Montana 1948

“On the western edge of the county and extending into two other counties was the Fort Warren Indian Reservation, the rockiest, sandiest, least arable parcel of land in the region. In the 1948 its roads were unpaved, and as many of its shacks looked as though they would barely hold back a breeze” (15).

“Among my friends the rumor was that Frenchy kept locked in his storeroom a fat old toothless Indian woman whom anyone could have sex with for two dollars” (24).

“I realize now how much I was a part of that era’s thinking: I never wondered then, as I do now, why a college didn’t snap up an athlete like Ronnie. Then, I knew without being told, as if it were knowledge that I drank in with the water, that college was not for Indians. Good enough for the Army but not for college” (26).

“That’s superstition, David, said my father. Indian superstition.” (34)

“My father did not like Indians. No, that’s not exactly accurate, because it implies that my fa...