The main function of this page is to provide links to some locations that I've found useful enough that I have bookmarks at them, mostly links to sites related to Indian topics and issues. When I originally built it, in 1995, searches on Indian keywords cmae up pretty dry. But the tribes are online now, many of them, and the Indian newspapers, even if the search engines still don't seem to notice them. (A search at AltaVista for "codetalkers" reveals that not a single Indian site ponied up the cost of being "important." But it did offer me the opportunity to look for "codetalkers" in my local Yellow Pages. If you want information rather than paid positioning, use Google.) There are too many to allow me to be comprehensive. All of these sites except the Peltier and Buffy Sainte-Marie pages have good lists of other locations to check out. Some of them have the feel of angry white guys who wish they were Indians. (I mean, 'Native Americans'; er, 'First Natives'? You know, 'skins.) I'm not angry. And I've tried to filter those out as I identify them; I've also skipped soulful white guys ('guy' is genderless, by the way).

"C'mon, Chief! Y'all look me inna eye while I'm talkin' to yuh!" George II demonstrates the depths of his cultural sensitivity while attempting to honor Navajo war hero. Story here.

I support the American Indian right to wear Levis and cowboy hats and drive big ole pickups and drink Bud while listening to Garth Brooks and Buddy Red Bow. And call y'selves whatever you please, not what some anthro/acado decided was PC this week. In'din: That's what my friends used to say, from the rez. And if you are Indian, you know who you are.

I loathe C&W: Garth, Cyrus, Reba, Waylon, even Willie most of the time. But I love American Indian C&W, simply because it is Indian. I'll listen to Buddy Red Bow twang soulfully about his lost love and tribal values, and I consider "Indian Cowboy" (Buffy Ste. Marie) just as "Indian" as the Black Lodge Singers. I love listening to a couple old guys on a tape I have singing '49s about their one-eyed Ford and their girlfriend who "got the rolls." That's not an aesthetic judgment but a taste: totally irrational and indefensible.

On the web you are whatever color you wanna be. I'm not so sure I like that. When bad writers can turn successful by discovering that their souls need to be renamed Bigwater, Eagle Toodle, or Must Meat Moon (Consider the story of Jamake Highwater, which has a happy ending of sorts), while folks like Simon Ortiz and Ray Young Bear can't get at national audiences, something smells bad. Help promote American Indian presence on the Web; support Native sites. Yeah, that means go somewhere else. But then come back, y'hear?

A bibliography of recommended books on American Indian subjects or by American Indian writers. The books are keyed to the Amazon online bookstore, so you can actually order them. I also have written a comprehensive essay on the odd subgenre of mystery fiction which I call, for lack of an official label, American Indian Mysteries.

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The Sites:

• Buffy Ste. Marie Remember her? Beautiful home page. She has developed a reputation as a digital artist and has been an Artist in Residence at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe. The Cradleboard Project is a teaching program founded by Ste. Marie, who has a PhD in Fine Art and degrees in education. This project is aimed at improving Indian education and Indian cultural awareness. I've written a note on Buffy Ste. Marie in my Rare and Precious Stones series.
• The premier online Indian newspaper is Indian Country.
• An excellent mulit-tribal online magazine with attention to content for children is Cantu Ota.
• A site that is collecting information on current Indian political issues is the Midwest Treaty Network.
• Akwesane Notes: Ho-ha! The newspaper that brought us Peter Blue Cloud and the Hank Adams exposé of Jamake Highwater. Twenty years after Red Power, it may not still be the best Indian newspaper in America, but check it out. Unfortunately, all they post is headlines and a subscription cost, still....
• BIA Home Page: U.S. Government page. Not much there but some links.
• Leonard Peltier Defense Fund [international office] ~ Political prisoners in the U.S? Waugh. One, at least.
• NativeNet Get on every mailing list for everything anyone posts about native peoples. This one is essential, even if you do have to cull out 80%. This web site will get you connected. Unfortunately, the system has not been active for since 1998. It still functions, but it is not maintained or updated.
• Russell Means Maybe; maybe not. Take a look.
• American Indian Movement? Calls itself the AIM site, but take that with a grain of salt. Full of good info on AIM, Peltier, and Wounded Knee, and some potshots at Tim Gaigo and ICT, with which the webmaster has a running feud. It's hard to be sure this isn't one of those "Here, let me help you" folks.
• Dennis Banks Not much there yet, but worth watching.
• Former AIM president John Trudell, whose family died in what is generally assumed to have been politically motivated arson in 1979.

  Music Video Classical

  Trudell has become the most literary celebrity of the AIM leaders, with music, poetry, and film credits. His CDs–notably AKA Graffiti Man, Johnny Damas and Me, and Blue Indian–are available at Tower Records, and cassettes of his music can be purchased direct from his site.
• An essential resource is Karen M. Strom's Storytellers site. Here you will find links to hundreds of sites pertaining to specific American Indian writers. Strom is a web designer who has done a tremendous amount of work on American Indian topics. Her business site is Beaded Lizard Web Designs.
• This is the AIM site, as near as I can tell. The problem is, any number of people have tried to claim "ownership" of the American Indian Movement. The Dennis Banks site implies ownership, as does the Means site. This one includes on its speakers list some key people from the movement–Clyde and Vernon Bellecourt, Floyd Westerman, Yvonne Swan, Ted and William Means– and other notable advocates of Native American rights, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu. Conspicuously absent, however, are Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and John Trudell. Means links you to a different "official AIM site": the "International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters of the American Indian Movement."

My Own Contributions  Scott Momaday bibliography of books in print.  Louise Erdrich bibliography of books in print. Bibliographical essay on  James Welch, the Blackfeet, and some recommended books on Indian subjects. Some recommended books on Indian topics. An essay on the fashionable "Indian Mystery" genre associated with Tony Hillerman and others. Slightly off-topic: A bibliography of Hillerman's "Navajo Mysteries."