Only The Ghosts Remain

One of Sherman Alexie’s obvious themes is the erosion of Native American culture due to white influence. In “Scalp Dance” this takes place in part because a white man is the one who paints a popular artistic representation of the tribe. He suppresses the real voice of his subject and even makes up details about her. Perhaps most devastingly, he would not allow his Native American subjects to smile, thereby omitting the profound joy of their culture in his art.

However, it is not just the white man responsible for such an erosion of culture. For instance, the Indians in “Evolution” part with ancient treasures at a pawnshop in order to harvest more modern ones: televisions, VCR’s, etc. While this may not be unexpected from the general populace, it seems like Native American writers and artists would strive to be a little less acquiescent to white culture. Yet, the poem instructing one on how to write the definitive Indian American Novel points out that such writers must follow a very strict code of white perception in order to write an acceptable Native American novel.

“In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written, /
all of the white people will be Indians, and all of the Indians will /
be ghosts.”

To me, this means that any real success at producing the Great American Indian novel, would tragically compromise anything uniquely Indian about its content, to the point where the very culture it purports to exemplify has been subsumed into white culture; only the ghosts remain.

That would be a good album title, by the way.