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Reading Native American Literature

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Reading Native American Literature READING NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE Native American literature explores divides between public and private cultures, ethnicities and experience. In this volume, Joseph Coulombe argues that Native American writers use diverse narrative strategies to engage with readers and are “writing for connection” with both Native and non-Native audiences. Beginning with a historical overview of Native American Literature, this book presents focused readings of key texts including: N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony Gerald Vizenor’s Bearheart James Welch’s Fool’s Crow Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Linda Hogan’s Power. Suggesting new ways towards a sensitive engagement with tribal cultures, this book provides not only a comprehensive introduction to Native American Literature but also a critical framework through which it may be read. Joseph L. Coulombe is Associate Professor of English at Rowan University, US. He is the author of Mark Twain and the American West (2003) and has published articles on Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, Sherman Alexie, James Welch, and Emerson Bennett. READING NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE Joseph L. Coulombe First edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2011 Joseph L. Coulombe The right of Joseph L. Coulombe to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Typeset in Joanna and ScalaSans by Taylor & Francis Books Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Coulombe, Joseph L., 1966- Reading Native American literature / Joseph L. Coulombe. – 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. American literature – Indian authors – History and criticism. 2. Indians of North America – Intellectual life. 3. Indians in literature. I. Title. PS153.I52C59 2011 810.9’897 – dc22 2010029326 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-57942-1 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-57943-8 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-83290-5 (ebk) For my children, Miles, Jeremy, and Trevor. And for their generation. CONTENTS Acknowledgements x Permissions xi Introduction: Native American literary outreach and the Non-native reader 1 Engaging community 3 Textual parameters for readers 6 Reading to learn (not to profess) 8 Individual methods and shared goals 10 Critical methodology 13 The power of fiction 15 1 Following the tracks: history and context of Native writing 18 Invasion and loss 19 Adapting to change, writing for change 21 Trail of broken treaties 22 New policies, old problems 25 Recovering from loss, and continuing the oral tradition 29 Fiction, poetry, and self-definition 31 A snapshot of contemporary Native America 34 2 Nothing but words: from confrontation to connection in N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn 36 Observation versus experience 37 Angela and Abel: connection and disconnection 40 Abel’s progress and Angela’s revelation 42 Words, language, and meaning 46 VIII CONTENTS Violence, whiteness, and evil 48 Confrontation and affirmation 51 A timeless challenge and the reader 52 Eternity, nothing, and shared truths 55 3 Revitalizing the original clan: participant readers in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony 57 Clan stories and the reader 58 The performative power of language 61 Connection and context 63 Racial politics 66 Fighting fragmentation and hatred 70 Re-uniting the people 72 Individual success and human promise 75 4 Individualism vs. separation: imagining the self to foster unity via Gerald Vizenor’s Bearheart 77 Text and reader 78 The dangers of language 80 The power of imagination 82 Collaboration and individual interpretation 84 Connection, non-conformity, and transcendence 86 Dependence and self-destruction 89 Tribalism versus individualism 92 5 Writing for connection: cross-cultural understanding in James Welch’s historical fiction 96 Writing history as resistance 97 Translating the unfamiliar 100 Teaching readers with cultural connections 102 Ambiguity and interpretation 106 The normal and the negative 109 Humor as connection 112 Community versus individual 113 6 The approximate size of his favorite humor: Sherman Alexie’s comic connections and disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven 116 Theorizing the frontier of humor 117 Story-telling and its equivocal potential 120 Humor as protection 122 Humor as self-destructive avoidance 124 Tradition, change, and context 127 Humor as intra-community connection 129 Humor as cross-cultural outreach 132 Anger and joy 135 7 Stitching the gap: believing vs. knowing in Linda Hogan’s Power 139 Narrative and interpretive processes 140 Tradition and renewal 142 CONTENTS IX Storm as metaphor 144 Knowledge versus belief 145 Witness 147 Trial and error 149 Future connection and community 151 Effort and achievement 152 The healing power of words 155 Notes 157 Bibliography 169 Index 183 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding my participation in the 2003 Summer Institute, “Working from Community: American Indian Art and Literature in a Historical and Cultural Context” at Evergreen State University in Washington state. The reading list and itinerary (arranged by Gail Tremblay) as well as the formal and informal discussions helped me develop my critical reading strategies for Native literature. Every participant earned my gratitude and respect during the six-week institute. I also want to thank Dr. Kimberly Roppolo (University of Oklahoma) for reading the completed manuscript and offering constructive feedback. I am particularly grateful to my colleague, Dr. Cathy Parrish, who agreed to serve another term as Chair of the English Department at Rowan University, allowing me to finish this project. In addition,Iwanttothankallmycollea- gues at Rowan who continually challenge me – with their excellent examples – tobecomeabetterteacherandscholar.Mystudentsovertheyearshavealso earned my gratitude by serving as a sounding board for the ideas in this book. Finally, thanks to Rowan University for funding the Adjusted Workload Program, which gave me the time to focus on scholarship as well as teaching. I especially want to thank to my wife, Michele, who encouraged me to keep writing when I became frustrated, and whose genuine love of reading is an inspiration. Finally, thanks to all the Native writers mentioned in these pages – and those not mentioned – who chose to share their artistry and ideas. PERMISSIONS The author and publishers are grateful for permission to reproduce the following texts: “Writing for Connection: Cross-Cultural Understanding in James Welch’s Historical Fiction.” Studies in American Indian Literatures. 20: 3 (Fall 2008): 1–28. Reprinted in its entirety in Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Series, Native American Writers (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2010: 229–250). Reprinted with permission of the University of Nebraska Press. “The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor: Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” American Indian Quarterly 26:1 (Winter 2002): 94–115. Reprinted in its entirety in Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Series, Native American Writers (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2010: 93–114). Reprinted in part within Approaching Literature in the 21st Century, Second Edition, Eds. Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008: 278–279. Reprinted with permission of the Unviversity of Nebraska Press. Every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders. The publishers would be pleased to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged here, so that this acknowledgement page may be amended at the earliest opportunity. INTRODUCTION NATIVE AMERICAN LITERARY OUTREACH AND THE NON-NATIVE READER In The Man Made of Words, N. Scott Momaday discusses one of his favorite stories, “The Arrowmaker.” In the story, the arrowmaker and his wife are working inside their tepee when the man glimpses a stranger lurking out- side. Calmly using his own language, he first alerts his wife to the potential danger. Then the arrowmaker addresses the stranger – still speaking in his native tongue – and, upon receiving no answer, concludes that the man is an enemy. While ostensibly checking the straightness of his arrows, he shoots the stranger outside the teepee through the heart. Momaday values this story for its combination of surface simplicity and deep profundity, and he focuses particularly on its evocative treatment of language as a method of self-definition that contains explicit dangers. The arrowmaker uses words to express and determine his relation to a potentially menacing stranger. To Momaday, language is simultaneously a means of self-protection and a calculated risk. Words allow people to create and define themselves, often by communicating
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