Vine Deloria Jr. is no shrinking violet. The author of American Indian manifestoes “Custer Died for Your Sins,” “God is Red” and “Red Earth, White Lies,” has opinions — some flippant, some serious — on just about everything.

At a standing-room-only forum Wednesday at Haskell Indian Nations University, he warned students to steer clear of groups opposed to the war in Iraq. The police — he called them “authorized mad dogs” — have too much power and would like nothing more than to stifle dissent.

“Law enforcement is extremely dangerous. I’d stay way from those people if at all possible,” he said, adding, “Now is a good time to be in the library studying, learning all you can learn.”

Deloria was at Haskell for a national conference on issues surrounding the preservation of U.S. Department of the Interior records affecting the nation’s 562 recognized tribes. About 150 students, faculty and staff attended the 90-minute forum.

Deloria, a former director of the National Congress of American Indians, did not have prepared remarks; instead, he answered questions from the audience.

His observations:

l The Bush administration’s policies toward Iraqis mirror those used to displace Apache and Sioux.

“It’s the Indian frontier all over again,” Deloria said. “Back then it was gold; it was on Indian land, and (the white man) wanted it. Now, it’s oil in Iraq, and (the white man) wants it.”

l The civil rights movement succeeded with blacks because they wanted equal rights with whites. American Indians didn’t fare as well because, “They don’t want to be like whites; they want to be themselves. They want to be left alone.”

It’s hardly coincidental, Deloria said, that Nat King Cole had a prime-time television show the same year that Martin Luther King Jr.-led marchers were attacked in Selma, Ala.

“And what were Indians doing (in 1965)?” he asked. “Selling ‘Bar S’ bacon and making appearances (as savages) at county fairs.”

l The class-action lawsuit — Cobell v. Norton — accusing the Department of the Interior of bilking American Indian trusts for $137 billion will “go on forever.”

Deloria said he hoped future generations would be better political tacticians than their predecessors.

“It used to be that we would sneak into your campsite at night and steal your horses,” he said. “Now we stand on the hillside and say ‘We’re going to get you!'”

l If consummated, the often-pondered marriage between environmentalist and American Indian groups would end in divorce because few environmentalists have the stamina to “see issues through to the end” and because too many think “they can be Indian” if they share the American Indian’s respect for Mother Earth.

Deloria’s comments were well-received among Haskell students.

“We need more Indians who are critical and who are not afraid to voice their criticism,” said Denny Gayton, Haskell Student Senate president. “We need 10 more of him.”