The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, I got into The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

*A Note* Stephen Graham Jones is an Indigenous author and the characters in this book are Indigenous. Stephen often uses the term ‘Indian’ to refer to Indigenous people. It’s important to note (and this is at least just what I know where I am from) that non-Indigenous people shouldn’t refer to Indigenous people as Indians. Indians where I am from (Canada) is a reclaimed term that Indigenous people use, and is used to reference people that come from the country of India. When white colonizers came to dominate a land that already had a group of people on it (Indigenous people) they were not kind. Colonizers committed many atrocities including the 60’s scoop, the residential school system, and the treaty signings, and used the term Indians to reference Indigenous people. Since those times Indigenous people have reclaimed the term for their own. If you are not Indigenous you shouldn’t use that term. Since I am not Indigenous, despite the author’s use of the word, I won’t be using it.

My Review

I won’t be doing a summary/ commentary section because this book is so culturally based. I think that it’s best to hear it directly from the author. This is also such a quick but enjoyable book that I would recommend anyone to pick it up. Despite the fact it is very Indigenous culturally based you don’t have to know really anything about the culture to enjoy it. I am someone who knows a decent amount about the culture but I was still finding that it referenced things I hadn’t known previous to the book, but the author explains everything well. I am someone who loves a gritty spooky book so when I heard about this book I was excited to read it. I was surprised that the book hasn’t had better reviews because I loved it! I ended up giving it a 9/10 rating.

I thought the theme of the book was strong in that our guilt always manifests in some way. We can’t hide from the things we do wrong, it will always catch up with us in one way or another. Not only will it catch up to us but it will hurt those we love as well. When four friends go on an illegal hunt, the adrenaline takes over and they slaughter a large elk herd. Since that day they’ve been banned from hunting on their reservation, but that day in the woods has been far from forgotten. When the entity of the elk woman comes into their lives many years after that hunt she intends to extract the same punishment on the men and their families, as they did to her and hers.

I will say that this book is definitely gory, so if that’s not your thing you may want to pass. There are multiple murders of humans and animals in the book and Stephen doesn’t pass up on the descriptions. In my opinion, though I thought this was a unique way to share Indigenous culture. Indigenous culture is very much filled with stories and tales passed down from generation to generation, so the idea of the spirit of a slain elk herd extracting revenge on the hunters who disrespected them fit well. I liked the way the book was split up. I thought the book was interesting as well because it took a really raw look at some of the issues affecting Indigenous people and communities. Things like addiction and mental health were a large theme in this book, and I appreciated the way the book looked at it. In my opinion, the book really spoke to how these things poison someone’s spirit. The rules, regulations, and stigmatizations that Indigenous people have been put under have damaged the communities and it continues to trickle down the generations.

I thought an important theme that’s also focused on in this book is how still in the present Indigenous people’s lives are seen as expendable and unimportant. The different deaths of characters in this book show how non-Indigenous people don’t value Indigenous people’s lives and just see it as more of a community to ignore. This social attitude falls into the Indigenous communities and it makes it even harder to try to uplift their people. I think something important that Stephen does well in the novel is he adds the ugliness in at the right parts. In a book like this, it takes a delicate touch to tell a horror story and a story about a hurt community. I enjoyed the way the book was split up in a way it almost went from life to life. It showed the way that even though some of the characters weren’t as connected to the culture anymore they still were always drawn to it. Indigenous people for many generations were told their culture was bad and wrong. With the reclamation of the culture in the last few generations a lot of people struggle with knowing what it is they should do, and how they should learn their own culture. In their unique ways and lives, the three primary perspective characters each express the notion that they are part of a singular overarching cycle—one steeped in pain and hardship. It’s an incredibly difficult cycle to escape from, and even when you try your best to you can’t escape the label that society gives you.

I also appreciated that Stephen presses in the novel that ignorance is not bliss. No matter who you are, or what culture you belong to, you have to be aware and willing to change in order for life to go in a different direction. Despite the different characters’ attempts to hide from what they know hurts and affects them it always finds its way back. I appreciated that the novel ends off with a touch of hope. The ability for someone to finally make the change, have the awareness. I think it was the idea though that we only have ourselves and the ones we love to lift ourselves up, we can’t expect society to do it. If we want to connect, if we want to be different, then only we can do it. We can have others uplift us and cheer us on, but the work is really up to us.

I will say I loved the section that followed Louis and the end of the Sweat Lodge massacre section. I thought Lewis’s part was so interesting and was just hard to tear away from. His social struggles and internal struggles eventually drive him to a form of unstable mentality and this downfall was interesting to follow. It’s also interesting to see how it spills into the other characters’ lives. All in all, I really enjoyed the book and I thought a lot of the other takes on the book were harsh. Some said this book was controversial. I think the people who say that don’t really have a true grasp on the horrors that Indigenous people and communities have suffered and still do, and a book like this is just an artistic take on things still affecting people to this day. I challenge people to look outside of themselves a bit and question why they are okay reading a horror story about white people but not Indigenous people? Is there some undealt with guilt or unrecognized privilege taking over here?

I hope you enjoyed this review! Feel free to check out my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review.