http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/03/09/native-american-write
r-details-personal-struggle

Native American Writer Details Personal Struggle

March 9, 2009 - 12:00am
By Byungkwan Park

“Just so you know, I got here because of rage,” said Sherman Alexie, an
award-winning Native American writer and occasional comedian, in a
half-serious, half-facetious manner at the Statler Auditorium in his Friday
evening lecture, “The Partially True Story of the True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian.”

Alexie’s first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian won the 2007 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. The
lecture, which was based on this novel, presented an overview of the
author’s childhood and development as a writer.

Alexie frequently elicited laughter from the nearly 600-person audience as
he often joked about the many tragedies of his younger years.

As a six-month-old baby, Alexie needed brain surgery due to an abnormal
accumulation of water in his brain, a condition called hydrocephalus.
Although he survived the surgery, he suffered seizure throughout his
childhood. The sickness, however, was only one part of Alexie’s rough
childhood.

“I was sick, very sick, and very poor on top of that … Even your food was
constantly reminding you of how poor you were,” Alexie said.

Alexie grew up eating food provided by the government with his family on
the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Partly as a result
of the reservation’s impoverishment, Alexie developed a rather bitter
outlook on life as an adolescent.

According to Alexie, he was dehumanized constantly as a poor, disabled
Native American.

“I personally hate any philosophy that dehumanizes human beings,” Alexie
said.

True Story: Native American writer Sherman Alexie speaks about his personal
experience in Statler Auditorium on Friday.True Story: Native American
writer Sherman Alexie speaks about his personal experience in Statler
Auditorium on Friday.

“You don’t live like that and not collect pounds and pounds of rage,” he
added.

Alexie pointed to the audience to address and belittle existing Native
American stereotypes.

“You thought you were the ones colonized,” Alexie said sarcastically. “I
wish we were the people that you think we are, and I wish you were the
people in the Declaration of Independence.”

The cultural and political circumstances of imperialism that promoted the
perceived white superiority and inferiority of America’s indigenous peoples
had wrapped the young Alexie in layers of shame.

“People tell me [I should be happy] because I’m successful and I love what
I do. But they forget that it comes out of damage,” Alexie said.

Everything changed for the teenage Alexie, however, when he realized that
he had the choice of leaving the reservation and attending a nearby,
prominently white high school in the 1980s. Yet, due to his heavy,
indigenous accent and the color of his skin, he was initially laughed at
and mocked by other students.

“I was so scared of them,” he said.

The beginning days of high school posed Alexie the toughest challenges to
his identity. He was alienated by his own people who felt betrayed by
Alexie for leaving the reservation, and he was initially forced to cope
with the racist attitudes of white students in his high school.

Nevertheless, as Alexie began to befriend some white students, he
discovered that fear was one of the root causes of their racism.

“They literally thought I was going to pull out a bone arrow and shoot
them,” Alexie said.

Although Alexie struggled with stereotypes and preconceived notions of what
it meant to be Native American throughout his youth, he noted that the
people who had done the most damage to him were other Native Americans.

Alexie specifically addressed Native American youths in the audience,
telling them that it is “okay” to leave the reservation in search of a
better life, even amidst the criticisms of tribe members and other races.

Alexie received a wide, standing ovation from the audience at the end of
his lecture.

Many student members of the audience had become acquainted to Alexie in
high school through required readings.

“I was introduced to Sherman Alexie through my ethics study class in high
school, where we learned about the exploitation of Native Americans,” Anna
Chang ’12 said.

Brice Cook ’11 was also introduced to Alexie in high school and has
continued to read the author’s literary works. Cook thoroughly enjoyed
reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and felt that the
book really spoke to him as a student who has left all his friends back
home in Idaho to attend Cornell.

Fay Gougakis, a resident of Ithaca, was greatly impressed by Alexie’s
lecturing style.

“One thing that really stands out now [is that] this guy is really funny …
He’s so talented [and] so humorous. He blends the seriousness with comedy —
the skill of a true artist,” Gougakis said.

Alexie, a graduate of Washington State University, has appeared on Comedy
Central’s The Colbert Report and NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He wrote
and produced the 1999 film Smoke Signals, which won the Audience Award and
Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Alexie is currently
working on a screenplay of The Toughest Indian in the World, which he will
direct and co-produce, and a new adult novel Fire with Fire, which will be
published in 2010.

Alexie’s lecture was part of Cornell University Graduate School’s 2009
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin lecture series.