Title: Indians Wear Red
Authors: Elizabeth Comack, Lawrence Deane, Larry Morrissette, Jim Silver
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing
Genre: Indigenous, Non-Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Review:

“Indians Wear Red” traces back the root of Indigenous street gangs to colonialism. It’s a very interesting journey to see how these two things correlate. It explores how Indigenous simply cannot live on their own land anymore, or that they don’t feel the need to. This marks the start of Aboriginals moving to densely populated cities where they are more likely to join street gangs. This book sheds some light on the experience of Aboriginals in urban areas. How they were treated, how they lived, and mostly, what happened to them.

It dives into how street gangs, however bad they might be, can offer a sense of comfort or a “family” for young boys.
It’s interesting how these ex street gang members are interviewed to get their takes on different things. Their attitudes towards gangs, the things they did, and what they were subject to both at home and within the gang. It dives into their drug operations and the sheer scale of them. Lastly, the book goes into ways to prevent or help them. To decolonize and rehabilitate people that have been affected.

Reading this as a young person is powerful. I read testimonies of young men who chased something that seemed promising, only to find themselves in a worse place than before. It’s really heartbreaking because I can certainly empathize with them and understand their lines of thinking. The promise of status, a group, a purpose, a job, only for it to be futile in the end. Wasting away a lot of those childhood and teenage years for nothing. It’s a really impactful message. I would recommend this to other young people, though there is a fair bit of swearing. I think it’s important for other young people to understand the impact that starting something can be. It might not be joining a street gang, it might be a gateway drug or something similar. Youth need identity and belonging that is not found through a world of violence, and this book really points out the steps to help find that.

Here is the official synopsis from Fernwood:

With the advent of Aboriginal street gangs such as Indian Posse, Manitoba Warriors, and Native Syndicate, Winnipeg garnered a reputation as the “gang capital of Canada.” Yet beyond the stereotypes of outsiders, little is known about these street gangs and the factors and conditions that have produced them. “Indians Wear Red” locates Aboriginal street gangs in the context of the racialized poverty that has become entrenched in the colonized space of Winnipeg’s North End. Drawing upon extensive interviews with Aboriginal street gang members as well as with Aboriginal women and elders, the authors develop an understanding from “inside” the inner city and through the voices of Aboriginal people – especially street gang members themselves.

While economic restructuring and neo-liberal state responses can account for the global proliferation of street gangs, the authors argue that colonialism is a crucial factor in the Canadian context, particularly in western Canadian urban centres. Young Aboriginal people have resisted their social and economic exclusion by acting collectively as “Indians.” But just as colonialism is destructive, so too are street gang activities, including the illegal trade in drugs. Solutions lie not in “quick fixes” or “getting tough on crime” but in decolonization: re-connecting Aboriginal people with their cultures and building communities in which they can safely live and work.