many sexual partners I've had and I say one or two depending on your definition of what I did to Custer . . .

I learned how to stop crying. I learned how to hide inside of myself. I learned how to be somebody else. I learned how to be cold and numb.

Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling," she used to say. "Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?

The dream he needed most was the dream that frightened him more.