I. Literature Review
Spokane History and Traditional Religion
Sherman Alexie is one of the most important American Indian writers working
today. He gives a voice to the modern Indian trying to find himself while lost in
American culture. He forces his readers to reassess their ideas about what it means to be
an Indian. One of the ways that he plays with stereotypes about Indians is through
religion. In order to fully appreciate this, one must examine both the Indian traditions and
the Western ideas that are being referenced in his works. This is begun by looking into
the history of the tribe and its interaction with white people, culture and ideology.
One of the most referenced pieces of work written about the Spokane tribe is The
Spokane Indians: Children of the Sun, by Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown. The pair
wrote several books together about various Native American tribes and aspects of their
culture as part of their “Civilization of the American Indian Series.” Other titles in this
series include Half-Sun on the Columbia: A Biography of Chief Moses (1965), The
Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River (1976), Indians of the Pacific
Northwest: A History (1981), and Dreamer-Prophets of the Columbia Plateau: Smohalla
and Skolaskin (1989). The Spokane Indians was published in 1970. The book is an
extremely detailed and thoroughly researched account of Spokane history and their
interaction Europeans and later the American government through the late 1960s. As seen
by their immense bibliography, Ruby and Brown drawn from many sources: manuscript
materials, federal documents, newspapers, books, pamphlets, and a series of interviews
they conducted in the 1960s with members of the tribe. In the preface to the book the
authors acknowledge that much of Native American history has been interpreted and
1 reported by white men and has been distorted in this process. They go on to say that
though they tried their hardest to view the Spokane from “inside the tipi” (Ruby xii), they
can never be fully successful. However, through interviews with the tribe and the
speeches by chiefs that they reference, much of the Spokane perspective is seen. At the
very least, when the history is being told from the point of view of an outsider, Ruby and
Brown make it known who is telling the story. Thus, judgments made by the white
settlers interacting with the tribe are not presented as a fact or unbiased observation.
Aside from the purposeful voicing of their sources, Ruby and Brown present an
extremely thorough history of the Spokane tribe, starting just a few years before contact
with white settlers was made. For a history of how that contact was initiated and the
players involved, there is no more complete source. Almost every other work on the
subject references Ruby and Brown’s version. However, there is very little discussion of
the long history of the tribe before contact, other than to set the stage. This is most likely
because of the lack of written records by the tribe. By citing the observations of the
missionaries living with the Spokane in the 1830s Ruby and Brown give some context of
the religious traditions the tribe held prior to the Christian contact. Unfortunately, as
Ruby and Brown say, the missionaries often misinterpreted these traditions or added
personal judgment to their accounts. The Spokane Indians uses excerpts from the
missionaries’ diaries and letters to give a very good account of the beliefs that were
taught to the tribe by the various missionary groups over the years and how successfully
these beliefs were at least initially assimilated by the tribe.
For a brief overview of the tribe and its customs, The Gale Encyclopedia of
Native American Tribes is a good resource. The article draws from other encyclopedias of
2 similar subjects that touched on various aspects of Spokane history and culture along
with other resources, including Ruby and Brown, and combines them in a concise,
organized format. The article also briefly mentions some other aspects of the religious
beliefs, before Christianity, such as guardian spirits and the role of the shaman.
Interestingly, this article claims that the Spokane believe that “the soul survives beyond
and death and inhabits each living thing” (Malinowski 475). There is some debate over
the traditional beliefs held by the Spokane concerning where a person’s spirit would go
after death. This article merely states that it survives past death, without stipulating where
the soul goes or what it does without a body. The article also touches on the basic beliefs
concerning medicine men and mourning rituals, without going in depth. The article
obviously cannot fully explore these ideas, but it is a good jumping off point to find out
what beliefs are out there on a surface level.
Another helpful encyclopedia is American Indian Religious Traditions, edited by
Suzanne Crawford and Dennis Kelley. The encyclopedia is fairly recent for this subject,
only published in 2005. This collection focuses on the religious practices such as dancing,
healing, mourning, prophecy, etc. The entries go into great detail describing specific
ceremonies and what happens during them, but they do no shed much light on the beliefs
that are represented by these ceremonies. The encyclopedia deals with the “how” rather
than the “why” of religious traditions. So while all the steps of the mourning process are
discussed, the underlying belief in reference to the state of the soul or the spirit world is
not discussed. Also, the encyclopedia is organized efficiently by practice rather than tribe.
While it make sense to talk about the dances of the Plateau tribes all together, as they are
usually similar, it is hard to tell if a practice is universal for that region or if some tribes
3 participate and others don’t, and in that case, which tribes fall into which category. There
is a lot of overlap in the cultures from tribe to tribe in the Plateau area, but it was often
unclear whether members of the Spokane tribe actually participated in one ceremony or
another.
Tribal dance and the beliefs associated with them are the main focus of Gregory E.
Smoak’s book Ghost Dances and Identity. Smoak is an Associate Professor at of History
at Colorado State University. His book appears to be the culmination of several
publications dealing with ghost dances in tribal culture. While the book spans many tribes
and the appearance of a version of the ghost dance, there is a bit of time spent on the
Spokane. There were a couple of prophets actively preaching in or around the Spokane
tribe at around the time that the missionaries came. Smoak’s main interest focuses on
how these prophecies and the dances that were performed by followers of the prophets
affect the cultural identity of the tribes and individuals. This book delves deeper into the
underlying beliefs represented by the dance than the encyclopedias because it is focused
on only one aspect of the tradition.
John Alan Ross is an anthropologist who has spent 40 years gathering information
from Spokane Indians. As part of his bibliography for his article “Spokan Burial Rituals
and Associated Mortuary Beliefs,” he cites his “ethnographic field notes from 67
informants” from 1968-2008. He also did an Ethnoarchaeological Cultural Resource
Survey of the Spokane Reservation from 1991-1993. He has published several articles
relating to the Spokane tribe. In this article, Ross not only describes the traditions past
and present relating to burial and mourning but more importantly he discusses the
disagreements about the beliefs associated with them. He presents the debate about
4 aboriginal belief in heaven and hell, by quoting different interviewees and white
observers of the Spokane. Ross is careful to point out the difficulties of extracting
traditional beliefs from the Christian influence of the missionaries. Some of his
interviewees are aware of the effect the missionaries had on their traditions and others are
not. Ross also cites interviews conducted by other people and earlier descriptions of
burial sites and rituals throughout his article. He also uses the term “Historical Period” in
reference to 1804-1866, or just as white traders made contact, through the various waves
of missionary arrivals. This time period is well documented due to the number of whites
living with or around the tribe.
In addition to these main sources there are diaries from the missionaries and
members of the tribe as well as an additional overview of the tribe by David Wynecoop.
This version of the history has the support of the school system on the Spokane
Reservation, Wellpinit. On their school district website they have made Wynecoop’s
entire book Children of the Sun available. This is a much briefer version than Ruby and
Brown’s but it is more closely tied to the tribe as Wynecoop is a Spokane tribe member.
Also on the site they have links to myths and legends of the tribe and a firsthand account
of one woman’s life by Nancy Wynecoop. These links are geared toward the students in
their district and are often simplistic, but it is interesting to see what the reservation
school officials are putting on their website.
Christianity
In examining the religious symbols in Alexie’s work it was necessary to find
some basis for the analysis of Christian symbols. Though Christian symbols are part of
5 the consciousness of our culture, it was important to get a foundation in Christianity to
refer to. Several books served to back up personal familiarity with the Christian belief
system. Christianity: A Very Short Introduction, by Linda Woodhead was particularly
useful for its focused approach to a vast religion. The book is highly organized and
concise and useful as a quick reference for the basics of the religion. A professor of
religious studies at Lancaster University, Woodhead has written many books about
religion and is well regarded and active in her field of study.
Paul Hessert’s more in depth study of Christianity, Introduction to Christianity,
was helpful for more in depth discussions of various aspects of the faith. Also of interest
is his defense of the study of religion and how to define religion. He argues that religion
is a personal experience and therefore must be defined individually. But he goes on to say
that there is merit in exploring common religions that many people follow because they
show that groups of people share the same ultimate concerns and ways of expressing
them (Hessert 7).
In light of this, the British Broadcasting Company’s Religion database was a
helpful source. The site presents the most commonly held beliefs of the religion as well
as exploring the different sects with the faith. The site also has a wealth of radio and
television programs relating to aspects of Christianity featuring professors and
theologians.
Religious Hybridity
The idea of mixed religious systems has been explored before by anthropologists
and theologians. One particularly insightful study focused on Catholic nuns using
6 meditation methods of Buddhism to deepen their prayer and meditation. This article by
Courtney Bender and Wendy Cage utilizes the term “Religious Hybridity,” to describe
the way that the nuns appropriated the relevant practices of another religious system and
mixed them into their previously held beliefs. Other studies have been done about native
tribes in American mixing their beliefs with those of the missionaries, though there did
not appear to be many articles on the Spokane Indians in particular. Though the articles
about mixing in Christianity with tribal beliefs did not relate directly to the topic at hand
they did lay a basis for this study.
Basis for Literature Analysis
Sherman Alexie is one of the most prominent Native American authors at work
today. He has written novels, short stories, movies, poetry and a young adult novel. His
work is gaining popularity but there is not much literary criticism of his works yet.
Karsten Fitz has published an analysis of Alexie’s novel Reservation Blues that is of note.
Fitz is an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Regensburg,
Germany. Fitz has published a book and several articles on contemporary Native
American literature. In “Native and Christian: Religion and Spirituality as Transcultural
Negotiation in American Indian Novels of the 1990s,” Fitz gives the rationale for
analyzing Native American literature through the dual lens of traditional and Christian
spirituality. Fitz aims to prove that the flexibility in traditional religion as portrayed in a
few novels has allowed for traditional culture to live on in the present. As this article
deals with novels in the 1990s, Ten Little Indians, Alexie’s 2003 collection of short
stories was not examined. There is little criticism of Ten Little Indians, currently.
7 While there is a lack of criticism of Alexie’s recent work, there are many
interviews with Alexie. He has been interviewed by people in the movie industry for his
work on Smoke Signals, by people with an interest in young adult fiction after his YA
novel released, and even appeared on The Colbert Report. He is actively engaged with
various media and giving interviews. While few of his interviews deal primarily with
religion, it is a subject he often touches upon during the course of an interview. In an
interview for the Journal of Religion and Film, he discussed the fluid state of traditional
religion for Native Americans (Fielding 7). He has also discussed his religious
upbringing in interviews for author profiles etc. Alexie has even spoken of his characters
saying “Everybody's on a religious quest, everybody's a pilgrim” (Wyrick 5). While in
one article he said he was amused by people who tried to analyze his work through the
lens of spirituality, he has also acknowledged his own spirituality and the journeys of his
characters.
II. Introduction
Each short story found in Sherman Alexie’s Ten Little Indians centers around a
Spokane Indian, living off the reservation, trying to find some truth in the world. Alexie
has spoken of his characters saying, “Everybody's on a religious quest, everybody's a
pilgrim” (Wyrick 5). Many of his characters are in a state of crisis. They are reaching out
for answers and solutions to their emotional, social and spiritual problems. Some of the
most extreme measures taken include a couple waving a giant vibrator over their sick
infant in the ICU, a homeless man’s desperate attempt to raise nine hundred ninety-nine
dollars in 24 hours and a 41 year old man training rigorously to play basketball to honor
8 his dead parents. These actions are indicative of some sort of religious or spiritual faith
guiding them. While the reader may assume these actions are rooted in the traditional
beliefs of the Plains Indians concerning spirits and ancestors, there is a tinge of
Christianity mixed in. The characters refer to themselves as confessors; they claim to be
doing penance. Why does Alexie have modern day Spokane Indians partaking in spiritual
journeys with Christian ceremony as guideposts? Considering the Spokane tribe’s initial
and present contact with Christian ideology, one finds that a hybrid of traditional beliefs
and Christianity have been present in Spokane culture since contact with whites was
made in the early 1800s. This was initially facilitated by the son of a Spokane chief,
referred to by the white traders and missionaries who came in contact with him as
“Spokane Garry.” Sent by his father to be educated by an Anglican reverend in the mid
1820s, he brought Christian beliefs to the Spokane people. Though Christianity never
fully replaced Spokane beliefs, it did leave a lasting impression in the spiritual lexicon of
the Spokane people.
Even more interesting than this mix is the way that the Spokane people utilize
these dueling systems. Some beliefs mingle well, ideas about a great creator for example;
others are in direct conflict. Today, some traditional beliefs are still maintained, such as
ritual dancing and mourning ceremonies and some tribal healing rituals. Alongside these
traditional practices there are several churches on the Reservation today. Each individual
ultimately decides for him or herself which beliefs they will subscribe to. Rather than
being paralyzed by having twice as many religious restrictions, they appear to be freed.
The spiritual options made available by the flexibility to pick and choose from two
9 religious traditions allow Alexie’s characters to take action in the present to effectively
resolve conflict while on earth.
III. Spokane Traditional Beliefs
Exploring the spirituality of a group of people is complex on many levels. In the
first place, each individual in the end decides what he or she, personally, believes. An
individual can be influenced by his or her environment and what he or she is taught and
exposed to, but ultimately, one single person makes the decision. In the words of
Christian theologian Paul Hessert, “A religious belief is not so much an intellectual
opinion as a conviction by which one actually lives…Religion must, therefore, be
personal because it involves the whole response of a person” (Hessert 6). The whole
spiritual experience of a group of people would be impossible to unify. In examining the
spiritual life of the Spokane Indians, one cannot set out to speak for the whole population,
or even a portion. However, there are records of ceremonies and rituals that were
practiced by a portion of the population. The mere existence of these rituals is indicative
of the beliefs that are associated with them. Whether the entire population practiced these
rituals is not relevant. Rather the existence of these rituals as spiritual options for the
Spokane people is of ultimate importance.
A World of Spirits
Though it is hard to separate some traditional beliefs from later Christian
influences, researchers agree that prior to Christian contact the Spokane people believed
in the existence of a spirit in each person that lived on beyond death. One researcher,
10 James Teit, working with the Spokane in 1930 is cited by Ross. Teit recorded oral
histories from Spokane people. On the issue of the soul he had this to say:
[I] obtained very little information about the beliefs regarding the soul and the
future state. My informants said that long ago the Indians had no knowledge of
what the whites call the “soul.” Besides the body, people knew nothing else
belonging to a person except shadow, which they believed survived after death.
(Ross 18).
This shadow, also referred to as a spirit appears to be the basis for spirituality among the
Spokane. Hotly debated, however, is where that spirit went after death. There are several
theories among the Spokane people interviewed by anthropologists over the years. Ross
states that “Aboriginally there was only a vague notion of an afterlife or a ‘heaven’”
(Ross 18). Ross goes on to say that this ambiguity was useful to the missionaries who
could give them a definite idea about the afterlife, with a heaven and hell. As the Spokane
did not have strong beliefs concerning what came next, these beliefs, Ross argues, were
accepted more easily. Though perhaps not concerned with where their spirit would go
once they died, the Spokane took great pains to avoid “spirit sickness” through the
Winter Spirit Dance, which will be addressed more fully later.
In addition to the spirit within each person there were other spirits in the Spokane
belief system. The Spokane recognized a Great Creator-type of benevolent spirit,
sometimes referred to as Amotkan. Amotkan is associated with the sun and is the giver of
life. There were rituals, including a dance, that were dedicated to Amotkan. Amotkan was
the force of good helping them find food and have success in battles. Conversely, the
11 Spokane appeared to recognize a counteracting force of evil, known as the Black One
(Ruby 27). The Black One produced ill fortune for the Spokane.
The Spokane belief system has been referred to as a “guardian spirit religion.”
This is because of the mythology present referring to a time of mythical beings. At some
point a deity, probably Amotkan or a deity resembling him decreed that there would be
two classes of beings, animal and human, instead of one. However, from time to time it
would be possible for a spirit animal to become the guardian of a human (Ross 20). The
Winter Spirit Dance is dedicated to achieving such a vision (Crawford 216). Commune
with an individual’s spirit animal during this dance is the culmination of a yearly cycle of
prayers and spiritual needs; no other ceremony was as important (Crawford 214). So
while the Spokane may not have had a defined idea of heaven and hell, they held their
spiritual wellness in high regard.
Medicine Men and Prophets: Spiritual Leaders of the Spokane
If a Spokane man or woman felt his or her spirit was unwell or that he or she was
in danger of “spirit sickness” he or she would turn to a medicine man or woman.
Medicine men held many roles in Spokane spirituality: shaman, prophet, and advisor.
They led the all-important Spirit Dance and were responsible for the tribe’s success in
gathering food, fighting wards and warding off evil spirits (Ruby 28). This responsibility
was taken very seriously. If a medicine man failed to heal a sick believer, the grieving
family had the right to take the medicine man’s life (Ruby 29).
If someone was sick medicine men would act as healers, using a variety of
spiritual means to cure them. Their rituals included the use of bones, rosehips, chants,
12 songs, incantations and other herbs. Sometimes they would suck invisible evil-spirit darts
from a victim (Ruby 28). Or perhaps they would pass their hands over the victim to
locate the malevolent spirit and then massage the site to bring the power the surface.
Once they had pulled out the spirit, the medicine man would clasp their hands around the
spirit and submerge them in water to drown the spirit (Ross 24). Medicine men had a
whole host of means for curing spiritual illness. They were also reported to be able to go
to the land of the souls and bring back the soul of a sick person, thus restoring them to
health (Ross 18). One other healing method of note is the medicine man’s song. One
account of a medicine man healing someone refers to the shaman beginning to sing “one
of his songs” (Ross 30), indicating that a shaman would have many songs, for different
purposes. This idea of a healing song comes up in Alexie’s short story “Do Not Go
Gentle” and will be discussed at length later.
In the time just before whites made contact with the Spokane, right before the turn
of the 19th century, a rash of prophets sprang up in the surrounding area. Though some
have argued that these accounts of prophets may have been fabricated after contact with
whites, as many of them referred to a “new people” coming to them, the accounts of
prophets appear to be authentic (Smoak 60). One such prophet came from the Spokane
tribe and fits into the model of the prophet of the time. A detailed account of this story
can be found in The Spokane Indians, recorded by Robert Ruby and John Brown.
Yureerachen, a shaman brother of the chief of the Upper Spokane, was deeply mourning
the loss of his son during the Smallpox Plague of 1782. He blasphemed the Creator,
demanding to know why his innocent son was taken. Yureerachen’s brother said that he
should go the mountains and wait for a sign. If he did not receive one, his brother said
13 that the people would be as animals and disband their laws. On the mountaintop, in a
burst of light, he received a vision from the Creator. Rather than share his vision and have
it brushed off as the ravings of a man in mourning, he kept his vision to himself, saying
only that he had received affirmation of his faith in the Creator. In 1790 (approximately,
as the Indians did not have calendars), Mt St Helen erupted, raining down dry volcanic
ash on the terrified Spokane. This has been identified as the impetus for many of the
Plains Indian’s prophets of the time. Yureerachen began to spread his prophetic vision to
his people: “Soon there will come from the rising sun a different kind of man from any
you have yet seen, who will bring with them a book and will teach you everything and
after that the world will fall to pieces.” Ten years later, white traders would make contact
with the Spokane.
Other prophets in the surrounding areas had more apocalyptic messages, calling
the people to change how they were living before the world ended. This developed into
what was known as the “Prophet Dance.” According to Ruby, “It was a religious
movement of belief in the destruction and renewal of the world and the resurrection of
the dead” (Ruby 59). This religious idea was already established before missionaries
came to the Spokane. However, the new prophetic religion, Christianity, seemed to
complement the traditional Indian one, thus smoothing the way for the missionaries.
Dancing for their Souls
Of great importance to Spokane spiritual life is the practice of Spirit Dances. The
Winter Spirit Dance, hinted at by the missionaries who would come later, was the
culmination of the year of prayer. American Indian Religious Traditions states that tribes
14 across the region participated in some form of the Winter Spirit dance, including the
Spokane. The dance would be sponsored by someone who may have had a spirit
visitation, and then his family would announce it and invited others to participate. It
would be an opportunity to bring forth the problems faced by one’s family and sing and
dance in supplication of the spirit world. Beginning with someone coming forward to
give a “heart talk,” it would flow into the speaker sharing his suumesh song. “Suumesh”
means “medicine” or “spiritual power” (Frey 8). Therefore the song was seen as more
than just music, but in fact the singer sharing spiritual knowledge and providing a means
of healing for the listeners and dancers. Others would join in singing and drumming and
dancing. This would happen for several nights. Ruby goes more in depth about the
spiritual significance of this ritual, saying that it was during these dances that each Indian
tired to identify with their spirit (28). American Indian Religious Traditions says these
spirit types could include Driftwood spirit, Deer spirit, Grizzly Bear spirit, several birds,
but most importantly, Blue Jay spirit. Ruby confirms that those with Blue jay power held
dominance within the Spokane tribes.
With the important Winter Spirit dance held just once a year, there were several
other ritual dances throughout the year. Some of the most significant were the Buffalo
Dance before leaving to hunt buffalo in the south, the Scalp dance, associated with war,
the Sun dance to Amotkan, and the emerging Prophet dance. The prophet dance was
practiced by followers of the various prophets that interacted with the tribe in the 19th
century. Though some scholars thought of it as a stagnant ritual, Smoak argues that it is
“a dynamic, evolving element of American Indian spiritual life west of the Rockies
during a century of tremendous demographic, social and economic change” (Smoak 59).
15 The number of followers of the prophets fluctuated throughout the years, depending on
the political and spiritual climate of the tribe. In fact Smoak traces its popularity as a
means of charting change in the tribe. At moments of instability the dance would emerge
again. The way that the followers would return and then fade away from the ritual
exemplifies the spiritual freedom within the tribe that will be discussed later.
Mourning Rituals
The death of a loved one was a significant event for the Spokane. They had many
rites concerning the preparation of the corpse and grave site, as well as several events to
commemorate the deceased. Ross cites a passage from another field researcher working
with the Spokane, Edward Curtis, who said that mourners often went into the mountains
to fast and weep (Ross 49). Various forms of outward grieving are described by Ross,
including individuals cutting off all of his or her hair, or giving away all their possessions.
Ross describes at length the great care taken by the kinsmen of a recently
deceased person to ensure that the soul of the person did not linger and become a ghost.
Not only were bodies buried as quickly as possible, but no body parts should be left out
of the burial. If blood was shed it should be cleaned up with cloth and the cloth buried
with the body. This idea still exists in modern Spokane religion, as they shun organ
donation. One documented instance of this involves an infant who died from SIDS and in
the autopsy process, the brain was removed. The coroner did not tell the parents until
later that the brain was still being tested, and the family experienced great emotional
distress that the brain was missing from the body during the burial (McNeel 2).
16 A year after the burial the ceremonial give away is held. Ross describes this as a
final farewell feast that consists of giving away the possessions of the deceased and the
recipients giving speeches or singing songs of praise about them. American Indian
Religious Traditions cites this as a Coeur d’Alene practice, but it appears to exist with the
Spokane tradition as well. Sometimes the deceased had expressed which possessions
should be given to which person, but other times the surviving family would decide, most
often the oldest son. Eulogies were common before contact with missionaries, but
reinforced by missionaries (Ross 49). Speeches could be given by anyone in attendance
and ranged from humorous to dramatic and inspiring. There was an alternative to a
spoken testimonial: an individual mourner could sing one of the man death songs. Ross
described these songs as “individualized, unharmonized melodies in free rhythm often
commencing softly and becoming louder and more dramatic as other participants join in
singing” (54). Alexie draws upon this idea in “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake
Church,” as Frank’s songs reflect his grieving process.
IV. Christianity Introduced and Intermingled
The White Man Cometh
Just as the Plain’s Indians’ prophets had said, a new people came into their land.
Initial contact was made by French Canadian fur trappers shortly after 1800 and the
Spokane began a regular trade with them around 1810 (Malinowski 473). The initial
contact was friendly and trade posts were set up in the traditional land of Spokane. It is
possible that the fact that these white men were playing out a prophecy that would have
been well known to the Spokane may have aided the traders in their relations with the
17 Indians (Ruby and Brown 39). Yureerachen, the Spokane’s own prophet had told them
“they had to accept the white men, that they would be friends to the Spokane” (Ruby and
Brown 32). This may explain why the men of the tribe felt that knowledge of white
customs was important in the men who led them.
Without guidance by missionaries other than the trappers the Spokane had begun
to form their own ways of practicing Christianity. They would meet in the chief’s hut on
Sundays to learn, sing and pray. A trader gave them a religious picture that they would
place in the center and then the worshippers would kneel before it. Then the chief would
lead a prayer asking the Maker to protect them and bring them to Him and save them
from the Black One “down below” (Ruby and Brown 54). This worship was observed by
the members of the Hudson Bay Company when they visited in the early 1820s. Even
with just minimal instruction from the traders the Spokane had already translated their
ideas about spirits like Amotkan and the Black One and fit them into the Christian
framework. The basis for a duality in the spirit world was already there and this eased the
transition to Christian ideas about heaven and hell.
In 1824 the Hudson Bay Company’s Red River settlement played host to two sons
of the area’s chiefs. The boys were renamed for company officials and henceforth known
as “Spokane Garry” and “Kootenay Pelly” (Smoak 66), after the Company’s Governor
baptized them. After five years of schooling the two boys, now men, spoke English and
carried a King James Bible, New Testament and Book of Common Prayer of the Church
of England. Returning to his tribe, Spokane Garry was highly respected for his
knowledge of white people. Added to that was the fact that his father, the former chief
had just died and the tribe wanted a youthful leader. Garry became a chief of his people
18 and started sharing his religious knowledge as taught by the Anglicans. He was aided in
his teachings by the compatibility of his message with that of the prophet Yureerachen.
His knowledge of Christianity gave him influence over the nearby Nez Perce. Over the
next few years Garry would actively encourage Christian teaching, establishing a church
with prayer and teaching on Sundays. He taught them prayers, hymns, the Ten
Commandments, and the proper conduct commanded by Jesus in the Bible so that they
may be accepted into Heaven when they died. They eagerly sent men East to request
missionaries be sent to them. Until the Protestant missionaries arrived the Spokane
furthered their knowledge of Christianity by asking the Catholic French Canadian
trappers who lived near them and sometimes intermarried. This was the first knowledge
the Spokane had of “Black robes” or Catholic Jesuit priests who would set up a mission
sometime after the Protestants.
Eventually missionaries came into the area. Though the initial missionaries were
surveying the people to see if they would be accepting of missionaries, they did not
realize that the Spokane had previous knowledge of the Gospels. Even though they talked
with Spokane Garry they remained unaware it. But they were so eagerly welcomed that
two couples of missionaries were assigned to the tribe in 1838, Elkanah and Mary Walker
and Cushing and Myra Eells. The Eells and Walkers were sent by the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, who represented Congregationalists, Presbyterians,
and Reformed Churches. Elkanah and Mary kept diaries and sent many letters that have
been recovered and show insight into the white perspective of Spokane religion, though
they did not understand many of the customs. Indeed their lack of knowledge of the
language of the Spokane, Salish, would impede much of their ministry. Shortly after their
19 arrival the famed “Black robes” would arrive and set up a Catholic mission nearby. The
two missions used different tactics to gain followers. The Protestant mission was strict
about the Spokane men marrying multiple women, but the Jesuits would be more flexible.
Then on another aspect of religious life the Jesuits would be very strict. The Protestant
mission managed to create a 16-page book that could be used for teaching letters,
numbers, simple sentences and stories and eventually stories taken from the Bible in the
language of the Spokane. The leader of the Catholic mission suggested that they use
common phrasing so that the Catholic mission could use it also, but Walker, the
Protestant mission leader, did not agree (Ruby and Brown 74). These two mission
stations would be in conflict until the 1870s (Malinowski 475). By then they each had
enough of a foothold among the Spokane that they were no longer in competition.
Though the Spokane had eagerly awaited the missionaries, by the time they
arrived much of the enthusiasm had waned. Even Garry had transitioned back to more
traditional beliefs. Though he would give talks and meet with the missionaries, he did so
with less and less frequency. While the missionaries wanted to continue using Garry for
his knowledge of both Spokane and English language, eventually they gave up on him as
a bad example. The Indians were content to hear the missionaries and incorporate their
teachings into their current state of living, rather than discard one belief for another. Both
the Catholic and Protestant missions continued to gain followers, but they were
continually disappointed in the rarity of a complete conversion to their ways. Often they
would see greater numbers during the colder season when the Indians were short on food,
clothing or medicine (Ruby and Brown 75). In 1847, the discontent that had been
spreading amongst the area’s tribes erupted and the neighboring Cayuse Indians attacked
20 a separate mission that was in their area. The Spokane rushed to the aid of their teachers,
promising that the Cayuse would have to kill them before they could get near their
missionaries. Eventually the Walkers and Eells would be forced to leave by their
missionary organization. Other missionaries would come to the area intermittently for
decades to come.
The original missions made a lasting impact on the Spokane. Government reports
in 1920, almost hundred years after Garry’s baptism, found that 250 Spokane professed
Catholic belief and 275 believing in the Protestant church. Today, there are three
churches on the Spokane reservation: Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Joseph
Church bother Catholic, and the Presbyterian West End Church ("Spokane Reservation,
Washington"). The long lasting effects of these missionaries can be seen in the rituals that
have evolved to include Christian ideas, described in the next section.
Traditional Mingles with Christianity
From the introduction of Christian beliefs the Spokane always combined beliefs
and made compromises. They did not cast off their traditional beliefs for the religion
taught by the missionaries. The Sun god Amotkan was melded with the Christian God of
Abraham. The Spokane Black One was found in the devil who tempts all believers to evil.
Christianity added new layers to these already existing spirits of the Spokane. Now the
Black One lived in Hell, rather than just in the amorphous world of spirits. When
Spokane Indians died, now they might hope to go to Heaven, rather than some undefined
place for spirits who are to be rewarded. Ross details how hard it became within just fifty
years of the missionaries arrival to distinguish between Spokane ideas about the soul
21 from what they were taught by white people. The other researchers who interviewed
Spokane Indians as early as 1904 struggled to get tribal elders to remember the beliefs as
they existed before being altered by the missionaries. Though they would have been just
children when the first missionaries were active, already the beliefs were hard to
distinguish (Ross 17-20).
One incident described towards the end of Ruby’s Spokane Indians exemplifies
the freedom with which modern Spokane Indians can shift between spiritual traditions. In
1965, a Catholic woman died, but her Protestant family members wanted to hold the
service in the Presbyterian Church. So the Catholic Priest agreed to give the funeral
service in a Protestant Church. Then the woman was buried in Catholic cemetery and the
families members went to a funeral feast, reminiscent of the traditional Spokane funeral
feast. In this way the woman’s personal beliefs were honored, her family honored her in
the way they wish, and their heritage was celebrated also. Even the spiritual leaders,
priests and the pastor of the Presbyterian Church were flexible in making this mixed faith
ceremony possible. (Ruby and Brown 308).
Author Sherman Alexie is a product of this comingling of ideas about spirituality.
Raised on the Spokane reservation, and part Coeur d’Alene, he is certainly aware of the
traditional beliefs and ceremonies of the Spokane (Campbell 4). But he attended a Jesuit
college and is a self proclaimed Catholic. He said in an interview, “I still am heavily
Catholic- and Christian-influenced" (Campbell 11). This influence is highly evident in his
writing. He refers to Jesus, priests, confessors, penance and many other Christian ideas
throughout the journeys of his Spokane characters. These characters, like Alexie himself,
draw on Spokane tradition and Christian ideas as they find their way through the world.
22 Like the modern Spokane who has a Catholic priest perform the funeral service in a
Protestant Church, then bury their loved one in the Catholic cemetery, and finally host a
traditional funeral feast, Alexie’s characters draw on several ideologies to resolve conflict.
The traditional of picking and choosing and mixing beliefs creates a spiritual free zone,
where the participants can be creative and make compromises in order to be successful in
achieving their goals.
V. Literary Analysis of Ten Little Indians
Healing with Hybridity in “Do Not Go Gentle”
One of the most shocking images in Ten Little Indians is the couple waving a
giant vibrator named “Chocolate Thunder” over their sick child in the ICU. “Do Not Go
Gentle” is one of the most controversial stories in the collection. The reader is unprepared
for the parents to take that kind of action. Though the reader accepts that the parents are
playing on drums and physically beating a spirit they call “Mr. Grief,” nothing in the
stereotype of either Indians or grieving parents lays a foundation for bringing a sex toy
into the healing ritual. It seems so obscene and irrational at first glance. But upon close
observation, the entire story is jammed packed with spiritual action on the part of the
parents. They are desperate to save their child and try a wide variety of methods for
healing him in just a few pages. The parents pull from both Christianity and Spokane
traditional beliefs while in a state of crisis and in doing so not only gain much comfort
from the action they can take, but eventually credit their spiritual activity with healing
their son.
23 Present, even in the first paragraph, is a mixture of traditional beliefs and
Christianity. Though the baby’s sickness is brought on by everyday means, accidentally
suffocating himself with his crib mattress, from there the spirits come into play. The
father blames Mr. Grief for his son’s continued state of coma. Mr. Grief appears to be the
modern incarnation of the Black One from traditional Spokane beliefs, who is the source
of misfortune for mankind. The child’s sickness ceases to be the natural effect of an
everyday accident and becomes a “spirit sickness” that can only be cured by preventing
Mr. Grief from further harming the child. While acknowledging that Mr. Grief is causing
their child’s illness, the father refers to his son as “our little blue baby Jesus,” (Alexie 96),
because the doctors kept bringing him back to life. The spiritual world of the parents,
therefore, has room for traditional spirits and the Christian Messiah. By even casually
referring to the unnamed baby as Jesus, the protagonist reveals more than just knowledge
of Christianity. Jesus is the savoir of his people, their only means of salvation and
defeating death. To parents a child is symbolic of defeating death as well. The child lives
on after them, carrying on their name and DNA. The sickness of the child threatens to
take away their means of defeating death by raising a child to live on after them. The
child is their Messiah and this seemingly casual reference early on in the narrative sets up
the drastic measures the parents take to cure their child.
Though their child is in a coma the parents are not idle. As the doctors use
machines to keep the baby alive, the father speaks of warding off Mr. Grief. They do this
by yelling at Mr. Grief as well as physically beating him off. In this action they take on
the traditional role of the medicine man who can commune with spirits and defend their
people from malevolent spirits. The father yells in the face of his wife when he sees Mr.
24 Grief behind her eyes, and this works for a period of time. However, keeping Mr. Grief at
bay is just part of the solution. A coma was seen as a particularly vulnerable position for
a Spokane Indian to be in. While in a coma, your spirit could travel to the land of the
souls and sometimes would stay there forever (Ross 34). Though the parents spent their
days singing honor songs to their child, it did not appear to be helping. This was a
common practice for a shaman during healing rituals. A shaman would know many songs
to sing in different situations. The parents are acting as a shaman to their child, trying to
cure sickness through spiritual songs. They gained some comfort from it, but it wasn’t
enough to heal their child, yet. The parents needed to take action before their child was
lost to the spirit world.
Soon after, the father is inspired to visit a toy shop to buy something for his child.
He says he felt “religious about his mission” (Alexie 99). This feeling may have stemmed
from the fact that he had come up with another way to help his child. The methods so far
were keeping Mr. Grief at bay, but not healing the child. Something else needed to be
tried and now he had been inspired. Little did he know he was not headed for a children’s
toy store, but a sex-toy store. Though he admits to being somewhat shocked and
embarrassed, he expresses that he did not want to appear like a frightened Christian. He
draws on Christian beliefs, but he does not feel restricted by the sexual taboos often
associated with Christianity. In fact, upon seeing the Chocolate Thunder for the first time,
he heard the music from 2001: Space Odyssey playing and knew he had found the
miracle he was looking for. Chocolate thunder is described as “dark brown and fifteen
inches long and needed a nine-volt battery” (Alexie 100). It’s hardly the instrument of a
miracle that one might expect. In fact, Chocolate Thunder is not only out of the mold for
25 Christianity but also for traditional Spokane healing rituals. Medicine men used natural
aids, bones, herbs, water, fire, but almost never used anything man made, particularly
something using technology of any sort. Ross says “With few exceptions, non-Indian
technology was formerly never associated with any sacred rituals involving supernatural
power” (25). So the vibrator was definitely not something that had a foothold in Indian
healing ceremonies.
However, after deconstructing the idea of the vibrator, it begins to makes sense.
What is a vibrator but a symbol of manhood and procreation? It is a huge phallus that
immediately and undeniably recalls sex and sex is a creative force. While Mr. Grief is
attacking their child with all of the powers of a spirit, the father finds the only force he
has a human, sex. The father says that it may have been blasphemous or stupid or useless,
“but we were all sick and tired of waiting for our babies to die” (Alexie 100). The key is
that all of these people were hoping to find cures for their children. The victims were not
sick people, but sick progenitors. They are desperate for their children to get well and
carry out their traditions, and whether they are Indian or not they will do whatever it
takes. If this means bucking tradition and using a piece of modern technology during a
tradition healing ritual, they are willing to try it. Their practice of mixing ideologies and
making compromises has prepared them for even this extreme level of spiritual
combination.
The wife is the character who really takes on the role of medicine woman in the
end. Grabbing the giant vibrator, she turns it on and begins using it to beat on her
powwow drums while singing a song to their child. The father says she truly believed this
would bring their son back. One of the ways of waking someone from a coma was to call
26 their name loudly so they would hear it and come back from the land of the souls. (Ross
17-70) After their child wakes up, the wife maintains that their son heard the “magic call
of Chocolate Thunder” (Alexie 101). The husband and wife believe in miracles and songs
and their own power to take spiritual action to heal their child, even when a week of
million dollar medical attention had not succeeded.
Ultimately the parents are successful. Their son awakens and Mr. Grief is sent
away for good. When one method of healing didn’t work they tried another and another
and another, until finally their son woke up. Though there may have been any number of
practical explanations for why their son was healed, the parents believed it was due to
their action. They were not content to be idle and not confined by one religious tradition
guiding them. They were able to try and try again until something worked. The Spiritual Quest in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a true quest story. The protagonist, Jackson
Jackson, introduces himself as one of many homeless Indians. Tired of talking about his
past, he diminishes himself to the reader. He says he doesn’t want to talk about his soul
anymore. His past is not important, so perhaps he is not important either. However, once
he finds his quest, he has finds his purpose and the reader is drawn in. He may not
outright talk about his soul anymore, but the reader follows him on a significant spiritual
journey. Though he is a homeless man, late in life, he still has a chance to find fulfillment,
if he can prove himself worthy. Jackson goes on a quest spanning two religious
ideologies and in the end finds the nirvana that had eluded him so far in life.
The pawnshop appears magically; Jackson says he had never seen it before. Yet
inside is the key to his spiritual well being: his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia.
27 The keeper of the regalia is the pawnbroker. This unnamed man acts as the God-figure in
the story. He acts in ways that can be compared to the Christian God. The pawnbroker
holds Jackson’s redemption in his possession, he makes the rules and he is the ultimate
judge. At several points in the quest the pawnbroker could have said no and ended the
whole journey, but he proves himself to be a merciful god to Jackson. When Jackson
proves that the regalia is his grandmother’s, the pawnbroker believes him. Though he
cannot just give Jackson the regalia for free, he makes it possible for Jackson to get it
back fairly. He offers to sell it back for one dollar less than he paid for it, nine-hundred
and ninety-nine dollars. The pawnbroker says it would be moral to lose one dollar. He is
not only sitting in judgment over Jackson but also living righteously himself. The
pawnbroker even provides Jackson with the means to begin his quest by giving him
twenty dollars. Just as Jesus laid out the rules and offers spiritual comfort to his followers,
the pawnbroker gives the rules and offers help.
Jackson accepts the deal laid out by the pawnbroker and sets out on what he calls
a quest. This quest has significance in the Spokane tradition as well as the Christian
tradition. Spirit or vision quests were common for young Spokane men. The goal of this
quest was to find a guardian spirit who would guide them. Then the man could commune
with this spirit during the Winter Spirit dance to benefit their spiritual well-being.
Jackson’s quest is guided by a desire to honor the spirit of his grandmother. He is spirit
sick and thinks this may help him feel whole again. The quest holds significance in
Christianity as played out by the knights seeking the Holy Grail. This well known story
has been told and retold by many people, but the basics remain the same. The knights set
out to find to the mythic Holy Grail, a cup that held Jesus’ blood. They must prove
28 themselves worthy of receiving this holy relic. Only the pure at heart achieve the goal.
Jackson is also trying to prove himself worthy of receiving the regalia. Receiving the
Grail was a sure sign of spiritual redemption. If Jackson can prove himself worthy to
receive the regalia, he too will have redemption.
The significance of the regalia is multilayered. First, it is a symbol of his heritage.
Jackson identifies it by finding the yellow bead, the purposeful flaw that his family used
to mark their clothes. He knows it is his family’s from afar, but his ability to recall the
way his grandmother would have marked it is what impresses the white pawnshop owner.
Jackson said his family had been looking for it for fifty years. This quest is in his blood.
Second, the regalia would be worn during the Spirit Dance, which was the culmination of
the year’s prayers and spiritual journey. These dances considered essential to the spiritual
health of the tribe and the individual. The loss of the clothing his grandmother wore
during this important rite would have been significant. Jackson goes so far as to wonder if
his grandmother’s heartbreak over the stolen regalia caused her cancer: “Maybe the
cancer started in her broken heart and then it leaked into her breasts. I wonder if I could
bring my grandmother back to life if I brought back her regalia” (Alexie 176). This brings
the final significance to the regalia. By proving himself worthy of the regalia, he would
gain spiritual power. Like a shaman calling back a spirit from the spirit world, Jackson
would call her back to him. He would feel the support of the grandmother he had honored
by finding her stolen regalia. In short, finding the regalia will fulfill the quest of his
family, bring him spiritual wellness and honor his grandmother.
The pawnshop owner lays out the terms of the quest for Jackson: Nine-hundred
ninety-nine dollars in 24 hours. Jackson is motivated by his Indian heritage and beliefs.
29 But the Pawnshop owner places the quest in the modern world. Though it is a spiritual
quest, Jackson must interact with the material world in order to succeed. This is first
departure from Spokane beliefs. A spiritual journey would be solitary and consist of
going into the forest until a spirit or vision of a spirit appeared. However, Jackson’s quest
at its very core is a quest to be worthy to receive the regalia. One of his companions
suggests that he go to the cops, because the regalia was stolen and he shouldn’t have to
pay to get it back. But Jackson refuses. He has bought into the idea of the quest and
doesn’t want to defile it. He wants to be worthy. It is the first time he has cared about
anything in a long time and he doesn’t want to waste it. Later a cop offers to help him and
even though half of his time is gone and he doesn’t have even a fraction of what he needs
he still refuses: “I want to win it back like a knight” (Alexie 189). Jackson says he
believes in magic and so he perseveres.
Like any knight on a quest, Jackson hits speed bumps. In addition to giving the
money away and spending it on food, he wastes the majority of his money alcohol.
Alexie plays with the idea of the alcoholic Indian here, with Jackson himself saying there
are too many alcoholic Indians and yet falling into the same traps. When a cop brings him
to the drunk tank, Jackson jokes that it’s full of drunk Indians, even while he is still
inebriated. After getting into a fight with the bartender at the end of a night of heavy
drinking, Jackson blames his injuries on Mr. Grief. This the appearance of a bad spirit
leading the hero astray draws upon Christian and Spokane beliefs. Both believe in evil
spirits that can distract a person from doing what is right. At the end of the twenty-four
hours Jackson has had more setbacks than lucky breaks, and he is nowhere close to
having enough money, but he goes back to the pawnbroker for judgment.
30 Over the course of the quest, over one hundred and fifty dollars came and went
into Jackson’s life. He got money from the pawnbroker and the good cop. He won some
money on a scratch ticket. He sold newspapers. But he also spent the money on food and
shots for strangers and even gave twenty dollars to a convenience store worker. When he
arrives back at the mythic pawnshop the next day, he exactly the same amount of money
he started out with, five dollars. The pawnbroker takes his time thinking about it,
inquiring if it’s the same five dollars and if Jackson worked hard for it. The deal was
$999.00, not hard work, but the pawnbroker accepts this as just as good. Though the
quest appeared to be material, the pawnbroker deems Jackson’s spiritual struggle during
the quest worthy of redemption. This is the kind of mercy that Jesus often spoke of his
Father having. In Christianity, it is often preached that humans cannot achieve perfection,
but one can take action to live as well as they can and that is worth something. Jackson’s
work toward getting the regalia is his attempt to live a worthy life. Jackson is given the
regalia and with it he gains spiritual healing. He feels his grandmother in the regalia and
as he puts it on and begins to dance, he feels her presence. He succeeded in calling her
spirit back to him and he is made whole and blissful.
Jackson went on a quest in two ways. He recreated the quest for the Grail and he
went on his own spirit quest to find the guiding spirit of his grandmother. He was lost at
sea, homeless in Seattle, wandering. Then he went on a mythic quest and found bliss.
Both Christian and Spokane ideas guided him and led him to the nirvana he achieved
ultimately.
Mourning and Moving On in “What Ever Happened to Frank Snake Church?”
31 Loss of a loved one can be one of the most disorienting experiences in a person’s
life. In “Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?” the main character, Frank Snake
Church is trying figure out how to live after the death of his father. Throughout the story
it becomes clear that he did not deal with his mother’s death in a healthy way. His
mourning ritual involves ritual sacrifice to honor his ancestors but he also seeks out
mentors with clear Christian influences. Frank is lost and he has to draw on everything he
knows, Spokane traditions and Christian spirituality in order to figure out how to live
again.
Frank Snake Church is a self proclaimed agnostic. While climbing a mountain his
heart fibrillates cause him to fall off a cliff and then he starts walking again and feels
electric jolts up his spine before collapsing into convulsions and vomiting. There in a
state of humiliation and confusion he sees a vision of his father dying. Frank simply
accepts this vision as “simple and secular truth” (Alexie 197) and the strength of this
belief allows him to get up and walk five miles to his truck and drive to his father. As he
walks he wonders why his is so worried about his father’s soul: “Frank didn’t believe in
spirits, in souls, in the afterlife” (Alexie 197). Nevertheless, he needs to perform the
burial ceremonies and nothing is going to stop him, even his lack of faith in them. Frank
believes he is the only one who can restore his father’s honor. Frank appears to think that
he has no faith, but he keeps acting like he believes in something. Perhaps he believes in
his father and in honor and that is enough to convince him to perform ritual and spiritual
acts for his father.
As he drives towards his father he eulogizes him in rehearsal for the speech he
will say at the funeral. As discussed before, this was practiced prior to missionary contact
32 among the Spokane, but missionaries encouraged this ritual (Ross 49). The three main
focuses of his eulogy are on his father’s commitment to the Catholic faith, his father’s
commitment to his wife, Frank’s mother, and their family’s love of basketball. These are
the three things that will drive Frank after his father’s eventual death. In this mock eulogy,
his last lines foreshadow the struggle ahead as he says, “I will have to live the rest of my
life with a failed son’s regrets. I don’t even know what I’m going to do now” (Alexie
200). When he gets to his father’s house, his father is fine. More than a year later Frank’s
father dies suddenly and Frank is unsure what to make of his vision. Now it is time to live
out what he had feared as he drove to his father shaky and covered in his own vomit.
Frank doesn’t quite reach his expectations of himself at his father’s actual funeral.
While in the car after his vision he eulogized his father for almost two full pages, he
found himself unable to speak at the funeral. He stands silent for five minutes before
finally saying simply, “I love my father” (Alexie 202). As in his mock eulogy a year prior,
Frank does not know what to do. He goes home and weeps, as some Spokane were said
to do. They removed themselves from the tribe and went into the mountains to mourn in
solitude (Ross 49). Alone he completely disintegrates. He lies in his father’s bed to smell
his sheets. Most disturbing he gathers his father’s hair from the drain and eats it. He is
aware that what he is doing is crazy, but he can’t stop. His forging his own mourning
ritual, a departure from both Spokane tradition and his father’s Catholicism. Finally he
begins to wail a song, just as they would have at the funeral feast in Spokane tradition
(Ross 54). His song is “Come back, Daddy,” (Alexie 204) over and over again, until he
falls asleep. This song is a desperate cry and shows that he has wants to find a way to
hold on to his father rather than let him go.
33 Part of Frank’s grieving process is ritual sacrifice. When his mother died, 22 years
prior, he stopped playing basketball although he had a bright future in the sport. Now he
formulates a new plan: “He’d given up this game to honor his mother, and now he was
reclaiming it to honor his father. He wanted both of them to rise from the dead” (Alexie
204). In this way he could gain some control. He would have a purpose to his grief. If he
could play basketball again like he did when he was young he could honor his parents
and maybe that would bring them back to him. He gives up everything else in his life,
quitting his job and cleaning out everything from his house except the essentials. It was
not uncommon for the survivors of a recently deceased person to give away all of their
possessions as a way to honor the dead. But it was a sign of extreme grief (Ross 20).
Though previously a man of little faith, he embarks on a spiritual mission of sacrifice and
penance and physical punishment in the hopes of bringing back his parents. He is acting
like a shaman trying to bring back the dead and his magic is basketball. Now he just
needs a guide.
Frank is on a spiritual mission, but he needs a physical trainer, so he goes to a
gym. Fortunately, he finds a personal trainer who is as dedicated to his cause as a priest is
to the faith. Russell is so committed to training people that he has to hide it from his
colleagues and clients. He secretly thinks of his gym as a church, he keeps the total of
weight lost by all of his clients a secret sacred number. Frank was looking for someone to
get his body in shape, but he found a spiritual mentor, whose motto, “Stronger body,
stronger mind, stronger spirit,” (Alexie 206) will hopefully prove true for Frank. Frank
says that he and Russell are priests and confessors, each of them guiding the other. Their
relationship is mutual, each bringing a dedication to their cause. Frank’s success is
34 Russell’s too. Russell pushes Frank, but also tells him when enough is enough. He helps
Frank control his grief and channel it so it does not overcome him. They have given
themselves a deadline of one year to get Frank back in the prime of basketball skill.
Frank is doing well physically, but he is not gaining any ground spiritually. His
training is to honor his parents, but he ignores the rest of his life. He has no close friends,
no lovers, just Russell, basketball and the memory of his parents. He plays pickup
basketball with people around town and he is doing well. But what does this prove?
Eventually, someone calls him out. While playing a loudmouth known as “The
Preacher,” Frank is questioned on his motives. He tries to explain that he is playing for
his parents, that “it’s an Indian thing” (Alexie 228), but the Preacher does not accept this.
He says Frank is playing for himself. The Preacher is right. He is the archetypal fool, who
may be just joking, but who speaks the truth as no one else can. Frank is playing so that
he will feel better about his parent’s death. But what good does it really do his death
parents that their 40 year old son can play ball again? Frank has gotten buried in his
journey. He has reached a standstill, he is good but he hasn’t proven anything and he
certainly hasn’t moved on. The Preacher forces him to look at himself and see what he
has become. He didn’t live up to his potential when he was young, but playing basketball
with people in the neighborhood isn’t going to change that. The Preacher says that
playing for nostalgia like this is a cancer and it will kill him. This moment of realization
sends Frank into a crisis of faith. He goes home and starves himself for three weeks until
Russell breaks in to find him, half dead.
The Preacher’s sermon of devastating truth finally sends Frank in the right
direction. It is interesting that the two people guiding Frank are Russell, who he calls a
35 priest and a man known as “the Preacher.” These two titles refer to the leaders of two
different churches, the priest would lead a Catholic church and the preacher would lead a
Protestant church. Frank’s father was Catholic and Russell helps him to honor his father
the only way he knows how. But the Preacher who represents a similar faith system, but
with some inarguable differences, refutes this method of grieving as unhealthy. Just as
Martin Luther spoke out against the Catholic Church selling salvation, the Preacher calls
into question the ritual that Frank has bought into. Eventually Frank has to move on from
a method of dealing with grief that was not working. But he has one final act to perform
for his parents.
He wants to play with the polished, graceful basketball team at the community
college he begins attending. He says it’s a way for him to be a good son to his parents. He
gets one chance to prove that he can keep up. At first he struggles, but eventually he
almost pulls even with the young players. Then he suffers a devastating injury. He
collapses in pain and cries out. But in a moment of epiphany, he fulfills his responsibility
to his parents. He did all that he could and now it is time to move on. He sings on final
mourning song to his parents, “Mother, Father, way, ya, hi yo, good-bye, good-bye”
(Alexie 243). In this song he lets them go, recalling the funeral feast that would happen a
year after someone died. It is not the desperate cry of denial that the initial song was. This
song is the culmination of a year of mourning and sacrifice and trying to find a way to
move on. It is the final goodbye and now he can fully move on. He is going to be fine.
It was not enough for Frank to focus on honoring his parents, he needed to move
on, to challenge himself, fail and be forced to find a new way to live. His desire to honor
his parents in an Indian sacrificial way got him on the road to a new life and the Russell,
36 as a priest, and the Preacher each did their part to guide him. In the end a self proclaimed
agnostic had drawn on several spiritual ideologies to find a way to let go of his parents
and live in the world.
IV. Conclusion
Characters in a state of crisis will do just about anything to get out of their
situation. They will go on quests, do something taboo, even go temporarily insane.
Alexie’s characters take drastic action that seems random and sometimes a little crazy.
Alexie’s background as a Spokane Indian, with knowledge of traditional beliefs as well
as Christian beliefs gives his characters many options. They follow in the long tradition
of their people as they pull upon two spiritual traditions and make a new tradition that
resolves the conflict in their world. It is this freedom to act and react to their situation
that makes them successful.
Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. Ten Little Indians: Stories. New York: Grove Press, 2003.
Balagangadhara, S. N. "How to Speak for the Indian Traditions: An Agenda for the
Future." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73.4 (2005): 987-1013.
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Bender, Courtney, and Wendy Cadge. "Constructing Buddhism(s): Interreligious
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