Deloria, because of the depth of his passion, remains one of the most stirring and articulate voices in America
today.
--Salt Lake City Tribune, 5/99
Though controversial, Deloria's writings have challenged continually the ways that religious thinkers understand
the relationship between the practices of American religion native and imported...Deloria's forceful and important
essays deserve wide reading.
--Publishers Weekly
Thirty years' worth of Deloria's essays on religion and Native American life, thoughtfully edited and presented..
..A forceful and clear-sighted anthology.
--Kirkus Reviews, Jan 1, 1999
Vine Deloria, Jr. is one of this country's most brilliant thinkers, a philosopher with a heart for justice. These
essays collected here prove it. We are reminded of the turbulent years we have labored as Indian peoples to continue
to grow societies that maintain integrity, courage, delight and compassion despite the insane spin of destruction.
The early essays are strikingly as current as the more recent works, and the entire collection could be interpreted
as a map, showing where we have been, where we are going and the manner in which we have traveled.
--Joy Harjo, poet, musician, and author of The Woman Who Fell From The Sky
For This Land makes available to a wide audience the articulate, wise, sometimes harsh reflections of Vine
Deloria about America, Christianity, and, above all, the tribal traditions of native Americans. If European settlers
in the Americas are ever to be more than nomadic vandals it will be because we have heard voices like Deloria's
calling us not just to respect our environment but to build genuine communities in which respect for the land and
respect for each other are mutually reinforcing.
--Robert N. Bellah, author of The Good Society and co-author of Habits of the Heart
Routledge N. Y. Web Site
March, 2000
Summary
For This Land, edited and with an introduction by James Treat, brings together over thirty years of the
work of Vine Deloria, Jr., regarded as one of the most important living Native American figures.
For three decades, Deloria has offered substantive and persistent contributions to understanding the complexity
of religion in America. In his writings he recognizes the spiritual desperation and religious breakdown in the
contemporary situation, and provides the groundwork to get people to examine what they actually believe and how
they must put those beliefs into practice.
The essays in this collection express Deloria's concern for the religious dimensions and implications of human
existence. His writings are engaged within a theoretical system of physical, not ideological, space, and ultimately
give voice to this intellectual passion by calling into question our controversial religious institutions, commitments,
worldviews, freedoms and experiences. For This Land offers a distinctive approach to comprehending human
existence from one of the leading critics of mainstream American thought.