Old Shirts & New Skins by Sherman Alexie, and: First Indian on the Moon by Sherman Alexie, and: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (review)

Essay Reviews T il Old Shirts & New Skins. By Sherman Alexie. (Los Angeles: American Indian Studies Center/University ofCalifornia, 1993. 94 pages, $12.00.) First Indian on the Moon. BySherman Alexie. (NewYork: Hanging Loose Press, 1993. 128 pages, $20.00/$12.00.) The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. BySherman Alexie. (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993. 223 pages, $21.00. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. 223 pages, $12.00.) Many Native Americans have been proclaiming recently that their new weapons for the future will be their art. The proliferation of these weapons is vital, not onlyfor the survival of traditional cultures, butfor exposing the hard truths oftheir lives, which is the firststep in instigating change. Activist or not, Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian from Wellpinit, Washing­ ton, is a natural-born warrior quite adept at shaking things up. In these three volumes ofpoetry, prose and short stories, he continues his themes, from twoprevious books ofpoetry, ofexploring the paradoxes ofliving on and off the reservation, of home and family, love affairs, sorrow and loss, helplessness and forgiveness. Some of his stories are full of despair; others are downright bleak. His direct honesty prevails and we are required to think and listen and think again even aswe smile and laugh. He will not let us forget, well aware thatwithout memory, storieswill die. Alexie has the power of a riveting storyteller, along with pivotal timing at using humor at the exactmomentweneed it mostand expectitleast. Through­ out his work there’s a stubborn insistence on living by his creed: “Survival = Anger x Imagination.” His writing is deceptively minimalist and lucid in its simplicity, but there is nothing “easy”here. He refuses to allowus to relax. In Old Shirts if New Skinshisironyishoned to asharp edge. This bookisfull of poetry, vignettes and little lessons. His talent for frequently turning history upside down is illustrated when Crazy Horse, who is often resurrected, finds himselfin ludicrous situations. In “Indian Education”we learn that Crazy Horse came back to life in a storage room ofthe Smithsonian, his body rising from awooden crate mistakenlymarked ANONYMOUS HOPI MALE. In “Postcards to Columbus”he writes that “this historyand country/folded over itselflike aMobius strip.. . .Christopher Columbus,you are the mostsuccessful real estate agent/who ever lived, sold acres and acres ofmyth.”He also issues a warning: “Columbus, can you hear me overwhite noise/ofyour television set? Can you hear the ghosts ofdrums approaching?” 278 Western American Literature History, movies, politics, cable TV—his penchant for discovering the irony in these areas is notable. All are thrown without mercy into ‘The Marlon Brando Memorial Swimming Pool”: “I can’t believe it. This late in the 20th century and Dennis Banks/and Marlon Brando are eating/finger sandwiches out bythe swimming pool. This must be fiction. But, wait,/whatever happened to AIM?/Did theyall drown because Marlon refused to payfor a lifeguard?”He reiterates that “There are no mistakes on the reservation. The 20th century warrior relies/on HBO for hisvision/atthree in the morning.”Atthis point, it’s not too difficultto “Imagine Coyote accepts the Oscarfor lifetime achievement” nor to “Imagine the reservation metaphors: . . . pour whiskey into the pool/ until it smells like my kidney; . . . /Imagine the possibilities./. . . Imagine how our liveswill change.” Awell-meaningyetuseless monument, a typical swimming pool, becomes a symbol for dashed hopes and dreams, whose illusionary lure is ruinous. The only person who remains somewhat intact isVine Deloria,Jr., who has insisted all along that “therewas neverany waterin thepool.” FirstIndian on theMoon, avolume ofpoetry and prose, continues to expose so manyfraudulentillusions thattemptus allinAmericatoday. The filmmaking industryisagain hard-hitwith the fast-punching prose of‘The NativeAmerican Broadcasting System.”We are alerted to a news bulletin that Hollywood has “announced the establishment of a new category for this year’s Academy Awards: Best Performance by a Non-Native in a Native American Role. Nomi­ nees this year include Burt Lancaster, Charles Bronson, Trevor Howard, Burt Reynolds, and Kevin Costner.”Are we still seeing Indians as romantic symbols, not as real human beings? The current trend of interest in everything Indian has yet to prove otherwise. In both volumes of poetry, Alexie perfects an intriguing style, of his own...