As a child, Woody Kipp states that he “was taught nothing of actual North American history, except from a Eurocentric point of view” (17). Any reader of this memoir shall have their own misreading of history corrected as the plight of racial and ethnic minorities takes center-stage in this highly readable and intensely captivating work. Kipp, a Blackfeet Indian from Montana, recounts the many ‘trails’ that he has traveled. The memoir can be divided into four sections; his childhood, his service in Vietnam, his politicization during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his involvement with the American Indian Movement (AIM). However, the central premise to this book can be summed up by one word: race.
Kipp became increasingly aware at a young age that racism “had leaped off the ship with Columbus (14).” Interestingly, it was not until Kipp joined the Marines in 1964 that he began to realize that all ‘others’ in the United States, not just Native Americans, faced the wrath of American racism. His fellow marines in Eastern North Carolina saw him as “a historical oddity” (28). Under the influence of American cinema and John Wayne-style westerns, white Marines asked Kipp if he lived in a tipi. He began to realize that “Blacks and Indians spoke to similar themes in their stories and narratives, owing to the shared condition of white supremacy” (83-4). American racism that was so prevalent stateside was carried with the American military to Vietnam. As a result, he often times felt more of a connection with the Vietnamese than his fellow marines, and he recalls that “Like many other Indians in Vietnam, I was surprised at our physical resemblance to the Vietnamese people” (35).
Kipp reminisces about his experiences in the Vietnamese countryside and recalls the peacefulness he experienced during conversations with the villagers. He was often told: “You same same Viet Cong” (36). Kipp clearly articulates that the Vietnamese were fighting the same war and encountering the same problems that his ancestors did on the Great Plains. The Vietnamese and the American Indians had white culture and American-style government imposed upon them, and Kipp argues that in both instances the fighting became fiercer because of the racial divide. Remembering a particular encounter in Vietnam, he posits that “What I had just witnessed was not war but racial hatred” (43). He recalls that “Many years later, after digesting what had happened to the Native American peoples after the coming of the Europeans, I began to understand my connections to the Vietnamese” (41).
Kipp’s ‘awakening’ was as much the result of the political climate of the 1960s as it was a reaction to the previous “generation of Blackfeet who had been thoroughly brainwashed by white society as children” (4). When Kipp left the Marines in September 1968, he became heavily influenced by the political climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He believes that “Whatever potion was inciting the anti-Vietnam protests, the civil rights marches, and the sexual revolution was also working on me” (60). The lifestyle of the hippie movement did not leave Kipp unaffected, and he notes that “Soon those clothes, that hair, and the hippie culture would become commonplace for me” (81). Just as many students were politicized on American campuses during the era, the same was true for Kipp when he began attending the University of Montana. “Conservatism born of cowboy life, Catholicism, the Marine Corps, and a small-town boyhood began dropping away like old snakeskin” (85).
Kipp did not only develop a new countercultural lifestyle on campus, but he also began to understand what it meant to be an Indian from an academic perspective. An intellectual understanding of ideas such as liberty, justice, and equality wed with a new consciousness and an appreciation for his heritage when he met members of AIM in 1972. Similar to the Vietnamese, he described the leaders of AIM as “Native men battling for something that was theirs” (97). After he joined AIM, Kipp began to believe that “a military response might seem a viable way to deal with the ravages of white society” (29). His recollection of the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C. also points to the relationship between various political organizations during the 1960s and 1970s. He notes that various civil rights groups brought them supplies, and Stokely Carmichael came to offer his support. The relationship between Kipp, the hippies, and black activists corroborates the notion that there was a strong connection between all “misbegotten children of the American Dream” (110).
Kipp’s story culminates in the ten week occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. “Suddenly a popping sound punctuated the night…I knew that sound. I had heard it every night for twenty months in Vietnam…In that moment in the ravine, I realized the United States military was looking for me with those flares” (126). Kipp was now the Viet Cong at Wounded Knee. When the guns that he had been trained to use in Southeast Asia were directed in his direction, the resemblance between Kipp and the Viet Cong crystallized in his consciousness.
The issue of racism pervades this book, but it is important to note that Kipp recognizes that white America is not monolithic. He states that “Not all white men and women are the same, of course…some are not consumed by materialism, by greed, by the mainstream ideas of progress that are causing the sickness of the earth” (135). While Kipp is particularly harsh on white America, it is important to recognize that he does not paint a squeaky-clean image of himself or his colleagues either. He is quick to point out that years of hard living took its toll on himself and his relationships with others. Womanizing, drug and alcohol abuse, and frequent fighting are commonplace in this book. The language used to tell many of the more raucous episodes in the book is obscene, which may leave the reader laughing aloud or grimacing in disbelief, depending on one’s disposition.
The book is a quick read, in part because it contains only 142 pages of text, but also because it is so fascinating. The reader will spend much more time thinking about the complex issues addressed throughout the work than they will actually reading it. With such an interesting and emotional story to tell, one may wonder why Kipp did not write a longer memoir. However, there is no wasted space and Kipp makes every word count. He states that this is part one of a two part series, and the rest of his life will be addressed in the coming memoir. This book is highly recommended for both lay readers and academics. It would be useful in classes dealing with a multitude of subjects including race in American society, Native American history, the 1960s, social change movements, or an introductory course on the modern United States.
Reviewed by Matthew Shannon (Department of History, Temple University)
North America 
