Racism In Sherman Alexie's Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven?

In the third grade, I was asked to draw a picture related to Thanksgiving for a drawing contest to win a Toys R Us coupon. I remember the only knowledge I had of Thanksgiving was what my grade school teachers had taught me: the Pilgrims, people who wore tall, black hats shared a joyous meal with Indians, who were known as wild people who wore togas around their waist and feathers on their heads. Being a ignorant little boy, I drew what I thought Indians had to do to catch the turkeys as my picture; I drew an Indian man with a bow shooting an arrow right through the body of a turkey. With that picture, I won the contest. This thought of Indians in togas stayed with me until 9th grade when my world history teacher taught the class about the effects

According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11.7 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives deaths between 2001 and 2005 were alcohol-related, compared with 3.3 percent for the U.S. as a whole, more than three times the percentage of the general population. Native Americans are overrepresented in the homeless population by approximately 19 percent by a study of Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care for Homeless Veterans program. Jackson Jackson, in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie, embodies the above study. Unlike the traditional heroes who mostly win the fights, make all the right decisions, can do almost everything, and have perfect characteristics like bravery, strength, charm, Alexie portrays the protagonist, Jackson Jackson as a modern anti-hero who is very complicated. Within twenty-four hours, Alexie expresses Jackson Jackson representing the Native American experiences, “Spokane Indian boy”

Petalesharo’s writing reflected the treatment of Native Americans during the 1800s. Being a Native American himself, Petalesharo was able to give perspective on a point in history typically viewed from a white man’s opinion. The excerpt “Petalesharo” explains how the Native American was able “to prevent young women captured by other tribes from being sacrificed”, making Petalesharo well liked by the Americans (588). Petalesharo gave the “Speech of the Pawnee Chief” infront of Americans to convey the differences between Native Americans and Americans through emotion, logic, and credibility, which showed how the two groups will never be the same, but still can coexist in the world together.

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.

    Gloria Bird’s Turtle Lake and Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” are two stories written by Native American authors. When reading these two stories, one would not make any type of connection between them. Both are unique in their own way, but if he or she looks a little closer the similarities and differences become clear.

The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world. She is pregnant with twins. Sky woman lands on a turtles back, which ends up growing and becomes a part of island with time. The sky woman gives birth to twin boys, the good mind, and the bad mind. She dies when the bad mind decides to come out of her

Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them. Also, the extinction of buffalo affected them negatively and the domination of the whites disrupted their surroundings. The Westward Expansion impacted the Native Americans land and culture.

The speech that was read by Chief Red Jacket to defend the religious beliefs of his people is a powerful piece of literature that is underrated. The speech describes the feelings that were caused by the religious intolerance from the Americans. Currently, the United States have started to appreciate the impacts of the Native Americans and other minorities in history. However, a piece of history that has been quite hidden is the religious intolerance of Native Americans. Chief Red Jacket utilizes repetition, pathos, and rhetorical questions to convince the Americans to tolerate the religion of the Native Americans.

Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven portrays the hardships faced by Native Americans at the hands of the overpowering force of mainstream American culture. Alexie uses multiple perspectives in his book to convey the complexity of the situation on the reservation. However, his recurring themes such as survival, tradition, and underlying cultural ties connect the stories together as does the overarching message about the resilience of Native American people and their culture. With these consistent themes, the multiple perspectives found in his stories prove the validity of his cultural points due to their repetition. In his composite novel, Alexie reveals the resilience of Native American culture by breaking it down into a mathematical equation

How can one become one with their environment? Connection with one 's environment was always easier to maintain until the industrial age came into existence. With the birth of modern society came the birth of social responsibilities and burdens unknown to man. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “A place for literature,” Barry Lopez and N. Momaday Momaday explain the impact of lands on its occupants. In “the white heron,” Sarah Jewett explains the feeling of reconnection with one’s inner voice though nature. In “The Way to Rainy Mountain” Momaday explains the connection between the Native Americans and the lands they held until they were forced out of it by the Americans. In “the white heron,” Jewett explains the feeling of reconnection with

Native Americans in Canadian society are constantly fighting an uphill battle.After having their identity taken away in Residential Schools.The backlash of the Residential Schools haunts them today with Native American people struggling in today 's society.Native Americans make up five percent of the Canadian population, yet nearly a quarter of the murder victims.The haunting memories of Residential Schools haunt many Native Americans to this day.With them commonly been known to attempt to drink away the horrors they have faced.Thomas King brings up these problems in his written work having written books like Medicine River and short stories such as Not The Indian I Had In Mind and Borders.Throughout these stories, Thomas King uses stereotypes such as will and Louise 's romance that seems like it 's going to become this generic love story yet becomes nothing more than just a friend with benefits to bring up the themes of Belonging, Performing Identity and Family issues.

Everybody goes through hardship even Native American boys on the spokane reservation except this boys hardship is way harder than most people.This story is about the personal story of a Native American boy who overcomes bullying, grief, and poverty to become more then then the people around him.

Historians who practice historiography agree that the writings from the beginning of what is now known as the United States of America can be translated various ways. In James H. Merrell’s “The Indians’ New World,” the initial encounters and relationships between various Native American tribes and Europeans and their African American slaves are explained; based on Merrell’s argument that after the arrival of Europeans to North America in 1492, not only would the Europeans’ lives drastically change, but a new world would be created for the Native Americans’ as their communities and lifestyles slowly intertwined for better or worse. Examples of these changes include: “deadly bacteria, material riches, and [invading] alien people.” (Merrell 53)

The narrative offers an account which can be used to describe the particularly puritan society based on the ideals of Christianity and the European culture. It offers a female perspective of the Native Americans who showed no respect to the other religious groups. The narrator makes serious observation about her captors noting the cultural differences as well as expectations from one another in the society. However, prejudice is evident throughout the text which makes the narratives unreliable in their details besides being written after the event had already happened which means that the narrator had was free to alter the events to create an account that favored her. Nonetheless, the narrative remains factually and historically useful in providing the insights into the tactics used by the Native Americans

“Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock,” Sherman Alexie, the author, depicts a very rare, but normal image of a Native American family. Victor, the narrator, father beat a National Guard solider during an anti-Vietnam war rally. The incident was documented, seeing that his father a Native American. In result of this incident, Victor’s father was imprisoned for two years. After being released from being imprisoned, the first thing his father did was go back to Woodstock, where he says he was he was the only Indian to see Jimi Hendrix’s famous performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner”. Many years later, Victor’s father continued to listen to the famous recording while drinking time and time over again. As years went on, Victor’s parents began to grow apart and eventually separate and get a divorce. In this story, there is a plethora of symbols of “escape,” from problems and pain in many different and unique ways in this story. Music, drinking, a