Reservation Blues Sparknotes

The article first puts in perspective the experience of the two main characters in stories “Down by the Riverside” and “Long Black Song” from Uncle Tom’s

The novel Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie reveals different struggles encountered by the Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation through the use of history, traditions, and values. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a pureblood Indian, forms a band with his childhood acquaintances Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin called Coyote Springs. Alexie uses a variety of scenes and personal encounters between characters and their dialogue to portray the meaning of tribal identity throughout the novel. A cultures goal is to prove their identity and be superior to one another; The American culture has achieved dominance through white hegemony while the Spokane American Indian tribe is in a battle of oppression struggling to preserve their tribal identity. Spokane Native Americans are very passionate about their tribal identities yet are envious of the power that the white hegemony holds against them, leading them to their depression.

“The doom of the Cherokee was sealed. Washington, D.C., had decreed that they must be driven West and their lands given to the white man, and in May 1838, an army of 4000 regulars, and 3000 volunteer soldiers under command of General Winfield Scott, marched into the Indian country and wrote the blackest chapter on the pages of American history.” Said Private John G. Burnett, of Captain Abraham McClellan’s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry. This primary source is to give perspective on the soldiers behalf, not to defend the contrary, but to look from a more broad perspective. Being able to use the time period as a reason for justification that it was the most humane way to deal with the Indians for that time.

Nerburn does not mention the stereo typical, clichéd view of a drunken Indian, who is savage and a noble wise man or the head of the pact. He respects the diversity of the Native American culture and the difference between the tribes. He realizes the harm done by the whites, who exploited the native themes and rituals of the culture. He mentions the spiritual arrogance the whites’ show, where they try to appropriate for themselves the rituals and cultures and customs of other cultures and religions.

The film, Reel Injun reveals a distortion of the way Hollywood sees Native American life through comedy and the real way Native Americans live which changes according to the current times. Neil Diamond sets out on a journey across America to figure out where the incorrect image of Natives arose from, all signs pointing towards Hollywood. Dozens of films recreate the way Americans believe Natives live as savages and wear costumes and decorated headpieces with feathers, but Hollywood does not show the true spiritual side and the meaning of why they live the way they do as true to their own culture and assimilated to the American culture as well. US history negatively affects Native American live which lead to the image of Natives to be clouded by imagination through film, changed the way Natives viewed themselves and expect to live, and misshaped the view we now have for Natives.

We watched the movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee which was released in May of 2007 and was directed by Yves Simoneau and produced by Tom Thayer and Dick Wolf. The setting of the movie is the out west like in South Dakota. The Indians believed that the Black Hills and the Bad Lands were the holy land that was given to them by their great spirit. These Indians who have lived here for many generations are getting kicked out of their land because the U.S. government wants the gold that is in the mines. The U.S. government is trying to get all the Indian leaders to come live on the reservation with the other Indian tribes that have agreed to this arrangement.

Once European men stepped foot onto what is now known as North America, the lives of the Native Americans were forever changed. The Indians suffered centuries of torment and ridicule from the settlers in America. Despite the reservations made for the Natives, there are still cultural issues occurring within America. In Sherman Alexie’s, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the tragic lives of Native Americans in modern society are depicted in a collection of short stories taking place in the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. Throughout the collection, a prominent and reoccurring melancholic theme of racism against Native Americans and their struggle to cope with such behavior from their counterpart in this modern day and age is shown.

What would it be like to have everything common and normal in life taken away within a moments notice? The film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee explores this question through the historical events that took place during the Indian removal era. Furthermore, the film reveals the motives of the U.S. government through the many scenes in which they attempt to negotiate for land with the Sioux Indians. The Sioux refuse to sell their land, so the United States forces the Sioux to pay for the western expansion with life, land, and freedom.

One of the six bands of the Lakota branch of the Sioux Nation live on the reservation. They are affected by homelessness, joblessness, and poverty. Photojournalist Aaron Huey stated, "People there were telling me the most epic stories I'd ever heard, and people were talking about a history of genocide. I knew that word would never be used in the mainstream press. I knew right away I wasn't' OK with that, that I wanted a bigger piece of the truth than just more statistics and more pictures of poverty.

When Smoke Signals Indians’ Distress… “The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV” declares ironically Thomas-Builds-The-Fire, in the movie “Smoke Signals”, to condemn the Indian stereotype conveyed by media. The writer, Sherman Alexie narrates the story of Thomas and Victor, Native Americans, who go on a road-trip to retrieve the ashes of the lately deceased Arnold Joseph, Victor’s father. Leaving their natal Coeur D’Alene reservation, Victor and Thomas are stepping into the foreign world of America, in which codes and values differ from their native culture. Alexie portrays the duality of Native American culture, capturing the history of people who have been oppressed, yet attempting to forge their identity in the media-saturated world of the 20th Century, adopting panoramic shots, manipulating the circular sense of time,

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

Science journalist, Charles C. Mann, had successfully achieved his argumentative purpose about the “Coming of Age in the Dawnland.” Mann’s overall purpose of writing this argumentative was to show readers that there’s more to than just being called or being stereotyped as a savage- a cynical being. These beings are stereotyped into being called Indians, or Native Americans (as they are shorthand names), but they would rather be identified by their own tribe name. Charles Mann had talked about only one person in general but others as well without naming them. Mann had talked about an Indian named Tisquantum, but he, himself, does not want to be recognized as one; to be more recognized as the “first and foremost as a citizen of Patuxet,”(Mann 24).

Writer Sherman Alexie has a knack of intertwining his own problematic biographical experience with his unique stories and no more than “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates that. Alexie laced a story about an Indian man living in Spokane who reflects back on his struggles in life from a previous relationship, alcoholism, racism and even the isolation he’s dealt with by living off the reservation. Alexie has the ability to use symbolism throughout his tale by associating the title’s infamy of two different ethnic characters and interlinking it with the narrator experience between trying to fit into a more society apart from his own cultural background. However, within the words themselves, Alexie has created themes that surround despair around his character however he illuminates on resilience and alcoholism throughout this tale.

As the son of a Comanche chief and a white captive by the name of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker rose from the status of a Comanche warrior to their tribal leader. Although not much is known about Parker’s personal life and early years, he plays a vital role in William T. Hagan’s book “Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief”. In this book, Hagan identifies the Comanche Chief through his upbringing to his death, describing his transactions with local Indian agents, presidents, high officials in Washington and the cattlemen of the western United States territory. The author presents the Indian chief as a “cultural broker” between the cultures of the white southerners and his tribal members, presenting a blend of beliefs that are heralded as progressive and traditional as he maintained the control and organization of his tribe. During a period of transition for the Comanche people,

In Life Among the Piutes, sarah winnemucca hopkins describes what happens when soldiers came to their reservation based off what white settlers tell the government. The most shocking instance of this happened when Winnemucca encountered a group of soldier who told her the white settlers accused the natives of stealing cattle, “the soldiers rode up to their [meaning the Piute’s] encampment and fired into it, and killed almost all the people that were there… after the soldiers had killed but all bur some little children and babies… the soldiers took them too… and set the camp on fire and threw them into the flames to see them burned alive”(78). This is an abhorrent act that is unthinkable in a functioning society. The natives had done nothing but want to hold some shred of land from the settlers who had taken everything from them and are exterminated like vermin. This was something that stayed hidden from many white settlers because of its barbarism and by exposing it Winnemucca truly educates the reader, past and present, on how natives are