Wolverine the Trickster: Labrador Innu Tales Collected and Retold by Lawrence Millman

This ribald collection brings to life the Labrador Innu trickster Wolverine, next to whom the comic book superhero is little more than a two-bit punk. When Wolverine is on the scene, wierd things can and do happen -- birch trees have eyes, a penis can talk, the moon commutes from the earth to the sky, and farts can literally kill.

One of the many injustices perpetrated by White Man on the Native is the theft of his lore and the subsequent whitewashing of it for puritans of all ages and persuasions. Cleaned up versions of Native stories fill the mythology/folklore shelves of libraries as well as the last remaining bookstores. On those shelves, the well-endowed Ojibway trickster Nanabozho seems to have lost his organ of generation, while Coyote no longer possesses the divine ability to shit whenever and wherever he pleases. Even Wolverine has found himself air-brushed on a few occasions. All because genuine earthiness runs counter to White Man's romantic image -- romantic and patronizing -- of the Native as a sexless Child of Nature. The object of such censorship ends up as a sort of Bambi in Native drag or a New Age icon. Which is worse would be difficult to say.

Wolverine the Trickster pulls no punches and may not be appropriate for those easily offended by unaltered native lore.