Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer

In the book Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie the readers may have a difficult time identifying who the Indian killer was. The book creates a sense of desperation and peculiar self accomplishment by the killer, although falling short of their ambition. In everyone’s impermanence the killer did not last long after the chaos and sporadic murders in Seattle. In the Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, John and Marie are both responsible for the killings because of their shared desire to kill a white man.

Native American traditions as well as rituals may differ from tribe to tribe. This is because each tribe may have different religious and spiritual beliefs. Although this might be the case there are many common characteristics in Native American death rituals. One belief that is common among

The Plains Indians religious beliefs were quite similar and interesting. The Plains Indians believed in Animism. Animism is the belief that everything possesses a spirit. Besides Animism, the Plains Indians only worshiped one other “god.” That was the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit was the mother of all things. They would perform ceremonies for her. Sacred items were also important to the people of the Plains. They would have items that they believed had spiritual or talismanic powers. The items would be located in a pouch at the person’s side. The Medicine Man would also carry around multiple pouches with different talisman. This could come in the form of a peace pipe or a calumet or something that they

There are three key patterns seen in most Native American religions they are the human relationship with nature, framing of time and space and respect for gods/ancestors. The human relationship with nature known as animism, everything is seen as part of the same reality and every object has a spirt, is a practice where there is little distinction between humans and animals. Time and space is sacred, cyclical,

While the Native Americans and the Africans inhabited two different continents, their belief system has a plethora of similarities pertaining to their core values. The basis of their religion also, in some ways, epitomizes modern day religion such as rites of passage. Their differences are shallow in context when it comes to what they view as sacred and holy and including religious rituals that are performed for a specific reason or transformation. Both Native American and African mythologies center around the ideology of harmony, balance, and cyclical nature of all beings through animistic symbolization. To a certain degree, all outsiders or nonnatives who study the belief systems of indigenous religions have found that indigenous religion is more than just a religion or belief system but rather an inherent way of living. To name or label indigenous beliefs as “religion” or any other is to have a bias based on our own views of transformation and ultimacy.

For Native Americans, protecting their sacred ways was and is a matter of survival, but it is also a matter of respect for the power that is involved. Across the United States, there are more than 558 federally recognized and several hundred state recognized Native American nations (Russell, 1998). Given the wide-ranging diversity of this population consisting of 2.3 million people, it is essential to understand that the term Native American spirituality encompasses the vastness of more than 500 different tribal traditions represented by these hundreds of Indian nations. Being particularly interested in the spirituality as well as the spiritual philosophies and practices of Native Americans, I have decided to approach this very

They often went to a Native American church if they attend to it they were religious. And they often did it in a little hut. And they sat in a circle around a little fire. They would sit there and talk to god inside their head or aloud. They would say something about not letting them die or not letting them starve.

    Native tribes lived in a socially constructed environment in which they put emphasis on religious and cultural practices. One native tribe, the Iroquois, believed that the earth was created when a woman descended  from heaven with her feet fluttering above the water. They believed that each animal played a part in saving this woman that was hovering over the sea. Many other tribes had different beliefs, though they all shared the same value toward whatever their beliefs entailed. The people of the native nations were fortunate enough to have a diverse spread of culture. Early ancestors of these Native

Molly related an experience with four Oglala Sioux shamans: "When asked about what was wakan ("holy," "mysterious"), said, 'Every object in the world has a spirit and that spirit is wakan. Thus the spirit[s] of the tree or things of that kind, while not like the spirit of man, are also wakan.' " (2005, p. 41) Believing that each tree has a spirit, each animal is a brother or sister, each rock and hill has a life force would alter your perception of the world. Your feelings toward those things might be changed a bit, knowing that they have as much life in them as you do. Black Elk, a Native American, said, " We should understand well that all things are the works of the Great Spirit. We should know that He is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and all the four-legged animals, and the winged peoples." (Goffman, 2005) Whether a tribal culture believed in a Great Spirit, or Mother Earth, or felt that a certain tree held a powerful spirit, many of the native religions worshiped the earth and held it in a highly sacred regard. "To say that nature is full of spirits can be a way of affirming the presence of both a universal life force and an essential, underlying sacredness." (Molly, 2005, p. 41) Molloy continues:

Giving precise step-to-step on how to do everything after another step is completed. “Smudge yourself and place an object so that it faces one of the four directions. Turn and face each of the four directions, both standing and bowing. Shake your rattle above your head and below your waist in each direction. Blow tobacco smoke (or offer tobacco) above your head and below your waist to each direction. Say a prayer to each direction, above and below. Sing your song to each direction, above and below. Dance your power animal in each direction, above and below. Burn smudge towards each direction, above and below. Offer cornmeal to each direction, above and below.” For this ritual it explains detail by detail what they do and how they do it in order to get more energy for further use. They use a rattle to shake going up to the head and down towards the leg while they blow a smoke which is tobacco. They start to chant a prayer while singing and dancing. Kathy Weiser explains why the Native American does rituals. “Symbolic healing rituals and ceremonies were often held to bring participants into harmony with themselves, their tribe, and their environment. Ceremonies were used to help groups of people return to harmony.” It may last for days but it helped the people. It helps the person feel in harmony and feel cleansed.

I have learned a lot about the native Americans in this unit. I didn't know that they were so advanced at their time. For example, I didn't know that they had their own social class (intext). Also, they had their own homes that they lived in. The Athabascans had two different types of houses, one is a summer house where the house is made of out birch bark and bush and another is a winter house made out of caribou or moose skin (intext). Also, the Athabaskans believed in spirit animals (intext). Their religion states that anything living or non-living has a spirit. If the spirit is displeased it will bring bad luck to that native. So basically, the natives have a set of rules to follow in order to please the spirit. That is true for most of the tribes (intext).

Many native americans expressed their feelings by carving on a totem. Carving totems was a tradition for some indian tribes, but not all tribes. The reason that it was a tradition for some tribes was because most tribes didn’t have the logs to make one. The raising of a totem was a big celebration. What they did was dig a hole for it to go into, they would carry it to the hole that was dug, then they would lower it into the hole and dance a huge dance around it.

The essence of mystery in a story often makes a book more interesting and engaging for readers. In the novel, Indian Killer, author Sherman Alexie takes this idea of a storyline thrill to the next level. Alexie intended for the identity of the killer in his book to remain anonymous, however, there are a copious amount of theories about who or what the killer may be. Throughout the storyline, there is an abundance of evidence brought up against one person in particular. Reggie Polatkin is the mysterious murderer because of his troubled life and violent nature.

The Prominent theme from the absolutely true story of the part-time Indian is alcoholism because its an extremely big problem in the book. there are many parts of the book where the author Sherman Alexie comments about how there are drunk people and how it affects their lives and others. Juniors sister gets drunk and then dies and a trailer fire leaving Junior devastated and angry at the fact that his sister got drunk and the fact that she died. Junior's father gets drunk one Christmas and ran off on a drunken binge leaving junior and his mum. when Juniors dad comes back all he gave Junior was a wet scrunched up 5 dollar note as a Christmas present. Juniors best friend Rowdy's, dad is an abusive drunk that bets up on Rowdy. there are many men

The Native American beliefs were very traditional. They respected their elders, had the same family