Editing Gerald Vizenor (section)

==Activism==
After teaching at the university, between 1964 and 1968, Vizenor worked as a [[advocacy|community advocate]]. During this time, he served as director of the American Indian Employment and Guidance Center in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]], which brought him into close contact with numerous Native Americans from reservations. Many found it difficult to live in the city, and struggled against white racism and cheap alcohol.

This period is the subject of his short-story collection ''Wordarrows: Whites and Indians in the New Fur Trade,'' some of which was inspired by his experiences. His work with homeless and poor Natives may have been the reason Vizenor looked askance at the emerging [[American Indian Movement]] (AIM), seeing radical leaders such as [[Dennis Banks]] and [[Clyde Bellecourt]] as being more concerned with personal publicity than the "real" problems faced by American Indians.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

Vizenor began working as a staff reporter on the ''[[Minneapolis Tribune]],'' quickly rising to become an editorial contributor. He investigated the case of Thomas James White Hawk, convicted of a 1967 [[Vermillion, South Dakota]] murder and sentenced to death.<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite news |last1=Vizenor |first1=Gerald |title=Why Must Thomas White Hawk Die? |work=Twin Citian |volume=10|issue= 11 |date=June 1968}}|2={{cite book|first=Gerald |last=Vizenor|date=1976|chapter=Thomas James White Hawk: Murder on Good Friday" and "Commutation of Death |title=Tribal Scenes and Ceremonies|location= Minneapolis |publisher=Nodin Press}}}}</ref> Vizenor's writings on the case explored the nature of justice in a society dealing with colonized peoples. His work was credited with enabling White Hawk to have his [[death sentence]] commuted.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevenson |first1=Winona |title=Suppressive Narrator and Multiple Narratees in Gerald Vizenor's 'Thomas White Hawk' |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |date=1993 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=36–42 |jstor=20736750 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20736750 |issn=0730-3238}}</ref><ref name="comp 2005"/>{{rp|261}}

During this period Vizenor coined the phrase "cultural schizophrenia" to describe the state of mind of many Natives, who he considered torn between Native and White cultures.<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link=Juana María Rodríguez |last1=Rodríguez |first1=Juana María |title=Gerald Vizenor's Shadow Plays: Narrative Meditations and Multiplicities of Power |journal=SAIL: Studies in American Indian Literatures |date=1993 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=23–30 |jstor=20736748 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20736748 |issn=0730-3238}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ruoff |first1=A. Lavonne Brown |title=Gerald Vizenor: Compassionate Trickster |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |date=1985 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=52–63 |jstor=20739222 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20739222 |issn=0730-3238}}</ref> His investigative journalism into American Indian activists revealed drug dealing, personal failings, and failures of leadership among some of the movement's leaders. As a consequence of his articles, he was personally threatened.