Native American Lifestyle In The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven

Throughout the class, we have dived into many literature pieces that give insight into the inner workings of many Native Americans and what factors play into their cultural lifestyle. Out of all the many texts and passages, we have read; Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven represent the many possibilities that are created for Natives the best. In these stories, Alexie explain the hardships and life-changing decisions that are made on and off the reservations, In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight, Victor and the main characters are faced with challenges where they should be changing to better adapt but they aren’t and are just assimilating with similar culture of alcoholism and are just standing by while many opportunities pass by. With this in mind, many possibilities are shown throughout the whole book, we see many compromises of tradition, modern and traditional, we also see many hints of Victor's relationships whether it is with his parents or friends, lastly, you see many interpretations of culture conflicts within many events in the book, but all in all, Sherman Alexie describes the many different possibilities created within the Native American lifestyle in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Victor is from a Spokane Indian Reservation We first look into the aspects of their culture, one of them being tradition. Sherman Alexie mentions tradition in the story “A Drug Called Tradition”, he mentions the use of psychedelic mushrooms to have these very wicked visions of Native American history. It states “Victor, Thomas said. I can see you. God, you’re beautiful. You’ve got braids and you’re stealing a horse. Wait, no. It’s not a horse. It’s a cow.” While on the drugs, Thomas sees a vision of Victor with braids and stealing a black horse and then Victor experiences it for himself and all the boys have visions of each other and experience it for themselves. This shows how the use of the mushrooms for them helps gives a vision of each other and gives insight to the Spokane tradition although they don’t realize it. Tradition plays a big role in these stories and gives new possibilities as the traditional storytelling differs from the way the story is told here. Another example of tradition in Alexie’s stories is also in “A Drug Called Tradition”, Alexie shows another insight on the tradition, in this case, it's in shape and form of how they believe skeletons play an important part of their life as they paint the image of one's future and past and are made up of one's memories, dreams, and voices. This shows more of Spokane Tradition as this skeleton belief has been passed around and has been apart of their culture. “Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is walking one step in front of you… Indians never need to wear a watch because your skeletons will always remind you about the time. The past, the future, all of it is wrapped up in the now. That’s how it is. We are trapped in the now.” Sherman Alexie also mentions the watch deal because you can say that is referring to the many Indians that have been told this story as we can tell is believed by many.

Another aspect that can give us insight on the many possibilities that Sherman Alexie defines are the relationships described in the stories, right of the bat we are brought into “Every Little Hurricane”, this takes place at his parents New Year’s party where his uncles are having a brawl in his yard, and where he talks about the many “little storms” that have hindered his childhood difficult. This relationship of his uncles to Victor gives us insight into the disorderly conduct that happens in the family. “Victor could see his uncles slugging each other with such force they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly.” With this quote, it showcases the violent but yet brotherly behavior the uncles have with each other which can lead us to believe the relationship between the two and why Victor’s attitude toward this fight wasn’t as elevated as he implies “Witnesses. They were all witnesses and nothing more. For hundreds of years, Indians were witnesses to crimes of epic scale. Victor’s uncles were in the midst of a misdemeanor that would remain one even if somebody was to die.” This shows the importance of the history of Native Indians as it hints the history of past situations to this once fight between the uncles. Relationships play an important part in the telling of stories as they give the context to what will happen and what importance it is to that character. In this case, Victor’s father had a big impact on Victor as he left him for Phoenix after his motorcycle accident. Due to his father’s reckless actions, Victor’s mother provides emotional stability in his life as his father drifts farther and farther away from Victor, diminishing their once-thriving relationship. Victor even reminisces on his relationship with his father as one night he pictures a moment with his father, “Then on the night I missed my father most, when I lay in bed and cried, with that photograph of him beating that National Guard private in my hands, I imagined his motorcycle pulling up outside… Victor, my father yelled Lets go for a ride.” Although his father’s actions are very questionable, he still misses the thought of a father figure in his life.

Finally, the last aspect I will highlight is the cultural conflicts that happen throughout the book, with the book residing in a time where white culture is already assimilated into Native American lifestyle, Sherman Alexie shows many instances where it takes place. In the story “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore” Victor talks about the basic survivance of the Native Indians when merged with white culture. “Still, Indians have a way of surviving. But it's almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language and land rights. It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.” In this quote Victor speaks on the stereotypical depiction of Natives to whites, he mentions how the little things hurt such as a waitress refusing service based on the racist ideas planted into her head by the depictions on the media, other examples of this would be how Tonto is pictured on television and the Washington Redskins also, these stereotypes drive people to see all Indians as the same stereotype rather than see them for their individual self. Although having already been assimilated into white culture, Indians are dehumanized throughout the time when this book is taken place. Another example of cultural conflicts in this book would be in “Amusements”, this is where Victor, Sadie, and Dirty Joe are at a carnival where it is dominated by whites. Dirty Joe is passed out drunk and Victor and Sadie decide to pull what they think is an innocent prank on Dirty Joe by putting him on a rollercoaster while being intoxicated. This turns sour in an instant as a crowd is watching Dirty Joe laughing. “Twenty or thirty white faces, open mouths grown large and deafening, white eyes turned toward Sadie and me. They were jury and judge for the twentieth-century fancy dance of these court jesters who would pour Thunderbird wine into the Holy Grail.” This quote shows the imagery behind the situation Victor and Sadie placed Dirty Joe in, Alexie compares the entertainment of the hostile audience to fancy dancers and court jesters, this allows Alexie to depict the constant clashes of Native and White cultures. He also compares Thunderbird wine and the legend of the Holy Grail which Thunderbird represents the life on the reservation and the Holy grails refer to the legend in European culture, yet again a clash of cultures.

Altogether Sherman Alexie goes great lengths to showcase the many aspects of Native culture and it’s those aspects that create the many possibilities for Native culture, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven gives us an idea of how Native cultures differ from different periods of times, shows the importance of a relationship to a Native, and sheds lights on the many cultural conflicts that still happen today. The connections made to explain the many possibilities that are made are endless, we can assume that Native life can further separate itself from white culture as time goes on and its these stories that connect the many encounters that Natives experience throughout their life that help us sharpen our understanding of Native lifestyle.