Native Heart: An American Indian Odyssey

Horn ( The Native American Book of Life ) writes children's books under the pen name White Deer of Autumn. Here he offers his autobiography to adult readers. The story skips back and forth from the author's present life with his Ojibway wife, Simone, and their children in Florida, to both the recent and more distant past. He recounts being dragged away from home by nuns at an early age to attend school. He relates his years working with the American Indian Movement and teaching traditional Indian culture to children. Particularly affecting is the chapter about his attempted suicide after harassment and abuse by police. Horn includes detailed depictions of traditional Native pipe and sweat ceremonies. When he is discredited regarding his use of the pipe ceremony after a hearing in Minnesota, his meager explanation for why an Indian friend would testify against him is that his dog always growled at her. Also, for someone so clearly hurt by attacks upon his Indian identity, it seems ungenerous for Horn to define ``Indian'' in ways that exclude either those that don't, to his eyes, look the part or who don't share his beliefs. (June)