The American Indian Quarterly

Romero, Channette.
Envisioning a "Network of Tribal Coalitions": Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead
The American Indian Quarterly - Volume 26, Number 4, Fall 2002, pp. 623-640

University of Nebraska Press

Channette Romero - Envisioning a "Network of Tribal Coalitions": Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead - The American Indian Quarterly 26:4 The American Indian Quarterly 26.4 (2002) 623-640 Envisioning a "Network of Tribal Coalitions" Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead Channette Romero Leslie Marmon Silko's second novel, Almanac of the Dead, attempts to overcome the limitations of the American Indian Movement by presenting readers with the model of "tribal internationalists," individuals who work with international alliances to reclaim their Indigenous land. In Almanac Silko suggests that cross-cultural spiritual coalitions made up of "tribal internationalists" would provide a more powerful means of combating the social, political, and economic injustice faced by American Indians (and many oppressed peoples around the world) than secular politics based on ethnicity and race alone. In a 1976 interview with Per Seyersted, given toward the end of the American Indian Movement's heyday, Silko critiques the secular organization for being "too similar to other American political groups." Silko implies that although some positive changes resulted from the American Indian Movement, it failed to bring about the total amelioration of injustice because it mimicked the oversimplifications and divisions of secular identity politics. She states, "I feel it is more effective to write a story... than to rant and rave. I think it is more effective in reaching...