REUBEN SNAKE: YOUR HUMBLE SERPENT: INDIAN VISIONARY AND ACTIVIST. As told to Jay C. Fikes. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers (823 Don Diego, 87501), 1996. Hardbound. 287 Pp. ISBN Number 0-940666-60-X. $24.95. “Reuben Snake: Your Humble Serpent: Indian Visionary and Activist” is the autobiography of Kikawa Unga, the Winnebago leader also known as Reuben Snake. Born in 1937, Reuben Snake grew up along the Missouri River in Nebraska. Born into poverty, Reuben Snake was forced to attend a missionary boarding school in Wisconsin. Like most Indian schools of that era, the Wisconsin school actively tried to instill white culture into its Indian students. All things “Indian” were forbidden and frowned upon.  Reuben went on to enlist in the service as a Green Beret, he served in Germany in the mid 1950’s and received an honorable discharge shortly after leaving Germany.  Irrespective of his missionary school upbringing and his service in the armed forces, Reuben was to suffer many prejudicial encounters with non-Indian employers and persons representing themselves as Christians. Seeing his own children being subjected to these same prejudices, he came to the realization that not only must he resolve to reconnect with his own Winnebago heritage, he must take on the responsibility of challenging mainstream America’s treatment of American Indians, and become a leader of his own people. Reuben Snake kept his promise, he went on to become a prominent political activist, educator, and civic and religious leader for his people. His achievements culminated shortly after his death in 1993 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994. Anita Cheek Moon, Member Reviewers’ Consortium
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