"....I really came to discover two things. The first one was how incredibly misrepresented the native experience had been in our historical narrative. And secondly, that the Native Americans had so much to teach us all about the way to live, basic values that are inherent in native culture... the valuation of the elders, the larger understanding of family, the belief that there is a spiritual dimension to life that has to be acknowledged at all points, and it just goes on and on...I loved my time on Red Lake... and really took it on as using the skills that I have to try to bring the native experience and native values into the general, public discourse and the books and the film are, sort of, one way of doing that." - Kent Nerburn
Kent Nerburn wrote Neither Wolf Nor Dog, a book that won the Minnesota Book Award in 1996. Twenty years after it garnered the Minnesota Book Award, the story made it to the big screen. Kent is in Grand Rapids this week showing the film and holding public discussions about it. He discussed why writing about native culture became a big part of his life's work, the differences between the film and the book, and much more on the morning show today.
Neither Wolf nor Dog will show at the Chucker Auditorium on the Itasca Community College campus in Grand Rapids tonight at 6:30pm.
