fireinthemountains

To be fair, dolphins and whales are both cetaceans. It's not as far of a stretch as calling a shark a whale.

2- It depends entirely on the area. I've experienced both extreme racism, and also people who thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Where I currently live, the only natives seen in a bad light are the Navajo, and the shit I hear people say is terrible, that they're just a bunch of fat, thieving, drunks, and nobody cares or thinks badly of the other tribes. Where I grew up, though, the racism was terribly extreme against all Natives. To the point where, just recently, a group of kids at a hockey game were assaulted by adults.
It really just depends on where you are. Most people outside of areas where there actually are Natives tend to not really have an opinion, and believe racism is dead, but it really isn't.

3- Something special? I don't know about that, really. Most people don't know there are 566 federally recognized tribes, and that using the blanket term "Native American" is covering an entire race of people who all come from different groups. It's like saying "White", when the various kinds of "White" are all different. It's like assuming a French, a Welsh, and a Russian are all exactly the same.
I guess one really interesting thing, from my tribe at least, is that there is a very strong sense of family and familiarity among the people. What is commonly seen as gay or socially taboo just isn't as much of a thing. I've seen dog piles of young men (16-21 ish) lying in the sun together, basically cuddling. There's nothing weird about it, and nobody sees them being together and comfortable and thinks it's weird. Showing mild physical affection as a male, to other males, isn't negative, and is more of a brotherhood thing, and in no way indicative of sexual orientation. I always thought that was cool.

5- The question of beliefs goes back to that there are many, many tribes, and they're all different. In general though, the "creator" is seen purely as a father figure, and in no way a god to be feared. Rather, "he" is more of a force of nature, and in my tribe, the true religion, so to speak, is "All of my relations." Which is spoken as a prayer, in the language, and is a kind of reminder that we are all related, the people, the animals, the plants, the earth, everything, and we are simply living with the rest of nature. Basically that whole, one with nature thing.

I can answer this.
It really is absolutely true. The book itself is based around where I grew up, and I could relate to pretty much the entire thing. Personally, my favorite part of the book was when he talked about morbid humor. How the only way to actually live with a hopeless situation is to make it funny, to laugh about it. I remember when I moved to a new town (a vast improvement to my quality of life), people hated my morbid humor. They just didn't get it. They completely didn't understand, it wasn't funny to them, and they thought I was crazy for laughing at terrible things. It took me a good year to actually stop.
I personally am much happier living in real towns and cities, I've been all over the place since then (Boston, New York, Denver), and I'd take actual towns over the rez any day. The one I came from was mostly just towns ramshackled together in the middle of the prairie. There were some that tried to be real towns, but really just looked like "that shitty neighborhood" that most every real town/city has.
There are some wealthy reservations, that look and feel like America, but the tribe I came from is one of the poorest. A good example of this is how I got a $400 check from my tribe for college, two months late, and my cousin from a different Sioux tribe got a check for $4,000 on time.
Most of my relatives have never left the reservation, let alone the State. I can only imagine what that's like, living in a shitty place and never actually experiencing anything more.
I guess the sad part about it, though, is that I haven't looked back. Living there was so terrible, and left such a huge, sour impression on me, that I've pretty much just given up on my culture. Just entering the State fills me with gut wrenching anxiety.

Nope, but he's not he wasn't answering anything. I felt a bit compelled to, since I have a couple answers.

The head gear they're usually wearing actually comes from my tribe. I honestly don't know how to feel about it. I'm not necessarily offended by them wearing it, I'm more offended by the way they try to justify it. I'm offended by the fact that they get offended when confronted.
Those headdresses they're knocking off are incredibly important and symbolize being a chief, you don't get a headdress unless you are one. I guess to explain why it offends people so much, is because to them, it would be kind of equivalent to people wearing the Pope's hat to festivals. That would probably offend a lot of religious people, if doing that became something a lot of festival goers did. The difference is that it's not religious offense, its cultural/societal. Respect is a really big deal for us.