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Spokane Words: Tomson Highway raps with Sherman Alexie

(continued)

Highway: How did your first novel come about?

Alexie: I had a two-book deal with Atlantic Monthly Press. I had a one-sentence description of a novel it was an all-Indian Catholic rock-and-roll band. That's what the novel ended up being about -- an all-Indian Catholic rock-and-roll band called Coyote Springs. The novel was called Reservation Blues.

It is a sequel because many of the same characters and situations that existed in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven are in it. It's set on my reservation with three main characters: Thomas Builds the Fire, a misfit storyteller of the Spokane tribe; Victor Joseph, an alcoholic angry Indian guy; and Junior Polatkin, the happy-go-lucky failure. I called them "the unholy trinity of me."

Reservation Blues is also about a deal with the Devil. Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist, plays a prominent role in the book. His guitar bewitches Thomas, Victor and Junior into becoming a blues band that ends up auditioning for Cavalry Records in Manhattan.

Highway: What about Indian Killer?

Alexie: Indian Killer. I wrote this first and foremost because people -- critics and audiences -- kept talking about The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Reservation Blues as if they were dark, depressing, Kafka-ish, cockroach-nightmare-crawling- across-the-floor kind of books. Actually they're very funny. I think they have happy endings. I thought, "Okay, you want dark and depressing? Here you go. Here's Indian Killer. You're going to look back with fondness at the whimsical Reservation Blues, the lighthearted The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." I abandoned my trademark humour and went for the full thriller, murder mystery.

The plot-line is a series of murders of White men in Seattle that look as though an Indian is doing them. The bodies are ritually mutilated, scalped and certain objects are left at the scene. John Smith, the main character as a newborn was adopted by an upper middle-class White family, and in his adulthood is struggling to find a connection to Indian people, any sense of connection to anybody. He gently goes mad during the course of the book. I've met a lot of people like him -- "lost birds" -- Indians adopted out by non-Indian families -- we call them lost birds. One of my cousins was adopted out. I wanted to write a book about a character like that to get this out into the public. The Indian Child Welfare Act in the States in 1974 prevented such adoptions. The social problems and dysfunctions of these Indians adopted out are tremendous. Their suicide rates are off the chart, their drug and alcohol abuse rates are off the chart. There's a book here, called Inside Out, a national bestseller.

Highway: James Tyman, from Saskatchewan.

Alexie: James Tyman. Someone handed it to me last week and I just read it. His story is very typical, and is not as bad as many of the stories I've heard.

Highway: This concept, this identity crisis, misplaced birth, was the germ for the book, the Indian germ?

Alexie: It was the germ of the novel. I was going to write a novel about just a lost bird. I didn't realize it was going to be a murder mystery. I had an idea about a suspected Indian serial killer for a long time.

It's also a novel about, not just physical murder, but the spiritual, cultural and physical murder of Indians. The title, Indian Killer, is a palindrome, really. It's "Indians who kill" and it's also "people who kill Indians." It's about how the dominant culture is killing the First Nations people of this country to this day, still.

Highway: Well, congratulations on the publication of Indian Killer.

Alexie: Thank you.

Highway: With the little bit of time we have left, let's open the discussion to the floor. If there's anybody who has questions, please ask now.

Question: The Colville tribe is made up of twelve tribes. Do you have any blood related to any of the tribes? Were you influenced by the Lakes Colville Indian writer Mourning Dove, who wrote a book called Cogewea.

Alexie: No, and no. Mourning Dove, the Cogewea book, is an example of a book written by a white person which is disguised as an autobiography of an Indian person. Other examples are Black Elk Speaks, written by Black Elk, supposedly, and John Nearheart - an autobiography that Black Elk himself disavowed before he died, a fact which is conveniently omitted in any discussion of the book.

There's Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions and Lakota Woman, two other supposed autobiographies, really written by white men. Lakota Woman, has gone on to be a movie and an international bestseller. As far as I know, Mary has not received any sort of royalties. The same man who wrote that book also wrote Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions. Once again, these autobiographies are not really autobiographies, they're translations. Both writers of those books have freely admitted to poetic license. Poetic license and manifest destiny are often the same thing.

Question: Why are many Indian writers not getting national attention?

Alexie: We're not the appropriate kind of stories. If you write about Lakota Indians or horse cultures, you have a better chance of a bestseller. If you write about pre-twentieth century Indians; if you use a "corn pollen, four directions, Mother Earth, Father Sky" sort of language; or if you write about the wonderful relationship between an Indian and a white person: love affair, friendship, mentoring relationship, you have a better chance of selling a lot of books.

If you are of -- now I'm not saying these people aren't Indian -- if you are of a very mixed-blood, you have a better chance of selling a lot of books. It's a particular kind of Indian experience. They have more access to the educational and publishing channels. If you write the appropriate kind of material, you have a better chance. The second you don't, your chances decrease.

I'm very fortunate. I'm writing these highly political books about reservation Indians. I'm telling rez jokes in my books. I think most non-Indians don't have a clue about half the jokes in there. I'm selling a lot of copies and doing well. I'm an anomaly.

Other writers are writing stories that aren't getting told and not because of their writing ability. Ninety percent of the books in any bookstore are not written very well. It's the approach. Any non-Indian writer writing about Indians is going to automatically get a better critical and commercial reception than any Indian. Tony Hillerman, for instance, any one of his novels, has sold more copies than all the books written by Indians, ever.

Do you resent the fact that he writes about Indians?

Alexie: Yes. I resent that he's made a career off Indians, and as far as I know, has not given much back. I'm on the Board of Trustees of the American Indian College Fund -- I haven't heard his name mentioned. I'm resentful that there are many writers out there making careers off Indians and doing absolutely nothing in return. There's a guy I'm reading with tomorrow evening -- Mr. Kinsella -- who's making a career writing books about Indians, and as far as I know -- he's doing nothing for Indians. People ask me and I give hard-core answers. You're making money, give it back. Donate 10% of your royalties to the Native College Fund. How about giving 10% of your royalties to the tribe you're writing about?

Question: Do you feel bound to writing just about your Native self, as opposed to non-Native issues?

Alexie: I hate that question more than any other. It's an incredibly racist, colonial question. Nobody ever asked Raymond Carver if he was going to write about anything other than poor white people. Nobody ever asked Faulkner if he was going to write about anything more than poor, white Southern people. People don't ask those questions of non-brown writers. I'm shocked you asked that (asked by non-white person). The author of Remains of the Day wrote that precisely because he was tired of the ghettoization of his work about British-Japanese people.

I'm not limited by writing about Spokane Indians. Every theme, every story, every tragedy that exists in literature takes place in my little community. Hamlet takes place on my reservation daily. King Lear takes place on my reservation daily. "Because I could not stop for death, death kindly stopped for me." That is a total Indian couplet.

I feel challenged by trying to write about Spokane Indians. They're a powerful people, and it's a powerful place. I'm never going to run out of stories or themes. To suggest otherwise, or to suggest I should be interested in something else is ridiculous.

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