When the Story Stolen is Also a Fake

In a Time magazine article, Sherman Alexie argues that Nasdijj, the author of “The Blood Runs like a River Through My Dreams,” a so-called autobiographical essay, is a “thief and a liar” and Alexie suspected that the whole thing had been made up (Alexie, “When the story stolen”). An investigative story found that the essay and following book were both written by a white man of European descent who had made it all up. Alexie approached the publishers of the book, “and told them his book not only was borderline plagiarism (Nasdijj’s story was very similar to Alexie’s own) but also failed to mention specific tribal members, clans, ceremonies and locations, all of which are vital to the concept of Indian identity” (Alexie, “When the Story Stolen”). Alexie essentially argues that the work is not only a ripped-off fake, but also inauthentic. Whether or not Nasdijj meets Alexie’s expectations, it’s hard to say, but there is evidence – or lack thereof – in Alexie’s work that calls his own authenticity into question by this definition. 

For his part, though, Alexie does not entirely miss his qualifications. Alexie’s writing in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” includes a variety of genuine, specific locations in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Wash., not far from the city of Spokane. He also includes such far-flung places as Phoenix, Ariz., and, slightly closer, Seattle. One such place, Benjamin Lake, is a campground and park, not far from Spokane (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 13). Other places include: the Walla Walla State Penitentiary, Devil’s Gap Road and Tshimikain Creek (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 25, 32, 76). Based on proximity to the reservation, these places would likely have genuine historical ties to the tribe. 

Perhaps the most vivid evidence of Alexie’s use of true “Indian identity” comes in the story, “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire.” Arrested and faced with unclear criminal charges stemming from his storytelling, Thomas gives testimony as though he were involved in the Indian Wars as both a horse and a person. In his testimony, he retells the story of Colonel George Wright’s horse slaughter at Spokane Bridge in 1858 from the perspective of one of the horses who survived (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 96-98). Alexie writes with extensive detail a very true and honest historical account of what happened during that time period. The story of Qualchan, also told by Thomas Builds-the-Fire, becomes a very realistic snapshot of the Indian experience in that it ends with Thomas telling of how the city is building a golf course where he – Qualchan, that is – was hanged (The Lone Ranger 99). This not only ties an event in the story to historical settings, but also builds on the too-common theme of attempts by whites to honor Native history in ways that do more damage than good (e.g., Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, etc.)

Alexie’s “reservation realism” serves its purpose in offering a unique snapshot into the brokenness that must exist in Native American life. The damage done by white settlers and the United States government did not stop when the Indian Wars stopped and the picture painted by Alexie is authentic enough for most readers. But it may not be authentic enough for him. 

Alexie’s stories do mention many specific places, people and events, but Alexie also casts many characters in very general ways. He also uses institutions and places that anyone – Native or otherwise – could know and be familiar with. Two such examples are the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Tribal Council (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 59-60). The first, the BIA, is a federal institution, known to anyone who has studied some light American history. The second, the Tribal Council, is fairly likely to exist in almost any Native American tribe. Not very specific either. Although these instances are questionable, there are others that stand out as even further from meeting Alexie’s own standards.

As pointed out already, Alexie does use some very real and very specific places. He does name plenty of tribal members, or at least we can assume they are tribal members. But did Nasdijj really just not name any people? And where are Alexie’s specific ceremonies and clans? Nope, none of them either. But let’s go one step at a time.

Of the components Alexie said were missing from Nasdijj’s work, specific tribal members were the first mentioned and I think this is an important place to start. Alexie names many people in his work. Native American names – “tribal” names, if you will – are used for many: Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Jimmy and Norma Many-Horses, Lester Falls-Apart, just to name a few. These are specific tribal members – in a work of fiction. So far, Nasdijj’s only crime is lying about the origins of his story. Alexie says in the Time article that Nasdijj wrote of a child named “Tommy Nothing Fancy;” perhaps this was not a genuine enough name? (Alexie, “When the Story Stolen”). What would make a character a “specific tribal member” versus just some made up character in a work of fiction? They are not real people, though they are perhaps based on real people, as Alexie tries to claim and then unclaim in his introduction (Alexie, The Lone Ranger xix). Regardless of these characters’ basis in reality or not, Alexie asks for something unreasonable: real people in a fictional story. If I wrote about Native Americans, I would do research and make up authentic-sounding names too, but they would not be specific tribal members any more or less than Alexie’s Jimmy Many-Horses or Thomas Builds-the-Fire. 

Alexie also claims that Nasdijj failed to mention any specific clans or ceremonies in his work. However, Alexie doesn’t seem to mention any of these either. There are certainly instances that appear ceremonial in Alexie’s work, such as when Big Mom hands Victor the tiny drum in “A Drug Called Tradition” (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 23). Big Mom tells him that it’s her pager and she will come anytime if he just taps on it. Of course, Victor never does, and she dies later, but he holds onto it forever. 

This example is hardly a ceremony and it would be hard to even say it had anything to do with tradition. Certainly, drums have a place in Native American tradition and have often been used to summon spirits and so on, so there is some merit to that. But, for me, this symbolic gesture does not represent a “specific tribal...ceremony.”

Another possible example is in the story, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” where Thomas Builds-the-Fire tells Victor a story. “There were these two Indian boys who wanted to be warriors. But it was too late to be warriors in the old way,” begins Thomas (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 63). In the short narrative, Thomas tells of how the two boys stole a car and drove it to the city, parked it in front of the police station and then returned to the reservation to receive praise as warriors. This story is indeed symbolic of modern members of the tribe attempting to participate in a ceremony of becoming a warrior, but what happens is hardly ceremonious. Even in a destitute reservation community, somewhere desperate for tradition, it still seems unlikely that their parents would be proud of them for stealing a car, whatever the meaning held for the boys. In Alexie’s story, it represents the conflict emerging from assimilation and the desire to hold on to traditional culture, a theme that runs throughout his stories. It’s an honest theme, but not a tribal ceremony.

There are, of course, brief mentions of powwows. Norma Many-Horses writes to Jimmy in postcards sent from “powwows all over the country,” in the story, “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor” (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 167). A powwow is a traditional Native American ceremony...that almost anyone in the United States would know about with a fifth-grade education. This does not make Alexie’s work any more authentic or genuine. In yet another story, a young Victor is described as “fancydancing” in his father’s old outfit, a traditional outfit with feathers and decorations (Alexie, The Lone Ranger 87). The fancy dance is an interesting example of a traditional ceremony. This dance is thought to have begun in the 1920s and 1930s in response to the United States and Canada outlawing Native American religious dances (Wikipedia). These types of dances were based on traditional dances, but the problem for Alexie is that this type of dancing was not specific to the Spokane tribe, or really any of the other tribes who practice it now. It was, in fact, most likely invented by the Ponca tribe in Oklahoma, far from Eastern Washington. Again, Alexie does not meet the standards he seems so eager to hold others to. 

When he sets out to criticize Barrus – for writing under false pretenses as Nasdijj – Alexie sets standards for “authentic” concepts of Indian identity in writing fiction. But when his own work is measured against these same standards – for tribal members, ceremonies, clans and locations – it hardly measures up. True, Alexie’s work seems to paint a genuine picture of the reservation experience, while Nasdijj’s work, simply by being exposed as fake, loses much of its authenticity. But Alexie wants to say that, because Nasdijj wasn’t real – and therefore had not actually lived on a reservation – he couldn’t accurately portray a life and experiences there. Alexie doesn’t say that, though, and instead comes up with a short list of problems with Nasdijj’s story. Alexie’s “specifics” hardly hold his own work up. In fact, Alexie’s own writing puts the authenticity of the entire collection in question before the first story even begins: “So why am I telling you that these stories are true? First of all, they’re not really true. They are the vision of one individual..., so these stories are necessarily biased, incomplete, exaggerated, deluded, and often just plain wrong” (Alexie, The Lone Ranger xxi). This statement shows that Alexie’s work shouldn’t be trusted any more than Nasdijj’s – whatever other standards it's held to.

The bottom line? The next time Alexie decides to publicly deride someone else’s work for any question of its authenticity, he had better be careful about the standards he holds it to. He might want to first put his own work to the test.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New 

York: Grove Press, 1993. Print.

Alexie, Sherman. “When the Story Stolen is Your Own.” Time, 29 Jan. 

2006. Web. Oct. 2011.

“Fancy Dance.” Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 

2011.

Yes, I know, a Wikipedia citation in an academic paper. Whatever, the prof said it was ok and it's not like it was some controversial article.