American Indian Identity

During the first half of the 20th century numerous changes went on in the native community. Life on the reservations was bleak and economic opportunities were almost non-existence. Many natives remained on the reservations where they were able to maintain their language and culture (Otten, Dutton). However, some others left the reservations for economic opportunities that the growing U.S economy promised and offered. Native Americans who didn’t live on the reservations chose to make as little reference as possible to their indigenous roots, much like other ethnic groups that migrated into the U.S. That is because though most Native Americans knew that the dominant culture would enjoy the indigenous dances and native jewelry and pottery, etc, it was almost impossible to live a traditional native lifestyle. Several natives

The colonization of Native American people has consequently framed Native American society as heteronormative, despite the historical inaccuracies of such a notion. The relationships presented throughout this collection range from sexual, platonic, familial and interracial. Race is "a constant presence" (14) throughout the course of each narrative. Alexie 's stories question of identity as it relates to race and sexuality across a boad spectrum. The nine stories in The Toughest Indian in the World move off the reservation to Seattle or the nearby city of Spokane. The ‘urban Indians’ at the heart of these stories are educated, middle class and sober, and outwardly at least, they are fully integrated into the dominant white society. This paper will explore the trajectory of identity in Alexie 's work and how Toughest Indian demonstates a sense of otherness of Indians in an urban envirnment. This theme is expored through Alexie 's treatment of race and sexuality as demonstrated in two stories: Toughest Indian and John Wayne.

In Sherman Alexie’s novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” the narrator portrays both internal and external conflicts throughout his journey to success. Arnold Junior Spirit is a fourteen-year-old boy who believes that in order to pursue his dream he will have to choose between staying in his Spokane Indian reservation or moving out to an all-white school in the neighboring farm town. But things aren’t as easy as they seem when Junior tries moving schools because he know has to be part of two communities. Many conflicts form within the Spokane Indian reservation and the Spokane Indian reservation as well comes into conflict with the white community.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a book about a young boy just entering high school who leaves his best friend and family to go to school mostly occupied by white people. This whole book follows him through his first year in this school where he tries to get a better education than he can get on the Rez, in the hopes that he will one day get off that reservation and out of his soul crushing poverty. “The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian” ATD, Sherman Alexie uses unfortunate events, social class and conversations to show that not everyone gets the support they need to follow their dreams.

Going into Reardan as an Indian, people thought of Junior differently and therefore treated him differently. He is viewed differently because people believe that the whites are better and wealthier than the Indians. Junior explains to his friend Gordy that “...some Indians think you have to act white to make your life better. Some Indians think that you become white if you try to make your life better, if you become successful” (Alexie 132). Junior may be Indian physically, but that does not mean that he does not have the same traits and should not be treated different than any other white person at Reardan. Additionally, Junior’s classmates started of thinking of Junior as a weak individual because of his skin colour. Junior’s classmates think it is alright to call Junior names because of his physical appearance but “weak and poor and scared, [Junior] let them call [Junior] names while [Junior] figured out what to do..So [Junior] punched Roger in the face” (Alexie 64/65). Junior proves his classmates wrong when they think that he is too scared to pick fight with them when in reality, Junior had the guts to punch Roger in the face. Junior clearly proves how his physical appearance does not define his strength or power. Junior should be treated equally and not judged based on his race because that does not define who he is as an

3). Of course, these high growth industries pertain to casinos as depicted through the picture, which precedes the text. of a large Bingo Casino owned by the Coeur D’Alene Tribe. This only serves to further the growing belief in America's society that Native Americans have struck it rich with the establishment of Casinos, but unemployment among adult Indians is about 15 percent – roughly three times the national average – and Native Americans remain America’s poorest people. Of the more than 560 Native American nations, only 224 are involved in gaming (NARF, n.d., para. 3).

In what way did you notice all or some of the material connecting? I found it interesting how identity is found in many aspects of Native American culture. After reading chapters 1 – 3, I noticed the material connected through the theme of identity. Identity is a recurring theme throughout the first three chapters. Identity in Native American culture is complex, in that there are many components to Native American culture and identity.

One cannot examine U.S. history without looking at the interactions between Native Americans and Americans. From colonization to industrialization, conflicts between these groups have always been prevalent. Indians have been stripped of their land, heritage and status. Our guns, germ and culture have killed them. One can see this power struggle in many pieces of literature. Two being, “Crazy Horse: A Life”, a secondary source focusing on a Sioux warrior Crazy Horse and the Plains peoples, and “Indian Trader John Lawson’s Journal of Carolina 1709,” a primary source that describes an English merchant’s encounter with Indians in Carolina. This paper will focus on the effects of Americans on Indian life.

In “Indian Education”, Junior went from grade school all the way to graduation being looked at as “different”. Not only was he judged by his class mates, he was also looked at differently from his teachers. His struggles began with the current generation he was born into and the current attempt of civilization by the U.S. government beginning in the 1950’s. During that time in history, Native American children were removed by force from their houses and sent off to boarding schools where they were

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans witnessed the end of the Indian Wars, the concentration of American Indians on reservations, and the rapid industrialization and urbanization of American life. Many people assumed that since indians were locked away on reservations, they had little to say about and made few contributions to “modernity.” According to Deloria, technology was one of the factors that made Indians modernized. Automotive mobility helped Indian people evade supervision and take possession of the landscape, helping make reservations into distinctly tribal spaces (Deloria, 153). When American Indians acted in ways that contradicted that Indians were “pre-modern,” non-Native Americans Interpreted these “anomalous” people and instances as either exemplars of the assimilation process or proof that Indians were inherently flawed. For instance, many believed that indians who purchased automobiles had either adopted aspects of a superior culture or profligately waste their meager resources (Deloria, 5,6).

Prior to the establishment of gaming casinos on tribe reservations, many Indian communities, especially in California, had little to no options in terms of the economic development of their tribe. This was the case because a lot of these tribes had almost no land available to them and the one which they actually had was almost always deprived of any natural resources or agricultural capabilities. Gaming gave these communities the opportunity to develop their economic potential, give that their land was located near a major metropolitan area or a major highway, which is the case with many of the Indian reservations in California. The development of this industry by the tribes, gave the ones which succeeded a lot of opportunities for not only their own people, but for nonindians as well. Unfortunately this rapid success of the Indian gaming industry gave rise to the image of the wealthy Indian, similarly to the one of the corporate white man, which carries with itself a lot of negativity. However, in the case of the Indians this negativity was even stronger, since in mainstream society it was essentially not acceptable for a Native American person to be rich and well-off.

At some point in time, everyone has thought that life is unfair. Whether it a toddler who didn’t get there way or a star athlete that was cut from the team, it’s happened to us all. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold Spirit Junior lives with that feeling everyday. This award winning novel by Sherman Alexie tells Arnold’s story and experiences from being raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He works his way through bullying, racial differences, and tragedies with wit, humor, and his drawings. Life isn’t easy for Arnold but it is far from uneventful. Alexie uses his characters, events, and setting to demonstrate that with enough self-determination, people can be successful despite disadvantages.

In present day capitalist Unites States, we value the America Dream as much now as we did over a century ago. This opportunity of prosperity, success, and upward social mobility, entices the masses to work hard and achieve set aspirations. The American Dream however, is hindered across the American Indian population, and in order for this hope of prosperity to come to fruition, American Indians need to be given the same opportunities as all other ethnic groups. The term American Indian is officially defined as, a member of one of the indigenous people of the Americas, esp. one of the people indigenous to the land in what is now the continental United States (“American Indian,” OED def.1). According the U.S Department of Interior Indian Affairs, there are 566 federally recognized Indian tribes in the Unites State (“Tribal Directory”). Also, the U.S Census gathered that roughly 5.4 million Americans identify as American Indians (“American Indian/ Alaskan Native Population”). While these 566 tribes may be scattered throughout the United States, most share a common dilemma.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian features two main settings, the Pacific Northwest towns of Wellpinit and Reardan. These contrasting locations – one an impoverished Indian reservation and the other an affluent white community – become very important to the ever-shifting identity of our narrator, Arnold Spirit, Jr.

This begins to make him feel he deserves to be poor and that things can not change. Junior has such poor self esteem that his beliefs of ever leaving the Reservation become quite distant. Junior begins to realise he has little hope when he finds his Mother’s name on the inside of his geometry book. That is the moment his spirit breaks and he sees no hope. It’s not until Mr.P points out he can and should do better that Junior begins to see a little