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By Root 496 0

not noticed the bullet or the damaged brain tissue. “There seems to be a discrepancy between your findings and those of the other forensic expert,” I said, “and I was wondering how you account for it. How could you not have seen a hole in the back of her skull?” The man replied that he had seen the second report and had no argument with it, but became indignant with me. “I don’t have to answer these questions,” he said. I replied, “Indeed you don’t, but I’m going on television and people are going to ask me about what happened, so I called because I want to get the story correct.” But the pathologist merely repeated exactly what he had said before.

I never got an answer to my questions. Anna Mae was assassinated, but to this day no one has ever been tried for her murder; to the federal government, she was just another dead Indian.

The American Indian Movement did much to inspire Native Americans and raise their cultural pride, though it never won many tangible victories in the struggle to redress centuries of wrongs. However, I don’t think the story is over. Although Indians who ask for equity are still branded as rabble-rousers and dangerous militants, things are changing; maybe I’m overly optimistic, but history seems to be on the side of native peoples. In Canada the government has begun giving back tracts of land to its indigenous peoples; Australia is doing the same; even in the United States there have been small victories—court rulings that uphold some Indian fishing rights—and in Hawaii the return of some resources to native people. American Indians say that they realize that the descendants of the European settlers who took their land aren’t going to get back on the ships that brought them here and return to Dublin, Minsk, Naples or wherever they came from; all they want is the return of some of the stolen native lands to shelter themselves and their children and to provide them with a future. They say that at least we should give them a small cut of the pie that we’ve stolen.

I believe it is inevitable that the Indians will succeed. A society cannot continue to claim that it favors expanding women’s or gay rights, or spend its wealth helping a country like Israel reclaim its historical lands, and yet do nothing for its own native peoples.

55

I DON’T FAULT THOSE who think otherwise, but I’ve never thought much of giving prizes to actors; I consider it inappropriate. The Academy Awards and the hoopla surrounding them elevate acting to a level that I don’t think it deserves. As I’ve mentioned, many people in Hollywood who I care about take the Academy Awards extremely seriously, and with a worldwide audience of a billion people, it’s obvious that a lot of people elsewhere do, too. But that’s the problem: they take it too seriously. When the world has so many serious problems, it’s troubling that such an inconsequential event has taken on such importance. I know people who start planning what they’re going to wear to the ceremonies six months in advance, and if there’s any chance they’ll be nominated, they begin memorizing their acceptance speech. If they win, they pretend their words are spontaneous, but they’ve lain awake for months mumbling to the ceiling what they will say.

The ceremony has its roots in Hollywood’s obsession with self-promotion; people in the business have a passion for paying tribute to one another. I suspect it stems from the fact that so many of them are Jewish. It is a part of their faith to recognize and reward good works and be honored for them. This reassures them that they are worthy people, especially after having grown up in a culture where there is a great deal of guilt and pressure to excel. Jews who are recognized for good works even get a better seat in the synagogue, meaning that they are closer to God. Even the name of the organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is an exaggeration. I laugh at people who call moviemaking an art and actors “artists.” Rembrandt, Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rodin were artists; actors are worker ants in a business