ENGL 3400 April 12

We actually did the roundtable discussion in class on Monday April 12. Below is a list of the readings that I thought connected in some thematic way to the novel.

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Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Maria. “The Historical Trauma Response Among Natives and its Relationship to Substance Abuse: A Lakota Illustration.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 35.1 (2003): 7-14.

Adams, David Wallace. “Classroom.” Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1995. 136-163. Print.

Hayden Taylor, Drew. “Indian Love Call.” Me Sexy. Ed. Drew Hayden Taylor. Vancouver, British Columbia: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008. 20-32. Print.

O’Brien, Sharon. “Federal Indian Policies and the International Protection of Human Rights.” American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century. Ed. Vine Deloria, Jr.
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. 35-62. Print.

Deloria, Jr., Vine. “The Disastrous Policy of Termination.” Custer Died for Your Sins. Norman, OK: Univ. of OK Press, 1988. 54-77. Print.

Deloria, Jr., Vine. “Indians Today, the Real and the Unreal.” Custer Died for Your Sins. Norman, OK: Univ. of OK Press, 1988. 1-27. Print.

Deloria, Jr., Vine. “Anthropologists and Other Friends.” Custer Died for Your Sins. Norman, OK: Univ. of OK Press, 1988. 78-100. Print.

Deloria, Jr., Vine. “Indian Humor.” Custer Died for Your Sins. Norman, OK: Univ. of OK Press, 1988. 146-167. Print.

Deloria, Philip. “Counter Culture Indians and the New Age.” Playing Indian. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1998. 154-180. Print.

Smith, Paul Chaat. “On Romanticism.” Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of MN Press, 2009. 13-27. Print.

Smith, Paul Chaat. “Land of a Thousand Dances.” Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of MN Press, 2009. 37-42. Print.

Smith, Paul Chaat. “Americans without Tears.” Everything You Know About Indians is Wrong. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of MN Press, 2009. 69-78. Print.

LaDuke, Winona. “Life of a Powwow Emcee: Vince Beyl, the Man behind the Microphone.” The Winona LaDuke Reader. Sillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 2002. 181-185. Print.

Hofmann, Sudi. “Pushing Some Buttons: Helping Students Understand the American Indian Mascot Issue”
http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm/pushingsomebuttons.html
Teters, Charlene. “American Indians are People, not Mascots”
http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm/index.html
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And here are the discussion questions that I created to link the secondary readings with Alexie's Absolutely True Diary

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Why might Alexie consider reservations “death camps”? Consider policy.
What does Mr. P refer to when he talks about killing Indians? Why is he so upset?

Discuss the significance of Ted’s collecting Indian artifacts. Why does the group laugh at him?

Why might Alexie make a point to emphasize that Ted’s “expert” was completely wrong?
Who does Alexie think are the experts? How is this a political statement?

How does Alexie revise the romanticized image of the Native American? Or does he?

Discuss Alexie’s use of humor. What purpose does humor serve in The Absolutely True Diary?

Discuss the character to whom your article seems most applicable. How might your article inform or change the way we read this character and his/her decisions?

Give an example of how your article complicates our opinion of a character.

Why might Alexie give both basketball teams racialized names? Consider the significance of the team members’ race. How does Alexie stage Arnold as a mascot? Why might he do this?

Why might Arnold’s dad spend Christmas getting drunk?

Consider Arnold’s drawing of the romance novel that he imagines Mary writing. What sort of racial stereotypes and expectations does Alexie illustrate? How does the novel challenge or affirm this type of representation? Consider romantic relationships in the text.

Why might Alexie stage Arnold’s beating by the three drunken triplets at the annual powwow? Consider the combination of tradition and ceremony with alcoholism and violence.

How much control over their lives and futures do people on the reservation have? How does the novel suggest people do take control of their lives and futures? How does your article relate to concepts of control and freedom?

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Overall, the discussion went well. Next time I would spend more time setting it up, making it clear that students lead the discussion. It was a challenge for me to not jump into the conversation.