LAKOTA WOMAN <i> by Mary Crow Dog with Richard Erdoes (Grove Weidenfeld: $18.95; 263 pp.) </i> : BLACK ELK The Sacred Ways of a Lakota <i> by Wallace Black Elk and William S. Lyon (Harper & Row: $16.95; 193 pp.) </i>

Generosity is not the outstanding feature of Mary Crow Dog’s “Lakota Woman.” It’s impossible to pick up a book by a Native American without sympathy, but Crow Dog’s shrill, belligerent tone ensures that many readers’ compassion rapidly evaporates. She has an interesting story to tell, having participated in the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, but her “Indian good, white bad” posturing--Crow Dog herself is half white (or “honkey,” as she sometimes puts it)--provokes only skepticism. “Black Elk” gives a completely different picture of the Sioux, describing the tribe’s spiritual life instead of its anger, but Crow Dog’s book makes one a little suspicious of this one, too. That response is undoubtedly unfair, but it hints at the fact that some lives are so burdened, or so ethereal, that mere words can’t do them justice.