Other men's skies

Robert Bunker, a young, idealistic agent with the Indian Service, has worked among the Pueblos, Navajos, Zunis, wherever possible promoting their inchoate efforts at self-government and finding in these efforts his own role in life and an indefinable catharsis for his own inner struggles over authority. Bunker's intense warmth toward the Indians brushes each page felicitously but his true calling and interest lie in mediating between their passivity and entrenched patience, their Great White Father complex and the insurgent political spirit in community affairs, their growing desire for modern roads, new industries, improved methods of agriculture, their quest for assimilation without loss of dignity or heritage. Like scraps torn from a colorful yet imponderable life, individuals emerge with problems of land for grazing sheep, free hospitalization, escape from marital bonds and, invariably, Bunker's attention shifts from these difficulties to the social mechanisms of solution and especially to the intervention of recognized community leaders. How and what do these leaders think? Who grants them power? How do they go about settling differences and advancing their people's cause? A gentle if persistent observer, Bunker is unfailingly curious about attitudes, purposes, decision-making among the leaders. He tries to capture their phrasings, silences and the indescribably subtle play of their feeling. An odd book, without genre, appealing to the social scientist mainly but also to speculative, tangential readers.