The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

2. History of Native American Genocide • Reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a "vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record." By the end of the 19th century, Native Americans had undergone the “worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people” • America’s civilization had originated in “theft and murder” and “efforts toward…genocide”

3. Europeans Introduce Pathogens • Smallpox, measles, influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria, typhus, bubonic plague, cholera, scarlet fever, and STD’s • In several cases, entire tribes were rendered extinct • Colonists staged violent ambushes on tribal villages, fueling animosity with Natives, leading to several wars. • Throughout the Northeast, proclamations to create ‘redskins’, or scalps of Native Americans, were common during war and peace times. According to the 1775 Phips Proclamation in Massachusetts, King George II of Britain called for “subjects to embrace all opportunities of pursuing, captivating, killing and destroying all and every of the aforesaid Indians.”

4. US History of Atrocities • After the American Revolution, many Native American lives were already lost to disease and displacement. In 1830, the federal Indian Removal Act called for the removal of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ – the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. Between 1830 and 1838, federal officials working on behalf of white cotton growers forced nearly 100,000 Indians out of their homeland. The dangerous journey from the southern states to “Indian Territory” in current Oklahoma is referred to as the Trail of Tears in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease.

5. Atrocities Continued… •  In particular, the 1848 California gold rush caused 300,000 people to migrate to San Francisco from the East Coast and South America. Historians believe that California was once the most densely and diversely populated area for Native Americans in U.S. territory; however, the gold rush had massive implications for Native American livelihoods. Toxic chemicals and gravel ruined traditional Native hunting and agricultural practices, resulting in starvation for many Natives. • Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that addressed the punishment and protection of Native Americans, and helped to facilitate the removal of their culture and land. It also legalized slavery and was referenced for the buying and selling of Native children.

6. Indian Reservations • Legal designation for an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs • 326 Indian reservations in US, but not all of the country’s 567 tribes have a reservation. (some tribes have more than one reservation, some share, some have none) • Collective geographical area of all reservations is 56,200,000 (the size of Idaho)

7. Forced Assimilation • Effort by US to transform Native American culture to European-American culture (1790-1920). • “Civilizing process” • Late 19th/Early 20th Century: US gov. outlawed the practice of traditional religious ceremonies • Established Native American boarding schools which children were required to attend. • Forced to speak English, attend church, leave tribal traditions behind.

8. Americanization

9. Reservations

10. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian • Protagonist: Arnold “Junior” Spirit, based on author Sherman Alexie • 14 years old, lives on Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, WA. • Hydrocephalus: too much fluid in brain • Stunted growth, seizures, poor eyesight, stuttering, lisp • Parents are alcoholics, sister (Mary Runs Away) is a recluse, and BFF Rowdy is abused by father. • Reservation is impoverished, rampant with drug and alcohol abuse

11. Spokane Indian Reservation • Spokane: Children of the stars • Spokane territory used to be 3 million acres; now 159,000 acres • Uranium was discovered on the reservation, along with contaminants metals, radionuclides and acidic drainage.

12. Spokane Reservation

13. Themes • Identity: Bifurcation • Indian and white; Wellpinit and Reardan; reservation outcast and basketball star • Two names; Apple (red and white) • Poverty: Oscar, dentist, old textbook, etc. • Race/Racism: White v. Indian, Mascot • Home: Nomad • Writing and drawing: “life boats” • Mortality: 42 funerals

14. Identity and Self-Esteem • “I am a zero on the rez. And if you subtract zero from zero, you still have zero” (16) • “He was the loser Indian father of a loser Indian son living in a world built for winners” (55) • “Reardan was the opposite of the rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me. I didn’t deserve to be there. I knew it; all of those kids knew it. Indians don’t deserve shit” (56) • “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was my job, but was only a part-time job” (118) • “Well, life is a constant sturuggle between being an individual and being a member of a community.” (132)

15. Poverty Top: North Dakota reservation house (2009) Bottom: San Carlos Indian Reservation (2000)

16. Poverty • “Poverty = empty refrigerator + empty stomach” (p. 8) • “My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people.” (p. 11) • “It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor . . . It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ (p. 13) •  ‘I lied about how poor I was.’ (p. 119)

17. Alcohol on the Rez • “Yeah, Dad is a drunk and Mom is an ex-drunk, but they don’t want their kids to be drunks” (46). • “Plenty of Indians have died because they were drunk. And plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken Indians” (158) • “And you know what the worst part is? The unhappy part? About 90 percent of the deaths have been because of alcohol” (200) • “I was crying because I knew five or ten or fifteen more Spokanes would die during the next year, and that most of them would die because of booze.” (216)

18. Racism on the Rez • “We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we’ve been lied to” (10) • “And what’s more, our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave me half the novocain” (2) • “What kind of job can a reservation Indian boy get?”(12) • “It sucks to be poor….and then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because your Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor.

19. Racism on the Rez • “We beat them. That’s how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the Indian and save the child…We were supposed to make you give up being Indian. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren’t trying to kill the Indian people. We were trying to kill the Indian culture” (Mr. P, 35). • “Who has the most hope?” • “White people,” my parents said at the same time.(45)

20. Hopes and Dreams • ‘But we reservation Indians don’t get to realise our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.’ (p. 13) • ‘You kept your hope. And now, you have to take your hope and go somewhere where other people have hope . . . You’re going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.’ (p. 43) • ‘The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavour.’ (p. 148)