Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, And Jim Jarmusch

In America’s history, Native Americans have been discriminated against and oppressed repeatedly. Various authors have brought attention to the mistreatment of this group of people, and the theme of Natives and the American Dream can be seen in numerous literary works. In the poems “Ellis Island” by Joseph Bruchac III and “Evolution” by Sherman Alexie, the authors bring attention to the hardships Native Americans have faced, and show a different perspective of the American Dream.

In John Smith’s The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, his portrayal of the Native Americans is that of a tradition-driven people, who were willing to trade and occasionally aid the colonists, but were ultimately considered barbarians. The traditional aspect of the native’s culture can be found in their descriptions of fighting and dancing, with one of Smith’s first hostile encounters describing the Native Powhatan warriors being painted in different colors while “singing

If one thing is to be respected and understood about the American Indians, it would be that their history and culture goes much further back than contemporary American history. Consequently, the relationship developed between American Indians and the United States is as unique as it is complicated. This unique relationship started because the American Indians were the first faces seen by fresh colonials from Europe. Despite this fact, the American Indians have faced cultural appropriation on a level that cannot be compared to any other ethnic group or minority. Any American who has been through kindergarten can associate Indians and Pilgrims with Thanksgiving, but how many of those Americans can tell about the Battle of Little Bighorn or the Alcatraz Proclamation? The unique relationship between the United States and American Indians has grown over time to allow for the level of appropriation that can be observed today. It is this unique relationship that has allowed the American Indian culture to be exploited because

Alcoholism is one of our nation’s largest social issues to date, and carries with it many negative aspects, the most dire being death at the hands of this disease. Alcohol and alcoholism have been part of societies for centuries. This habit was brought over to the new world when the first settlers landed on the shores of what was to become America. Furthermore, in bringing alcohol to this new land an entire nation of Native American Indians were introduced to a product that has affected them more negatively than any other to date, and continues to suffer from today and probably well into the future.

As with many races and ethnicities, Native Americans have had the front row seat in social injustices related to gender and race from the social institutions in the United States. Native Americans faced much discrimination along with other groups when it came to educational institutions and businesses. In education, many young children had lower math and writing skills leading to fewer high school diplomas (Sarche & Spicer, 2008). In labor, Native Americans had high unemployment rates and a lower labor force than the rest of the demographic population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). They also have problems with poverty since more than twenty-five percent of this group live below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Additionally, there are high rates of violent victimization and contributing factors such as childhood trauma that lead to overall high deaths. A major contributing factor to these deaths is alcoholism which exceeds the US rates by seven times (Sarche & Spicer, 2008). Many of these statistics indicate great injustice. Furthermore, according to the Indian Health Services, American Indians have lower health and life expectancy when compared to the rest of America (2015). These staggering statistics point out some prevalent inequalities in modern social institutions that exist with Native Americans.

Zitkala Ša’s “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” as well as Sherman Alexie’s “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” are extremely informative in regard to the gross injustice suffered by Native American cultures across the United States. The effects of forcing Native Americans to assimilate to American ways are still evident today and is most obvious in the shift in their cultural identity. Assimilation destroyed the cultural identity of Native Americans by stripping them of their traditions and subjecting them to a sense a homelessness and abandonment. Assimilation was in a sense meant to strip Native Americans of their established cultural traditions so as to “normalize” them. Customs that

Alcoholism is defined as the addiction to consumption of alcohol to a point where individuals become unable to live a normal and healthy live. “Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading preventable cause of death in the United States and has a greater health impact on American Indians and Alaska Native than on other racial groups” (Landen, M., Roeber, J., Naimi, T., Nielsen, L., & Sewell, M., 2014). American Indians and Alaska Natives have the “highest rate of binge drinking (30.2%) and heavy alcohol use (8.5%) of all racial groups in the United States” (Rieckmann, 2016). To fight high rates of alcoholism, federal law was implemented for prohibition of alcohol on Indian Reservations in 1974. Alcohol abuse on the reservation is cause for much of the social and economic woes that plague this sovereign nation. It is so drastic, that Navajo Nation and United States Department of Health and Human Services have dispatched programs to combat the alarming rates of fetal alcohol syndrome and binge drinking.

Whitesell, N. R., Beals, J., Crow, C. B., Mitchell, C. M., & Novins, D. K. (2012). Epidemiology and Etiology of Substance Use among American Indians and Alaska Natives: Risk, Protection, and Implications for Prevention. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 38(5), 376–382.

In Jeannette Armstrong’s poem, History Lesson, she writes in perspective of Indigenous people reacting to the first encounters with European settlers. Historically, Indigenous people did not have a positive encounter with the first settlers due to their clash of beliefs and values of how communities and structures should run. Instead, they had many disagreements which caused the partial destruction of their whole culture. It is clear that Armstrong uses the theme of history to portray the destruction that the first European settlers had on the Indigenous way of life through various points in history. Armstrong imbeds the theme of history throughout her poem to further emphasize her stance on the assimilation of the Indigenous people with the restricting and destructive effects the early settlers had on them throughout history.

The “drunken Indian” stereotype is a twisted perversion of the sad truth that many Indigenous peoples in Canada, and all over the world, struggle with substance abuse problems and alcoholism, as seen numerous times plaguing the family of the protagonist of In Search of April Raintree, written by author Beatrice Culleton Mosionier. Countless believe alcoholism amongst Indigenous peoples is genetic, that it is in their blood - their nature, but this logic is hackneyed and highly inaccurate. For starters, Canada’s Indigenous population was not introduced to alcohol and its effects until colonization. Years later, lacking proper and sufficient help to aid in healing the scars left from trauma, many turned to substances. Nowadays, the scientific community recognizes that alcoholism is something learned, not something one is born with. Alcoholism amongst Indigenous peoples is not a genetic predisposition, but rather a cultural influence taught over hundreds of years.

Throughout time Native American history has changed a lot through the introduction and even the dominance of other races and cultures. Art, in general, is an important part of any culture; it works to tell stories and spawn emotion. Similarly, Native American art tells the story of a culture that has survived hardship after hardship. It portrays the history of a race, as well as an entire country. When viewing Native American art, it is important to keep in mind the struggles that many Native Americans faced, and still face today. It is also important to educate ourselves and others of stereotypes that are still prevalent within Native American Art. Although there are still false representation of Native American culture, as was described through

Gloria Bird realizes that for generations Native Americans have had drinking problems, and she also realizes that it is difficult for “native writers to accurately represent our communities without exploiting them.”(G. Bird) However, Bird criticizes Alexie of embellishing or exaggerating the Native Americans’ despair. Alexie cannot ignore the alcohol situation when describing Native American culture, but Alexie does not need to make alcoholism a common trait amongst almost every ‘Indian’ on the reservation and other reservations.

In Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven(1993), nearly all of the characters suffer from alcoholism. Those who do not drink, cannot escape the external backlash from an alcoholic environment. Through the stories of the characters in the book, both on and off the reservation, the author is able to distinguish arguments for and against the white people on whether or not they are to blame for the problems Native Americans have faced related to alcoholism. The fate of the Native Americans is seemingly inevitable. Do the Native Americans deserve the stereotypes that have been inflicted upon them, or were they unable to prevent it? Through Sherman Alexie’s novel, he sheds light on the stereotypes placed on Native Americans not only by other races of people, but also self-inflicted, relating to the damaging effects alcohol has had on their people.

In order for the children to adopted the ways of the European-American culture missionaries established boarding school far from Indian reservations. In these school’s students were immersed in European American culture by changing their names to something European- American just as they did to the African slaves. Changing their appearance by cutting both the men and women hair short to look like the white man afterward saying “I felt that I was no more Indian, but would be an imitation of the white man.” (America A Concise History pg.

The Native Americans and the United States have not always seen eye to eye on things since the beginning. The approach of the people of the white civilization has brought extreme agony and torture to the Native Americans. This was as a result of race playing a humongous part in humanity during this time, for this reason the Native Americans were looked down on and poorly treated by the white population. This was a strenuous point in time for the American Indians to adapt to society since their culture, attitudes, values, and beliefs were slowly being abandoned and the federal government wanting them to assimilate to the white culture. Since then the Native Americans have struggled to persevere on reservation lands, deprived of support, and for the most part hopelessness. There are many social problems that contribute to the delinquency of Native-American youth on the reservation. The community dilemmas that contribute to the failure of the Native-Americans younger generation are poor academic achievement, alcoholism, domestic violence, mental health issues, and unemployment. These horrendous matters will hopefully disappear in the time and Native-Americans will become successful in today’s society.