Corbett Mack (1892-1974) was a Northern Paiute of mixed ancestry, caught between the Native American and white worlds. A generation before, his tribe had brought forth the prophet Wovoka, whose Ghost Dance swept the Indian world in the 1890s. Mack’s world was a harsh and bitter place after the last Native American uprisings had been brutally crushed, a life of servitude to white farmers and addiction to opium. Hittman uses Mack’s own words to retell his story, an uncompromising account of a traumatised life that typified his generation, yet nonetheless made meaningful through the perseverance of Paiute cultural traditions.
