Domi Frideger

Humanities Per. 1
Ashley Carruth
11/14/14
Journal #5
Native Americans have had, and continue to have a tough time living in westernized society.
Two pieces of literature that accurately capture this struggle for identity and meaning are The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie, and First Person First People, edited by
Andrew Garrod and Colleen Larimore. Alexies novel is a series of short stories that vividly depict what
life is like on the reservation from the point of view of a teenage boy. First Person First People is a
collection of essays written by Native American college graduates who tell their stories of adapting to
western Ivy League Universities. In each group of stories the main characters pasts seem to be a
constant weight on their shoulders and something that they are constantly aware of. In both these
stories, the skeletons of an Indians past and future dictate how they live in the present, and it is
interesting to see how the characters of each book deal with their own personal skeletons.
The first character to deal with skeletons of his past and future was Victor, from The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. He explores the belief that your past is a skeleton walking one
step behind you, and your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you, which means that ones
past and future are always somewhere close around you, but one must not let them distract completely
from the present (Alexie 21). Victor experiences this first-hand when he takes a psychedelic drug with
his friends. They encounter the skeletons of their past by temporarily experiencing the exhilaration of
being a true Indian back in the days of loin clothes and bows and arrows. From this experience, he
realizes that he cannot try to continually live his life in the traditional way of his ancestors. He must
forge his own present and reality, while taking into account the skeletons of his past, and become
mindful of the skeletons of his future. What Victor has just come to terms with is vital for Natives to
accept in order to find their own contemporary identity. To become free and comfortable as an Indian in
American society one must shed the confines of the old customs while still cherishing the rich history
those traditions represent. Similarly, one cannot live a successful life whilst always fretting about what
the future may or may not bring. One must simply live his or her life in the now, for that is all that is
truly tangible.
In First Person First People, Robert Bennett, a bright, talented young Dartmouth University
student and Indian must deal with his skeletons in a more abstract way. He was raised not as a
traditional Indian, but taught to shy away from Indian Tradition. Much of this fear of embracing his
culture came from innocent yet powerful ignorance; he says, Ignorance was at the root of their
misdirected bigotry, as well as my own and my mothers sense of inferiority (Bennett 141). Throughout
his upbringing he wonders why he and his fellow Indians were treated as charity cases and valued less,
compared to their white counterparts. His problem was he did not know enough about the skeletons of

his past and his peoples past. At Dartmouth, he takes a Native American Studies class and the skeleton
of his past begins to take shape, and the skeleton of his future begins to make more sense. He begins to
accept his Native Identity instead of fighting it like he had done in the past. With more knowledge of his
peoples past, he begins to accept his identity. This change of heart did not change his personality; it
simply changed his outlook on his past and future, showcasing how the skeletons of his past and future
influence and shape his present. Much of the hate and subordination felt by Indians is based solely on
the lack of knowledge of the past. When our society comes to the realization that we are all just humans
we will become a truly unfettered expression of humanity.
Only through knowledge and acceptance of the present can we become a nation in which all
members can feel free to be who they are. We must stop living our lives by the ways of the past or the
pretenses of the future and must accept the here and now as the way to live. Native Americans have
known this simple fact of life for years through their metaphor of the skeletons of past and future
always one step away. It is with this image that we must forge a new and brighter present. After all, that
is why the now is called the present, because it is a gift generously given to do the most good with, by
the times past and the times yet to come.