SUNDANCE: The Robert Sundance Story by...

SUNDANCE: The Robert Sundance Story by Robert Sundance with Marc Gaede (Chaco Press: $12.95; 300 pp., paperback original) and CRAZYWATER: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery by Brian Maracle (Penguin: $10.95; 285 pp.). Alcohol may well have caused the deaths of more Native Americans than all the diseases European settlers brought to North America. Robert Sundance, a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe, gained fame and notoriety from the suit he brought against the Los Angeles Police Department that lead to reforms in the treatment of public inebriates. His gritty autobiography discusses the preparations for his case and includes horribly vivid descriptions of the DTs. It’s easy to mourn the loss of this obviously intelligent man to booze, but Sundance’s accounts of his casual participation in theft, assault and gang rape make it difficult to accept his portrayal of himself as both a hero and a victim. Maracle spoke to dozens of members of various Canadian tribes about alcohol and addiction to collect these unhappy stories of abuse, injury, destruction and murder. He concludes his study with a call for Native Americans to stem the crisis of substance abuse: “The ultimate resolution of native alcoholism will require a combination of spiritual, cultural, social, economic and political action. In a sense, it means that we, as native people, have to become reborn.”