Arts & Entertainment

Review: Reality of tribal life in 'Don't Know Much About Indians'





"First-time author Gyasi Ross has assembled a collection of his writings into a book that once opened, will be hard for any reader to put down. Through narrative short stories, vivid poetry and creative illustration, Gyasi Ross makes it easy and inviting to step into a world that will be new to some readers, and all too familiar to others. These are simple stories that pack a punch – sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully – and always with one foot planted firmly in the realities of life for Indian people today.

Told through the lives of fictitious Native people, each chapter focuses on one moment in time for each character – where laughter and tears, victories and disappointments, love and heartbreak reside. But no matter your tribe or race, your religion or worldview, there is much to be learned from “Don’t Know Much About Indians” – and readers will be enthralled from cover to cover.

A practicing attorney and graduate of Columbia Law School, Gyasi Ross is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and his family also comes from the Suquamish Tribe. He currently practices law representing tribes for Crowell Law Offices-Tribal Advocacy Group, and he is co-owner and vice-president of Red Vinyl Records. Of his book, Gyasi Ross states in the introduction that he did no study or research to write it. Rather, he relied on his own personal experiences, his observations from living among tribal peoples his whole life, and most of all his imagination. He writes, “It is not a ‘troubling’ and/or ‘poignant contemplation of the Native American experience.’ I do not contemplate. I speculate.”"

Get the Story:
‘Don’t Know Much About Indians’ (But I Wrote A Book About Us Anyway) (The Tacoma Weekly 10/6)

Related Stories:
Video: Gyasi Ross stages an intervention for a turquoise addict (09/16)
Video: Gyasi Ross discusses 'Don't Know Much About Indians' book (08/16)

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