Regarding Saturday night's thread about American Indians in the southern US: Let me tell you

[Redstone]

that if you want to gain a thorough understanding of that whole situation, you need do no more that look around for a copy of a book titled Okla Hannali, by R.A. Lafferty.

Lafferty was a fine man and an excellent writer, mostly of science fiction, but he somehow managed to produce a book that (to me) showed the most astonishing understanding of what it means to be an Indian that I've ever read, and this in a book written by an Irish guy from Tulsa!

Trust me on this. Buy that book and read it, and you'll learn not only the historical aspects of the before, during, and after of the Trail of Tears, you'll learn a lot about what it's like to be an American Indian. My own ancestry is from a Northeastern tribe, not a Southern one, but that book still spoke to me.

As it will to you, even if you don't have a drop of Indian blood in your body. It will help you understand.

Redstone