Indian Project

1. Indian Project Indian Education (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) by Sherman Alexie Alex Bolivar, Ciara Donnelly, Jake Fauske, John David Phillips, Joseph Carbone We affirm the code - A2

2. Joseph Carbone Sherman Alexie - Biography • Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. was born October 7th, 1966 on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA,” (Literature. n.d.). Alexie was born from an Indian mother and a tribal Indian father. Alexie was born  hydrocephalic, which means to have water on the brain - he was not expected to survive. Due to the survival of this severe illness, Alexie was expected to live with a very mental illness, but through much recovery, Alexie was back to full health and more intelligent than most. • In his teen years, Alexie “made a conscious decision to attend high school off the reservation in Reardan, WA, about 20 miles south of Wellpinit, where he knew he would get a better education. At Reardan High he was the only Indian, except for the school mascot. There he excelled academically and became a star player on the basketball team” (“Sherman Alexie.” Poets. n.d.).  Alexie later went to attend Gonzaga University for two years before transferring to WSU with aspirations of becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, Alexie could not stand the sight of anything in his anatomy class and had to change his career path.  “That change was fueled when he stumbled into a poetry workshop at WSU. Encouraged by poetry teacher Alex Kuo, Alexie excelled at writing and realized he'd found his new path,” (Jarvis, n.d.). (“Sherman Alexie young-adult book banned in Idaho schools.” Flood, Guardian, n.d.)

3. Joseph Carbone Author and Narrator Similarities • Through the biography and research of Sherman Alexie, it is evident that he is the narrator is the short story, Indian Education. Alexie’s entire life is depicted through this story. Comparisons are constantly evident and obvious as he merely describes his childhood through this story. The story begins with his childhood and  school at the reservation. Just as in real life, in the story, many other kids picked on the narrator because he was different. An explanation for this is explained through Alexie’s problems at birth. Even though the narrator is different, he is still extremely intelligent. The narrator goes on to leaving the reservation school and attend an all white school, just as Alexie did. Lastly, the narrator becomes Valedictorian and the star of the basketball team. Indian Education and all of the prejudices, hardships, racism and the underclass that come with it, represent Sherman Alexie’s entire life and experiences.

4. Alex Bolivar Biblical Allusions • A) “made me stand straight for fifteen minutes, eagle-armed with books in each hand” Matthew 27: 33-44, Mark 15: 22-32, Luke 23: 33-43, John 19: 17-30 all mention the crucifixion of Christ. • B) “she crumpled up the paper and made me eat it” 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17 Paul told story of last supper where Christ told his disciples to eat the bread representing his body. • C) “cut my braids or keep me home from class” Judges 16 tells story of Samson and Delilah.

5. Alex Bolivar Biblical Allusions continued… • D) “indian, indian, indian” Luke 22:34 peter denies Jesus three times. • E) “Yes, I am. I am Indian. Indian, I am” Exodus 3 tells the story about Moses and the burning bush.

6. Jake Fauske Biblical Allusion Significance • Throughout “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexei, Junior alludes on several occasions the biblical story of Samson and Delilah by mentioning his hair at different times and how its’ length corresponds to events in his life. In the biblical story, Samson obtains his unearthly strength from God, who made him promise to never cut his hair. When Samson allows his hair to be cut by the woman he loves, Delilah, and thereby breaking his contract with God, Samson loses his immeasurable strength. Junior feels connected to Samson’s story at several points. For example, in first grade Junior starts out his story by saying “My hair was too short” (Alexie p. 1). Junior says this to demonstrate how he feels less powerful without the longer hair that he is accustomed to with his culture, missing the feeling of his braids down his back. In second grade, Junior runs into more problems concerning his hair. As it has become longer, his teacher attempts to force him to chop it off. His teacher insists to his parents that they either need to “cut my braid, or keep me home from class,” (Alexie p. 14). Despite this threat, Junior is appalled by the idea of going back to short hair, and the loss of power that comes with it, and his parents back him in this. They return with Junior to his teacher’s class and “dragged their braids across Betty Towle’s desk” (Alexie p. 14) in a show of retaliation. They refused to force their son to cut his hair, to give up his form of expression, to lose his power. Finally, in is twelfth year as he is graduating from his white school as valedictorian of his class, Junior thinks to himself about how long his hair has become. He claims, “My cap doesn’t fit because I’ve grown my hair longer than it’s ever been,” (Alexie p. 69). This symbolizes how he is at the most powerful, most confident that he has ever been, while at the same time his hair is so long his cap won’t even go on his head. He is making a connection to Samson’s great length and how Junior now feels almost invincible with his long braids trailing down his back. Like Samson, Junior recognizes hair as a source of strength for him, which he uses to trek through the difficult life that was presented to him.

7. Jake Fauske Red Skins Controversy • With the long historical of protests against the nickname of the NFL’s Washington Redskins coming to a head, many people are stopping to consider the side of the Native Americans as they argue for the removal of what they consider an offensive name. Two NFL TV broadcasters, NBC’s Tony Dungee and CBS’s Phil Sims are now refusing to use the name Red Skin while on air (Riccobono, 2014). While it is understandable that the Native American community views the term “Red Skin” as a slur and as harmful, it can be argued that it was not meant as a jab at the color of their skin, but rather an acknowledgment to the rich history of Native American tribes in the North America. In “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie, Junior laments the name of his white high school, the Indians, as he feels it is a personal slight at him. After a big loss, he claims “This morning I pick up the sports page and read the headline: INDIANS LOSE AGAIN. Go ahead and tell me none of this is supposed to hurt me very much” (Alexie p. 67). He is offended by the name as if it suggests that his race as a whole were failures, and had failed for a long time. With any other name, he would have just thought about the town itself losing. But with the added closeness he feels to the name Indian, it is salt tossed into the already open wound given to Junior by the lost in the first place. If confronted with the Red Skins dilemma, he would side with the Native Americans in attempting to rid the team of its name. He would not appreciate the title, and find it to be attacking his nationality.

8. Ciara Donnelly Is Junior a racist? • Junior should not be considered a racist in the story, but rather a victim of racism. The definition of racism states that being racist “involves the idea that one’s race is superior and has the right to rule others”(Dictionary.com n.d.). He is treated as the inferior within his society, so he is definitely not asserting himself as the superior because he knows better than to challenge the authority. Junior acknowledges the different races, and identifies the differences of treatment between whites and Indians like himself, but that does not make him a racist. An example from the text where Junior reflects on the mistreatment of his people as a result of racism is “see the history of our tribe in our eyes, taste failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears, we understand completely”(Alexie p.64).

9. Ciara Donnelly Quotes and Allusions • The quote “it’s a good day to die, it’s a good day to die” can allude to the times of conflict when there was major issues with racism between the whte and African American people. African Americans strongly believed in the rights they were fighting for, and put their lives on the line daily in order to be rewarded with those rights. This helps to set the tone because we are given an immediate sign that the piece will but full of struggle and will most likely not have a particularly positive mood. As readers we understand that we are dealing with a minority within a society that will continue to struggle throughout the story. Through this understanding we can dive deeper into the characterization of Junior and have a general idea of the situation before we continue to go through the context of the story.

10. John David Phillips Alcoholism and Poverty • Alcoholism and poverty both play a major role in everyday life on an Indian reservation. The underage drinking problem shows that they realize that they will not go anywhere after they graduate, so why not drink. The teenagers there have nothing to throw away because they don’t have a good education system. They were never given a chance to lead a successful life outside of the reservation. “According to the suit, the four stores sold almost 5-million cans of beer in 2010, in a town with a population of only fourteen souls” (Gosh). This proves the amount of alcohol consumed by the people on these Indian Reservation. According to this statement, assuming they drink all of these cans of beer each person consumed 978 beers per day. • Poverty also shows due to a poor education system. If they don’t learn anything in school, how can they apply anything to the world, thus it clears a path to alcohol. Both of these motifs continue to appear in everyday life on an Indian reservation due to their poor education systems. “The Economic Research Service reports that Native American communities have fewer full-time employed individuals than any other high-poverty community. Only 36 percent of males in high-poverty Native American communities have full-time, year-round employment” (Rogers). This statistic proves that without a good education you will not have an ability to sustain a job in your everyday life. The post-script of Indian Reservation is realistic because alcoholism and poverty are still there in everyday life.

11. Jake Fauske Is Indian Education a metaphor for Sherman Alexie’s Life? • “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie presents strong evidence as a metaphor for Alexie’s own life. Alexie was raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation (“Sherman Alexie”, 2010) where he attended a tribal school for his first few years of education. He recounts experiences from his own life through Junior, as many of the struggles that Junior faced were ones that Sherman Alexie himself had to battle through. For example, Alexie makes several references to Junior being bullied through his younger years. In first grade, Junior calls his hair to short and his horn-rimmed government glasses ugly (Alexie p. 1). He also describes how the other boys pushed him down and teased him. (Alexie p. 1-2). Alexie has admitted that he too was teased for his enlarged head left from hydrocephalus and that he was often the butt of jokes, something that was not helped by his identical horn rimmed glasses (Cline, n.d.). Alexie also left the tribal school in 7th grade to go to the white school nearby in hopes of an education. He attended the Reardon High School (“Sherman Alexie, 2010) where he achieved many accomplishments, similar to Junior taking valedictorian of his high school (Alexie p. 69). Many other parallels can be drawn between the story and Alexie’s life, demonstrating how personal Sherman Alexie must have felt when writing this tale “Indian Education” is an outlet for Sherman Alexie to right down the experiences from his early years and to share with readers parts of how he became the writer that he is today.

12. Alex Bolivar, Ciara Donnelly, Jake Fauske, John David Phillips, Joseph Carbone Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. “Indian Education”. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1993. Print Flood, Alison. “Sherman Alexie Young-adult Book Banned in Idaho Schools.” Guardian News and Media, 8 Apr. 2014. Web 09 Sept 2014. “Meet Sherman Alexie: His Biography and Literary Work.” About. n.p., n.d. Web 10 Sept 2014. (NIV, Exodus 3) (NIV, Judges 16) (NIV, Luke 22:34) (NIV, Matthew 27: 33-44, Mark 15: 22-32, Luke 23: 33-43, John 19: 17-30) (NIV, 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17) Palash Gosh. “Native Americans: The Tragedy of Alcoholism”. International Business Times. February 11, 2012. Web. September 9, 2014. racism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved September 09, 2014, from Dictionary.com “Sherman Alexie, Biography.” State University of New York at New Paltz. N.p., 16 July 2010. Web 10 Sept 2014. “Sherman Alexie.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Sept 2014. Tom Rogers. “Native American Poverty”. Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. Web. September 9, 2014.