Papers - Counting Coup
Stephanie Grover Basketball is a way of life on the reservation. This is what everyone on Crow Reservation lived by. I was shocked that Colton was able to publish this book when he has Indian and rez printed in it. Growing up by the Fon-du-lac Reservation I know that these people get mad when you call them Indians. I don’t see how he was able to get away with printing it. I feel that this book is literary nonfiction because it is telling the story of someone’s life. It also is culture packed and has insight to information about the Native Americans on Crow Reservation. Colton provides a lot of insight about life in Hardin, Montana such as alcohol use/abuse (17), exotic dancer protest (298), lifestyle (117), and the racism (251). The racism is due to the Crow Indian Reservation that the town of Hardin is in. There are the white farmers and the Indians that don’t have jobs. He also provides a lot of insight about life on the reservation such as the alcoholism (17), racism (251), unemployment (85), housing (19), lifestyle (73), dysfunctional families (50) and teen pregnancy rates (276). There are many people that don’t know a lot about reservations and this book provides insight to life on them while also telling a story of hope and honor. Even though Sharon didn’t get a scholarship for basketball, she had a good story. With all she had to deal with in her life, she was able to kind of make something of herself. Even though her success wasn’t noticed right away, she still made a difference and she had many younger girls looking up to her. I feel that this book is credible because he said that what he wrote came from many different interviews that he did. He recorded all of the interviews and if there is any inaccurate information it was because he was told wrong information. (428) He also has a lot of intimate details of people’s lives in the book. He says that he tired to be himself and listen to what the people had to say. (424) This was a book that when I first got was a book that I didn’t want to read because I thought it was just about basketball. In the end I really liked this book mostly because I feel that is more about life on the reservation and working as a team even if you are of a different race. This showed insight to life on the reservation, a side of it that I had never seen before. This book, even though it offended me, was written in a perspective that no one had ever written a book before. He took a chance in writing it the way he did and by doing so I believe he inspired a lot of girls of different races to work hard and go for their dreams. |
