For some reason, that I am still not quite sure of, I have always felt rather offended when someone called me a hippie or compared me to hippies. I recently realized that I have been in denial and have taken the first step in learning to move out of this way of life–admitting that I am, in truth, a hippie.

What has finally prompted this breakthrough? Interestingly enough it came about while reading Vine Deloria’s book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. I have been wanting to read this book for many years and finally got around to it last month. Towards the end of the book he discusses the inundation of hippies to reservations in the summer of 1966 and his description of them suddenly hit home for me. The passage follows… The italicized sections are characteristics that describe me in general.