Hurricane Reviews

THE HUMAN DRAMA from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee is told with a rare mix of passion and objectivity. People who want to understand the Indian history of this century will have to read this book.

Martin Cruz Smith, author of Gorky Park and Rose

LIKE A HURRICANE is a testament to the storm of highly charged political events that overtook Indian Country from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. It's time we had the lucid prose and forthright telling of Robert Allen Warrior and Paul Chaat Smith to recount those events as our nations continue to struggle and thrive.

Joy Harjo, Muscogee Creek poet  and author of The Woman Who Fell from the Sky

WHEN AIM WAS ON THE MOVE in the '60s, we rarely had time to read between the lines. With the amazing amount of accurate information that Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior have collected, the story of those beginning struggles can emerge. As the American Indian Movement's founder, I recommend this book to students and historians alike who wish to know what happened in the sixties and seventies in the Native American Indian struggle.

Dennis Banks aka Nowa Cumig, American Indian Movement

THEIR THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED, fast-paced chronicle focuses on three main events that held the attention of people all over the world: the gutsy takeover of Alcatraz, the spontaneous occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., and the traumatic siege at Wounded Knee. As the authors analyze the strength and weaknesses of the Indian movement, and the unrelenting vehemence of government opposition, they make it clear that this era of flamboyant protest and "guerrilla theater" is of great and lasting significance.

Booklist

A WELL-DOCUMENTED, highly readable history of three turbulent years in the history of Native America. Essential reading for anyone interested in the course of contemporary American Indian politics.

Kirkus

DETAILED, LIVELY HISTORY. Smith and Warrior write clearly and dramatically; they have researched and interviewed well; and although unabashed partisans of the Indian cause, they are frank and even-handed to a point that might be painful to AIM diehards. An important addition to the history of a political movement that has yet to reach its stride.

Publishers Weekly

[A] FAST-MOVING NARRATIVE... The authors have created a framework for discussing many of the cultural and political issues that gave rise to the movemen as well as the critical weaknesses that led to its failure.

San Francisco Chronicle

THE AUTHORS DISCUSS ALL THREE heavily symbolic and media-dependent events with clear-eyed scrutiny, lauding personal heroism while recognizing instances of flawed leadership. . . Recommended.

Library Journal

THE BOOK'S SUCCESS rests on the authors clear and succinct examination of this period... showing the players of the American Indian Movement as well as the footsoldiers.

Copley News Service

COMPELLING, EXCITING, AND MANDATORY for all classes on Native American history. Grade: A.

Steve Brock: Reviews of new/recent books by/about Native Americans

SMITH AND WARRIOR HAVE FASHIONED a highly readable history of Native American activism. . . interspersed throughout revealing portraits of such notables as Clyde Warrior, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means.

Choice

THE FRACTIOUS HISTORY of the American Indian Movement in this confused book reminded me of the history of anarchism. Anarchism was doomed because it was against organization that made movements possible. AIM and other Indian protest organizations before and after it were all so poorly organized and led so badly they had almost no leadership. Sadly, we now know the suffering, death, and destruction of those years could have been avoided by the simple act of opening casinos. New Press, which I normally laud, hasn't done it's editing homework here. The authors, who seem to be confreres of AIM leaders, are too kind. Whatever the motivation, many of AIM's campaigns are so frankly stupid and self-destructive (goes on like this for a while. . . )

The Baltimore Sun

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