As Marie and John go about their days in Seattle, her going to classes and delivering sandwiches to the homeless, he working on the last sky scrapper being built, tensions between the native and white communities are beginning to rise. With the finding of the first body decorated with owl feathers and the disappearance of a young white collage student from the parking lot of an Indian casino it doesn’t take much for violence to break out.
Encouraged by the volatile words of a local conservative radio host, a group of young men head out to start beating up the Indian homeless that populate Seattle’s downtown core. In retaliation Marie’s cousin Reggie and two of his friends torture a young white hitchhiker, in a manner similar to what Reggie experienced at the hands of his white step-father. A former Bureau of Indian Affairs officer he tried to beat the “bad” Indian out of Reggie by making him recite historical events and dates that were important in the conquest of the Indians. When he was wrong he was beaten and asked if he really wanted to be a drunk like all the other useless Indians.
Seattle, it’s environs and inhabitants, as presented in Indian Killer are representative of a widespread problem. The manner is which our occupying people treat the original inhabitants. We have created three definitions to fit Indians into: The Drunk, The Nobel Savage, or The Good Indian which is one who is so assimilated we say “Oh I didn’t even know you were...” As long as an Indian plays within those guidelines there’s no problem.
But let them say one word about land claims, or stolen culture or anything else that sounds remotely like threatening the status quo they are immediately labelled a malcontent, or radical. This is the world of contradictions that Sherman Alexie’s Indians live in. They are supposed to be happy with what ever bones they are thrown, thrilled that white people want to appropriate the interesting bits of their culture without having to live the humiliation that is their daily life.
Indian Killer tells this story without preaching or yelling. We follow characters we genuinely care about, whether white or native, because nothing is black and white even the so called enemies are interesting and human. Even the thugs who are beating up the vagrants are shown as more then just three dimensional bigots. In the end this just makes their actions all the more disturbing
Article comments
1 - Cerulean
Very well-written, Gypsyman. Well I shy away from this book as much as I feel for the injustices done to the Indians. I don't want to read about the violence to white people, or red people, for that matter. Will it take at least the threat of violence to get more justice for the Indians? Probably. Fear works.
I've seen a movies or movies based on Sherman Alexi's earlier work. I believe that I might have heard him speak at the University here. They've hosted most of the prominient Native American writers and filmmakers to speak and show their movies at the local University and I've seen most of them. As a person who loves the earth, and a woman, I feel for all of us who wanted to inhabit this earth peacefully, and with respect for her original purpose. Where I was born and still live, I've undergone something that has similarities to what they went through and it just sucks.
2 - Wendy Ferguson
I really enjoyed this article it is not only fiction but the truth what has and is still happeneing to the native americans the true first americans. By our government and all people abound. He is a wonderful musician and his music speaks to the soul and his words of wisdom are true and we do have to wake up america and start healing ourselves and the earth and mostly the God given love of humanity we once had
3 - Mark Chasing Hawks
Cerulean...
I cant believe you would even have the nerve to say something as ignorant as "I've undergone something that has similarities to what they went through". While Im glad you "love the earth" and Im sure you mean well with this nice positive rose colored glasses outlook on life, you have absolutly no idea what its like to see and live in this country with brown skin, let alone as one who has watched their culture taken away, apart, told (by the "other" culture), and sold. You will never know the feeling of being a teen who loves life and people, walking down the street and the white woman with baby who upon seeing you pulls her child closer to her moving away from you with distrust and fear in her eyes. I do. I lived that scene, with variations, more times than I could possibly count, and there isnt an Indian (or black for that matter) man or woman who doesnt personally know that experience. And you think you can come up with something that deeply hurtful to a childs heart, and how that shapes their view of 'fitting' in society...?? hmmmmmmm. Well maybe, to save wear and tear on those "rosey glasses", you should stick with those "New Age “spirit guide” books. and BTW Gypsyman good review, very insightful observations by you.