Sherman Alexie, “Crazy Horse Speaks” UA 237-240.

Reader: Sara Dailey

Respondent: Amy Kaminski        Recorder: Christina Martinez

Biographical Information:

Sherman Alexie is Spokane and Coeur d’Alene Indian, who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. While taking a poetry workshop at WSU, he realized that he had found his career.  After graduating from WSU with a degree in American Studies, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment of the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992.  Shortly after receiving his second fellowship, and just one year out of college, he already had two poetry collections published.   He has since written several novels, books of poetry, and journal articles, including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfights in Heaven.

Course Objectives:

Objective 1a – Involuntary (or forced) participation

Objective 1b – Voiceless and Choiceless

Objective 3b – Loss and Survival

Objective 4 – Minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance

Objective 5a – To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience

Interpretation

 Naomi Johnston, who presented this poem last year stated that throughout the poem Alexie reconnects the battles of the past, such as Little Big Horn, with the battles fought today on Indian Reservations, such as alcoholism and poverty.  I think the poem mainly focuses on how he is being forced to learn this new way of life, but he wants to resist.    He doesn’t want to be defined by his skin color and doesn’t want to hide who he is, but he is “practicing masks and definitions” because he is being forced to try out the role of the dominant culture.  He wants to be anonymous and not stand out, but through no fault of his own he does.  He just wants to be himself. 

Stanza 4 discusses that although the American Indians out number the soldiers and the they share the same dream, they are unable to overpower the soldiers because they are not fighting as one unit due to the many different groups so they are still being overtaken and pushed off their land.

Questions 

1)  What is the significance of stanza VI.  Why is the Eskimo story included in the poem?

2)      In stanza II, he says, “I search for Long Hair, the man you call Custer, the man I call My Father.”  And then he finishes the stanza by searching for him and saying “my heart is beating, survive survive survive.”  What is your interpretation of this stanza?

Respondent:

The poem brought up many feelings:
o Reconnection of past battles with the battles of the present, such as alcoholism and poverty
o Forced new way of life
o Indians are not fighting as one unit
What is the significance of stanza 6?
o The United States is heartless to bring people to New York put them on display at a museum
o Eskimos are Indians
o The Europeans brought diseases and killed entire tribes
o There is a paradox: We have a "love affair" with Indians, but we killed them
Dr. White: It is a partly true story. The Indians' story is similar to the Eskimos; bodies were on exhibit, but they were taken down in the 1960s. We do not know where the bodies went. Indians sued museums to get the remains back to the tribe.
A student mentioned that an Indian died, and his brain was taken to a medical facility at University of California at Berkeley. The remains were given back and buried secretly.
The dominant culture has no respect for the dead. In Egypt, rich people had mummy carvings at their parties.
Dr. White: To this day, no one knows where Crazy Horse is buried. This is intentional so that no whites could dig him up. There are also no pictures of him. His power remains so great because he is still part of the earth.
What is the significance of stanza 2?
o Many hated whites because of Custer's crime
o Creation story- Custer's existence created the need for Crazy Horse to exist
Dr White: Crazy Horse was a military leader at Little Big Horn. At the end of stanza 1: He forgave all my sins- literary illusion to book by Native American author titled Custer Died for Your Sins.
What did the students like about the poem?
o 5th stanza- sound of glass shattering
o 3rd stanza- language and words used: cuts, tears, holes
o line of interest- 3rd stanza- I do not have strength to use the word Love.