Be forewarned: begin reading Aaron John Curtis’s Old School Indian and you’ll quickly fall into a conspiratorial relationship with the protagonist Abe’s alter ego, Dominick Deer Woods, a poet, and a tell-it-like-it-is fella. Suffering from a life-threatening illness baffling his doctors, Abe goes home to the Ahkwesáhsne reservation to see his family and escape the isolation of his marriage. Dominick Deer Woods’s familiar tone when schooling the reader on the true history of Indigenous peoples in America is brutal, funny, and heart-wrenching. It's an honor to witness Abe's journey to remember and embrace his past while seeking clarity for the future. Old School Indian is gorgeously written and brutally beautiful.