Sherman Alexie

In the poem "On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City" by Sherman Alexie, the speaker is portrayed as a Native American Indian whose apparent wish is to retake and make known his ownership of Indian land, which was stolen by white people. However, his sympathy towards his rivals seems to keep him from accomplishing these goals. First, we can see his Native American heritage in the language of the poem. For example, he refers to the elderly woman whom he is conversing with as "white" (line 1), which gives the impression he is not; there would be no real reason of mentioning skin color unless it was important to him. He is also very negative about the white woman's definition of history. The woman says, "'Look, / look at all the history,
He frowns upon her words, explaining, "I have learned / a little more about American history during my few days / back East than what I expect and far less / of what we should all know of the tribal stories / whose architecture is 15,000 years older / than the corners of the house that sits / museum on the hill." (lines 5-11). The way the speaker distances himself from "American history" (line 6) and how he claims all should know "tribal stories" (line 8) gives the impression he is of tribal descent. Further, he announces, "I know the Indians were living stories / around that pond before Walden's grandparents were born" (lines 19-20). This demeans the value of the white woman's historical note, and implies he values Indian history over the white man's history. Why would he do this unless he was an Indian himself? Finally, in the last lines of the poem, the speaker says, "All I really did was eat / my tasteless sandwich, drink my Diet Pepsi / and nod my head whenever the woman pointed out / another little piece of her country's history / while I, as all Indians have done / since this war began, made plans / for what I would do
He is traveling from Boston to New York City on the Amtrak (as the title explains), and seems disappointed by the lack of American Indian history in this part of the country; he has "learned / little more about American history during my few days / back East than what I expected…" (lines 5-7). His phrase "back East" (line 7) implies he has been East before, and that it was possibly his home at one point. Spokane is only a place he pretends to call home (lines 16-17), which clarifies his thoughts that he belongs East, where many American Indians resided before the white men took over and they were pushed West. His longing to take back the original American Indian land is shown in lines 18-25, where he argues, "I could have told her. 'I don't give a shit / about Walden. I know the Indians were living stories / around that pond before Walden's grandparents were born / and before his grandparents' grandparents were born. / I'm tired of hearing about Don-fucking-Henley saving it, too, / because that's redundant. If Don Henley's brothers and sisters / and mothers and fathers hadn't come here in the first place / then nothing would need to be saved.'" He obviously holds resentment towards the white people for taking their territory and "saving" it, when in reality if the white people hadn't taken his land there would be no reason to save anything.