Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong

Abstract

This book achieves a balancing act that will be the envy of Indigenous authors, myself among them. Its articulate demonstration of the utter absurdities, past and present, of the culturally embedded representations of Native Americans charms rather than alienates its (non-Indigenous) audience. This is not to say that Chaat Smith’s essays will not challenge or confront its readers; they will. Rather, his expose uses razor sharp observations, clarity of language, self-deprecating authorial tone and clever juxtapositions of humour and tragedy to blunt the power to take umbrage as a dismissive response. The book makes its searing critique engaging and irrefutable.