Native Americans In Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues
Before the white man ever showed up, Native Americans were a happy and prosperous group of people. However, it would only be through the white man’s introduction that Native Americans would end up being killed, racially profiled, and put into reservations like animals. Through his book, Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie is able to talk about not only the effects/origins of Native American hardship on the individual and collective level, but also how these origins affect the relationships of reservation communities with other internal and external institutions as well. I believe that this book talks about these concepts really well, while also being put into a context that helps paint a very clear picture of the effects that reservation life
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has on Native Americans. On the collective level, we learn that Sherman Alexie has a lot to say about Native American life on the reservation. One thing that we learn is that there is a stigma that there is nothing the world can offer us outside the reservation. We learn in chapter 1 that a large part of this is because that many of the reservations are completely isolated from the other parts of society. The setting of the book at first takes place at the Spokane Indian Reservation located in desolate Wellpinit, Washington. A good description of this place would be when Robert Johnson says, “not one person, Indian or otherwise, had ever arrived there by accident” (Alexie 1-2). We see this is the case when Alexie says, “the reservation tugged at the lives of its Indians, stole from them in the middle of the night, watched impassively as the horses and salmon disappeared” (Alexie 96). Beyond that, many of the Native Americans think that the reservation also has nothing to offer to them which is why many of these Native Americans start to become completely depressed. This is a big reason why alcoholism is a major theme in this book in that it is the most common “cure” that Native Americans use to cope with the pain of not being able to move on towards bigger and better things in life. We read that a big reason why so many Native Americans over-consume on alcohol is to avoid and temporarily escape the terrible reality that they are currently living in. Sherman Alexie also shows us the deterioration of the “family” aspect of Native American life due to widespread effects of alcoholism that seem to pass on from generation to generation. An interesting concept that I failed to grasp at first was that the lack options outside of the reservation just meant that all the internal issues such a lack of hope and alcoholism would just continue to grow and permanently stay there for generations and generations. This would leave the next generation to grow up in the same depressing environment and see the same alcoholics they did as children which honestly, explains why the next generation often ends up making the same mistakes as their parents. We see this in Victor and Junior who basically become alcoholics because of the lack of parental supervision due to the fact that their alcoholic parents died when they were young.
Now if anyone has ever learned about the poor treatment of Native Americans, it is often taught in the view of a collective struggle. I’m not saying that there is nothing wrong with that, but that method of teaching alone doesn’t really show us how one is affected individually, which could provide a better way for us to be able to truly understand and better empathize with Native Americans. He is able to do this on an individual level by showing different reactions of the same struggles through each character. For example, Sherman creates a similarity between all the band members in that at least one of their parents were struggling alcoholics. What he then does with this similarity is create massive differences with how this shapes each character’s individual identity. Some characters like Victor and Junior, choose to become alcoholics and allow their insecurities to negatively shape who they are, whereas characters like Thomas and Chess choose not to drink because of the fact they want to learn from their parents’ mistakes. Let’s take a look at Thomas, whose dad, Samuel Builds-A-Fire, is simply known as the village drunk. We truly get to see how bad of a state Samuel is in when he is described to be so drunk that he is often covered in his own piss. A consequence of this is that it leads Thomas to become an avid storyteller and sort of an outcast when it comes to the community. As for Victor and Junior, we learn that both sets of their parents are no longer around due to alcoholism. We see this in that they both end up having very troubled childhoods and become two of the biggest nuisances on the reservation. We also know the negative effects of their parents’ death on their attitudes when we find out that they steal and prank drunks and beat up Thomas whenever they get the chance to. They carry out these acts of aggression because the drunks remind them of their parents and feel nothing but disgust and hatred toward them and their lack of usefulness on the reservation. Checkers however, chooses to respond in a different way to her life’s struggles. She ends up becoming obsessively envious toward white people, wishing to become one of them every day and night. She also explicitly tells Thomas that she hates being a Native American and sometimes calls them “zombies” in the novel. Another very dark example would be that on page 114 when she has a dream in which it seems as if Indian men are trying to sexually assault in her own bed.
Another idea that has been sewn into the minds of many Native Americans on reservations is the idea that lack of trust between them and the white man.
Sherman Alexie depicts the white men in book as very ignorant, making them think that all Native American tribes are the exact same. One example of this is in chapter 4 when some gentlemen believed that all the group’s main diet were buffalo even though they actually mainly salmon hunters. Sherman Alexie also really takes home the idea that white men have no understanding of the struggles that Native Americans have to fight for not only on a daily basis, but for their entire lives. This also shows a bit of irony in that they have no clue what Native American life is like on reservations and what it does to a community even though they are the ones who put them all there in the first place. Another aspect of this relationship is also the Native Americans relationship to the US federal government as well. The main opinion that Native Americans have toward the US govt. is that they don’t like how the govt. gets to control the way they live on a daily a basis. Many of them feel that because they are forced to live on land that they picked out for them, the least them they could do is at least have the right to run that land how they please. This idea is a very strong one that is shared specifically by Thomas, who feels that the reservation land that they live on is still way more government controlled than it should be. Another interesting relationship that Sherman Alexie is able to describe is the reservation’s relationship with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Most would think that the relationship between the would be solid, but Alexie definitely hints at the exact the opposite. Their relationship is pointed out to be very negative for a couple of reasons. One of these reasons is that comes off in the book like the BIA only cares about doing the minimal job and are almost doing it because they have
not that they because they actually care about the well-being of the Native Americans. The narrator describes how a BIA worker, “decided to build a sidewalk rather than lug the cement all the way back to the warehouse and fill out complicated, unnecessary, and official government papers” (Alexie 13). This just shows how the workers really don’t take their job seriously and how little everyone on the outside world cares for the proper treatment of Native Americans. One underrated relationship that many people fail to bring up is the relationship between the Native Americans and the reservation healthcare system (Indian Health Service). We find out through Thomas that “Indian Health only gave out dental floss and condoms, and Thomas spent his whole life trying to figure out the connection between the two” (Alexie 6). It just shows how primitive the medical service still was even though it was the very late 20th century. Another way we find out about how primitive the medical service is through the death of Chess and Checker’s baby brother, Backgammon. Backgammon dies as a young baby possibly from pneumonia during a very cold winter. This is very surprising in that if there were any doctors nearby or on the reservation, Backgammons life could’ve easily been saved because pneumonia can be cured by basic medicine/antibiotics. This death will eventually complete the circle and be the direct reason why Chess and Checker’s dad turns into an alcoholic
In conclusion, I feel that Sherman Alexie is able to really enlighten us of the Native American struggle in ways many of wouldn’t have imagined. He is able to use his own knowledge on the subject to give a more personal and relatable perspective of the hardships one faces when living as a Native American. He illustrates unique relationships that the reservation has with a plethora of organizations while still hitting home the main points. If there is anything that one can get out of this book, it’s that the hardships of being a Native American have not gone away and even though the spotlight isn’t on them as much as it used to be, it doesn’t mean that their lives are getting any better.
has on Native Americans. On the collective level, we learn that Sherman Alexie has a lot to say about Native American life on the reservation. One thing that we learn is that there is a stigma that there is nothing the world can offer us outside the reservation. We learn in chapter 1 that a large part of this is because that many of the reservations are completely isolated from the other parts of society. The setting of the book at first takes place at the Spokane Indian Reservation located in desolate Wellpinit, Washington. A good description of this place would be when Robert Johnson says, “not one person, Indian or otherwise, had ever arrived there by accident” (Alexie 1-2). We see this is the case when Alexie says, “the reservation tugged at the lives of its Indians, stole from them in the middle of the night, watched impassively as the horses and salmon disappeared” (Alexie 96). Beyond that, many of the Native Americans think that the reservation also has nothing to offer to them which is why many of these Native Americans start to become completely depressed. This is a big reason why alcoholism is a major theme in this book in that it is the most common “cure” that Native Americans use to cope with the pain of not being able to move on towards bigger and better things in life. We read that a big reason why so many Native Americans over-consume on alcohol is to avoid and temporarily escape the terrible reality that they are currently living in. Sherman Alexie also shows us the deterioration of the “family” aspect of Native American life due to widespread effects of alcoholism that seem to pass on from generation to generation. An interesting concept that I failed to grasp at first was that the lack options outside of the reservation just meant that all the internal issues such a lack of hope and alcoholism would just continue to grow and permanently stay there for generations and generations. This would leave the next generation to grow up in the same depressing environment and see the same alcoholics they did as children which honestly, explains why the next generation often ends up making the same mistakes as their parents. We see this in Victor and Junior who basically become alcoholics because of the lack of parental supervision due to the fact that their alcoholic parents died when they were young.
Now if anyone has ever learned about the poor treatment of Native Americans, it is often taught in the view of a collective struggle. I’m not saying that there is nothing wrong with that, but that method of teaching alone doesn’t really show us how one is affected individually, which could provide a better way for us to be able to truly understand and better empathize with Native Americans. He is able to do this on an individual level by showing different reactions of the same struggles through each character. For example, Sherman creates a similarity between all the band members in that at least one of their parents were struggling alcoholics. What he then does with this similarity is create massive differences with how this shapes each character’s individual identity. Some characters like Victor and Junior, choose to become alcoholics and allow their insecurities to negatively shape who they are, whereas characters like Thomas and Chess choose not to drink because of the fact they want to learn from their parents’ mistakes. Let’s take a look at Thomas, whose dad, Samuel Builds-A-Fire, is simply known as the village drunk. We truly get to see how bad of a state Samuel is in when he is described to be so drunk that he is often covered in his own piss. A consequence of this is that it leads Thomas to become an avid storyteller and sort of an outcast when it comes to the community. As for Victor and Junior, we learn that both sets of their parents are no longer around due to alcoholism. We see this in that they both end up having very troubled childhoods and become two of the biggest nuisances on the reservation. We also know the negative effects of their parents’ death on their attitudes when we find out that they steal and prank drunks and beat up Thomas whenever they get the chance to. They carry out these acts of aggression because the drunks remind them of their parents and feel nothing but disgust and hatred toward them and their lack of usefulness on the reservation. Checkers however, chooses to respond in a different way to her life’s struggles. She ends up becoming obsessively envious toward white people, wishing to become one of them every day and night. She also explicitly tells Thomas that she hates being a Native American and sometimes calls them “zombies” in the novel. Another very dark example would be that on page 114 when she has a dream in which it seems as if Indian men are trying to sexually assault in her own bed.
Another idea that has been sewn into the minds of many Native Americans on reservations is the idea that lack of trust between them and the white man.
Sherman Alexie depicts the white men in book as very ignorant, making them think that all Native American tribes are the exact same. One example of this is in chapter 4 when some gentlemen believed that all the group’s main diet were buffalo even though they actually mainly salmon hunters. Sherman Alexie also really takes home the idea that white men have no understanding of the struggles that Native Americans have to fight for not only on a daily basis, but for their entire lives. This also shows a bit of irony in that they have no clue what Native American life is like on reservations and what it does to a community even though they are the ones who put them all there in the first place. Another aspect of this relationship is also the Native Americans relationship to the US federal government as well. The main opinion that Native Americans have toward the US govt. is that they don’t like how the govt. gets to control the way they live on a daily a basis. Many of them feel that because they are forced to live on land that they picked out for them, the least them they could do is at least have the right to run that land how they please. This idea is a very strong one that is shared specifically by Thomas, who feels that the reservation land that they live on is still way more government controlled than it should be. Another interesting relationship that Sherman Alexie is able to describe is the reservation’s relationship with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Most would think that the relationship between the would be solid, but Alexie definitely hints at the exact the opposite. Their relationship is pointed out to be very negative for a couple of reasons. One of these reasons is that comes off in the book like the BIA only cares about doing the minimal job and are almost doing it because they have
not that they because they actually care about the well-being of the Native Americans. The narrator describes how a BIA worker, “decided to build a sidewalk rather than lug the cement all the way back to the warehouse and fill out complicated, unnecessary, and official government papers” (Alexie 13). This just shows how the workers really don’t take their job seriously and how little everyone on the outside world cares for the proper treatment of Native Americans. One underrated relationship that many people fail to bring up is the relationship between the Native Americans and the reservation healthcare system (Indian Health Service). We find out through Thomas that “Indian Health only gave out dental floss and condoms, and Thomas spent his whole life trying to figure out the connection between the two” (Alexie 6). It just shows how primitive the medical service still was even though it was the very late 20th century. Another way we find out about how primitive the medical service is through the death of Chess and Checker’s baby brother, Backgammon. Backgammon dies as a young baby possibly from pneumonia during a very cold winter. This is very surprising in that if there were any doctors nearby or on the reservation, Backgammons life could’ve easily been saved because pneumonia can be cured by basic medicine/antibiotics. This death will eventually complete the circle and be the direct reason why Chess and Checker’s dad turns into an alcoholic
In conclusion, I feel that Sherman Alexie is able to really enlighten us of the Native American struggle in ways many of wouldn’t have imagined. He is able to use his own knowledge on the subject to give a more personal and relatable perspective of the hardships one faces when living as a Native American. He illustrates unique relationships that the reservation has with a plethora of organizations while still hitting home the main points. If there is anything that one can get out of this book, it’s that the hardships of being a Native American have not gone away and even though the spotlight isn’t on them as much as it used to be, it doesn’t mean that their lives are getting any better.