MISSOULA — You might say that Gyasi Ross was inspired by such popular movies as “Dances with Wolves” and “Little Big Man,” to write his own story about Native Americans.

But it wasn’t because he thought these sweeping epics accurately told the story of his life growing up on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Mont. or the lives of any Native Americans across the country, for that matter.

For Ross, these images are what’s wrong with stereotypical portrayals of Indian people in today’s society. They are stories written and told by non-Natives.

So he decided to write a book that told the real story from his perspective.

His book “Don’t know much about Indians (but I wrote a book about us anyways)” is his attempt to rewrite what it is like to be Native American today by reaching out to his intended audience first.

“I write for Indian people unabashedly first,” Ross said. “I wanted to give my views even if they were not perfect, even if they were not good. I was honest and anyone who reads this imperfect book will see something honest.”

Though Ross is well educated, he openly admits he doesn’t know much about Indians, from an academic perspective, that is. So the title of his book seems fitting in one sense and ironic in another.

The tales inside are about experiences on and off the reservation. Some are semi-autobiographical, where names are changed, and others are not. But Ross said they are stories that could not be told if not from a Native perspective.

“If you never had hickeys do you really know Indians? Do you know Indians if you haven’t been to an Indian bar? Do you really know Indians if never had your mom pretends it’s not powdered milk?” Ross said during a presentation at the University of Montana.

“We are so glad to have him come share his book and create dialogue,” said Director of American Indian Student Services, Fredricka Hunter, who noted interested students invited Ross to campus by way of Facebook.

Ross read to a crowd of around 75 people three stories from his book. The first was about how the term “cousins” is prevalent in Indian Country and often used with an agenda. In this story the parents of two young sweethearts tell them they are cousins in an effort to quell their love. It is a tale of first loves and heartbreaks told from the perspective of the young man. In the end he loses his love to another when she returns home from boarding school pregnant.

“It’s a small story, it’s a tiny story, that no one cares about besides these two kids and their parents,” Ross explained. “It’s not Dances with Wolves because that is not real.”

The stories are a mixture of the funny, the happy and the sad.

Ross also shared a tale of how hip hop culture became part of youth culture when he was growing up, weaving images of children break dancing in the dirt and wearing Michael Jackson inspired clothing. Other stories were unsettling and dark like his story of domestic abuse. This tells the love story between an older man and a younger woman. Even though she loves him and is pregnant with his child, he can’t suppress his feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, and lashes out at her.

A woman from the audience said the domestic abuse story was “familiar” while an older man described it as “scary.”

“I had two options (when writing), pretty according to form or brutal honesty,” Ross said after the readings.

Though this is Ross’ first book he is an experienced writer. He has worked for Indian Country Today and has had articles published in the Seattle Times, the Huffington Post, Colors NW, and Crosscut.com. He is a graduate of Evergreen State College and Columbia Law School. He is currently a practicing attorney with the firm Crowell Law Offices.

Yet, despite all his accolades, Ross wanted others to know writing and documenting their own histories does not take an Ivy League education.

“Technology has evened the field on so many things,” he confessed. The book was published on Aug. 15, 2011 and Ross said in two months sold over 2,000 copies with no marketing and little publicity. He currently sells copies from the book’s website DKMAI.com.

“It’s not flowery, Indian in a breech cloth, or John Red Corn, hair flying in the wind,” Ross said of his writing while also encouraging all Native Americans to preserve their culture, heritage and lives through storytelling.

“I feel our best stories have never been told,” Ross said.