because white men have been doing that forever and Indian men have just
learned how. That’s how assimilation can work.” In addition, students might
wish to view the film Smoke Signals and compare its treatment of father/son
relationships.
- Alexie weaves into his stories references to many social and historical events,
such as Woodstock, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Colonel George
Wright’s slaughter of eight hundred native horses in 1858, and the Ghost
Dance of 1890. Students might find it fruitful to research the historical
events referenced in the stories and then consider what light they cast on the
characters and their lives. Much of the history of American Indians in con-
tact with Europeans has been, despite some moments of pride, a history of
loss—the loss of land and the loss of culture through assimilation. What do
Alexie’s characterizations suggest about what it feels like today to be Indian
and look back on that history of loss? A related subject for analysis is the role
of popular culture for contemporary reservation life; the article by James Cox
will be useful.
- Students might assess the extent to which Alexie draws on traditional native
storytelling themes and methods, and how he may revise them for his own
purposes. For instance, how does Alexie employ the traditional trickster figure?
Karl Kroeber’s Native American Storytelling: A Reader of Myths and Legends
(Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004), the PBS website <www.pbs.org/circleof-
stories>, and the articles by Joseph L. Coulombe and Jerome DeNuccio, cited
below, are useful resources for study of the trickster figure. Study of the com-
plex depiction of the contemporary reservation storyteller, Thomas Builds-
the-Fire, could provide a more focused topic, as could the role of tricksters in
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistf ight in Heaven.
- Alexie often dramatizes situations in which people who care deeply about
one another also experience deep conflict. In “Every Little Hurricane,” Victor
describes his two uncles fighting: “Strangers would never want to hurt each
other that badly.” Trace the various causes Alexie identifies for these situations.
How do they relate to the American Indian past, poverty, and reservation life?
Why are love and violence so intertwined in these stories? Poverty and alcohol
are often triggers for such conflicts, and Alexie has been accused of perpetuat-
ing the stereotypical image of the drunken Indian. See the article by Stephen
F. Evans and determine how you would weigh that charge.
- Alexie’s humor is a a notable characteristic of his writing, but readers and crit-
ics sometimes disagree about its effect. Does his acerbic sense of humor merely
puncture pretensions and point out inequities? Or does it go further and use
satire to offer a corrective? The articles by Coulombe, DeNuccio, and Ron
McFarland and the chapter by Louis Owens, all cited below, should be helpful
to students examining this question.
- “Witnesses, Secret or Not” is the final story in the original edition of The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fistf ight in Heaven. (In the tenth-anniversary edition two
additional stories that were considered for, but not included in, the original
have been added.) In this story, a young boy describes how his father is ques-
tioned by the Spokane police on an annual basis about a murder that happened
Sherman Alexie 1
