Sherman Alexie's Iowa Interview

This interview was funny and very entertaining. Sherman Alexie started off the interview a bit stiff and straight to the pint but after a few questions you could tell that he was beginning to become more comfortable with the interview and talking to this stranger.

Though it was lengthy, it was interesting to see his views. I agree with him when he said that he didn't think that it was right for non-Indians to write about Indians. Especially if they hadn't lived or experienced life living like the Indians.

At the end of the interview, he made a statement about being rich because he was able to buy so many books that he hadn't had time to read them. This shows that he values the little things in life that most of us take for granted.

Alexie also stated that he could forget about the family that he has that still has to struggle and have the hardships that have been placed on the Indians for years but he doesn't. i believe that he doesn't just go on with life because It's where he comes from and he must not forget that because it is what got him to where he is today, all of his experiences.

"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie

This reading was about an Indian named Victor, who was on a journey to collect the ashes of his deceased father, who had moved from the reservation where he and his family resided and moved to Phoenix.

Victor didn't have all of the money to make the trip to bring the ashes back, so he got 100 dollars from the council and his childhood friend Thomas volunteered to give him the rest as long as he could come along.

Thomas was someone who no one wanted to be bothered with because he told stories and acted weird. Really it seemed like he had a spiritual gift that no one understood. He was able to feel things before they happened. I think that the people were afraid of knowing the truth or about themselves and the world that they lived in.

But Thomas and victor collected the ashes and his father's money and truck and went back to the reservation.

Victor stated that he couldn't be friends with Thomas because of who he was. I was kind of sad for Thomas because even though he showed himself to be a genuine good friend but that didn't count because of how he acted and his status in the reservation.

Edrich: Fleur

This story starts off weird and ended even more weird. I was confused for the most part but I finally was able to put it all together..... Here is what happened from my understanding.

Fleur is about a woman who is said to be married to the waterman, Misshepeshu. She is known for drowning twice and also for when the men who try to revive her end up dead. She moved from her town because of the talk that was going around about her, and no one wanted to be around her because they were afraid for their lives.

She ended up working in a Butcher's shop with four men and a young girl. The men were all fascinated by her, but not by her beauty alone but because she could play cards. the only person that noticed that she was odd was the young girl. She noticed that she had odd features like the green dress that clung to her body, her sharp teeth, and that she didn't have any toes.

One night Fleur beat all of the men in a card game and they ended up getting drunk and mad. They went after her. Chasing her out of the young girl's sight.

The next morning Fleur is gone and the town ends up in a horrible tornado that destroys just about everything and leaves three of the men missing. They were later found in hiding dead and stiff.

Fleur lived and moved back to Lake Turcot, where she came from. No one bothered to mess with her, even when she had a son. He was of penny color with blue eyes. The people wondered who fathered the child. Fleur liked that everyone wondered about her and her child and let them continue to wonder.

the Poems of Wendy Rose

Wendy Rose is a writer who expresses her thoughts and feelings through in depth writings. This also made it kinda hard to understand the full meaning of what she is trying to get across. i had to continue to go back and analyze what I was reading. There was a poem that i read that reminded me of Note to a Culture Vulture. She expressed the thoughts of whites using Indians and wanting their knowledge for their own benefits.

"Truganinny"

Wendy Rose writes a poem about a native Australian woman, who is elderly. She is the last of her people and have seen many of them die. She knows that she has come to a point inn her life where she is about to die and everyone around her is waiting for that day to come also. She says, "Already they come; even as I breathe they are waiting for me to finish my dying."


This poem reminds me of the older Native Americans, who too has to witness the death of their people. Also the suffering many years of humiliation and defeat.

Notes to a culture Vulture

Louis describes how to Whites saw that the Indians were truly connected to the land and thus making them want to be like them and have that connection as well. The white wanted to acquire as much knowledge as they could about the Native people and their ways of life so that they could write about them. By doing so they would become well-known writers.

How to Write the Great American Indian Novel

Sherman Alexie writes a poem about how Native Americans and the whites are depicted in novels.

The Indians all have distinct features and are not fully Indian but half-breed. He goes on and states that the white man is fascinated by the Indian woman and the white woman wants the Indian man.

He mentions many other stereotypes that have been given like the Indian man being a warrior and the Indian woman being a healer.

What it all boils down to is that in the Novel "all the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts." The Indians will no longer exist and the white man will possess all of the spirits of the Indians.

Crimes Against Humanity

This reading really opened my eyes to all of the ways that Native Americans have been demoralized and made fun of just because they can be. I didn't know that there were so many names of teams and schools that were named after of referring to the Native Americans.

When the writer began calling out other groups of people and putting them in the Native Americans place, it should have been a wake up call for everyone.

It's not right for us to single out the Native Americans. It's not "honoring them" if you don't know anything about what they really stand for or represent. We are just feeding into the stereotypes that have been placed upon them which is unfair.

It's sad that how the young Native Americans were taken from their homes and what they only know and placed with a non Native American family. This was done without a trace of where they originally came from, in an attempt to "Americanize them".

It's just awful and the last few sentences really sums it all up.

"Know that it causes real pain and real suffering to real people. Know that it threatens our very survival. And know that this is just as much a crime against humanity as anything the Nazis ever did. It is likely the indigenous people of the United States will never demand that those guilty of such criminal activity be punished for their deeds. But the least we have to expect - indeed to demand­is that such practices finally be brought to a halt."

Cowboy: The New Yorker

This reading was about a cowboy, who was caught in the yard of an old man (Sumbitch) and his sister. They hired him to work with them on their families ranch. throughout the years, the old man and the cowboy became close and worked together tending to the land and horses.

Once the old lady died, it was just the two of them and they continued to work hand in hand with each other. The cowboy eventually told him how he ended up at their ranch, which was he had just been paroled out of jail for robbing and shooting the store owner.

The old man got sick and was sent to a hospital where he stayed. he wasn't able to remember who the cowboy was at this point either. This was the end of their relationship. the authorities kicked the cowboy off of the land that belonged to the old man so that they could use it for their benefit.

The cowboy rode off on one of the horses to find work elsewhere.

This reading reiterated the fact that just because a person has a past doesn't mean that they are all bad news. And there are some people who are willing to give them a chance.

Brokeback Mountain

This read was about two young guys, Jack and Ennis. They met at this mountain where they were to look after the sheep of a herder for a summer. During this time they both became very close.

One night after being together for so long, they became intimate with each other. From that day on they continued to have an intimate relationship. When it was at the end of the summer, they both parted their separate ways. They both got married and had children.

After four years they reunited and from the time that they seen each other, they were all over each other. Ennis' wife Alma saw that them kissing and all over each other. This cause her suspicions to rise.

After this reuniting, they continued to see each other throughout the years. Both of them really wanted to be with each other but they couldn't because of the treatment they would get, or even death.

Ennis was really afraid of getting caught because of the stories that he had heard about gays and how he had seen a gay couple treated in his surrounding area. He witnessed the brutal murder of one of the gays that lived around him.

Ennis had called jack one day, after he hadn't heard from him and discovered that Jack had been in an accident. He had died and was cremated.

Ennis went to Jack's parent's house to get his ashes so that he could spread them on Brokeback Mountain as he had requested his wife to do but his parents wouldn't let him have the ashes. Ennis also discovered that Jack's "accident" maybe wasn't that at all. In reality someone had discovered he was a homosexual and killed him.

This reading had a sad ending. Because of the morals and teachings of the world, Jack and Ennis were not able to be together. All Ennis had was the memories.

I have witnessed many people who couldn't be with who they wanted to be with because of the morals that their families held or just the simple fact they weren't ready to be out in the open about their sexuality.