Indian Country

Photographer Gwendolen Cates offers a wide-ranging portrait of Native Americans in Indian Country, with hundreds of images of residents in Alaska and Florida, New York and Arizona. In school buses, rodeo rings, desert reservoirs, forests, an Alvin Ailey School ballet studio, prison, a New York City subway station, living rooms, race cars, in police uniforms, lacrosse uniforms, tribal dress for dances in short, every conceivable American setting or apparel the subjects of these color and black-and-white photos are not made into icons (though a portrait of Leonard Peltier is included), put on pedestals or pitied. ""This book is a conversation between Gwendolen, a white artist with a camera, and a few dozen Indians,"" writes Sherman Alexie in his introduction. With quotations from some of the subjects, this collection is heartening in its honest, thoughtful treatment of individuals and their cultures. (Oct.)