Smoke Signals
Sherman Alexie
Continued from front page
We were at the Native American Journal
ists Association conference this summer and
the Seminole Nation hosted the conference.
Seminole Chief Jim Billie came out and ad
dressed the participants by saying 'I'm Chief
Jim Billie of the Seminole Nation and I'm
here to make money for the Tribe!' and ev
erybody cheered like they were at a rock
concert. Billie explained that his Tribe has
five casinos. Their Tribal office is a five
story glass building with a big, long pool in
the front and Billie arrives to work in a heli
copter that lands on the roof. Indians are
changing it seems.
But, it's a very small percentage of Indians who
are enjoying that. Ninety percent of Indians are
still living either in poverty or a couple of paychecks
away from poverty. This is only the second time
I've ever done anything at a casino and the first
time was at my home casino. So it is interesting to
be here. Ill be talking about it tonight this highly
sacred institution that we are in.
It seems like in the last couple of years you
have undergone a transformation of your
own. You were the Rez Indian who had some
funny stories to tell and now you have
reached celebrity status. How has that been
for you and your family?
Well, it is a little odd. But, it's like I was talking
about someone going from no privilege to a tre
mendous amount. And it would be easy to really
get corrupted by that. I don't think I have. It makes
me live a more private life. When I'm not in public
I'm very private. Very private. And so I guess
what it (celebrity) has done is created a life of ex
tremes where I'm either very public, very perfor- -mance
oriented and out doing whatever or I'm sit
ting in the house and never leaving it. There are
two very distinct parts of my life now that is the
big difference. In Seattle every time I go anywhere
I get recognized. It's all out of proportion to the
actual number of books that I sell. But, because I
look different I'm not just some white guy writer
I look different. And so I think that is part of
getting recognized more often. That's not supposed
to happen to writers. It's bizarre and interesting.
The attention is a natural part of it. Its certainly
part of why I do it is to get attention.
When I started I knew that was the one tal
ent I had that people would notice they
would say things like nice article I really en
joyed that or I liked your opinion on that or
I hated your opinion on that.
Yeah reaction. Whatever hate me, love me
I like the reaction. And yeah, I have no other
viable job skills.
Were there some temptations in the celeb
rity scene and did you do the Hollywood
thing at all?
A little bit. I wrote screenplays, but I have kind
of dropped out of it now. When you are a screen
writer you don't get tempted by much you're
the scum of the earth. I could have signed on for
projects that were terrible. You know loincloth
Indian movies that they wanted me to write. I
didn't do any of that. I tried to take a couple of
projects that I thought would present Indians in
realistic and creative ways. The movies didn't get
made, but I tried. And I took projects where there
were no Indians in the original idea and I tried to
bring in an Indian character or two. They didn't
get made either. I made a tremendous amount of
money in a very short amount of time writing
screenplays that never had a chance of being made
into movies. And, now I'm out of it.
Did you enjoy the time?
No. It is really degrading and horrible and ac
tually it was like having a real job.
Like working in a job where you are saying
'I just can't stand this.'
Yes. Although I was making a tremendous
111 7 V7 1
CELEBRITY STATUS The success of Native author Sherman Alexie's movie "Smoke Signals" launched his
already solid career from Indian cult status into mainstream pop culture. After surfing the wave of popular
ity following the success of his movie, Alexie tired of Hollywood and returned to his home in Seattle.
amount of money. But, still it was the same feel
ing. It felt like it did when I was working the
graveyard shift at 7-11. I was feeling that ter
rible about myself it was the same feeling.
One of the things I asked Kevin Gover with
the presidential election still up in the air
it was kind of weird for Indian people with
Winona LaDuke in the election. On one hand
you realize you have two choices you can
either vote for Vice President Al Gore and
hope things stay the same for Indian Coun
try or you could vote for Texas Governor
George W. Bush, who could be bad news as
far as Indian Country is concerned...
He said in his acceptance speech "Now is not
the time to honor old contracts."
Exactly, it is kind of scary.
That is what he said.
Gover said a vote for the Green Party was a
vote for Bush...
Noooo. No I don't buy that.
Tell me why?
That is really giving up on the idea of democ
racy. You think so?
Oh yeah. Every individual vote means some
thing to every individual. It is an extension and
expression of their personal politics. It has noth
ing to do with anybody else's politics and it
shouldn't be measured that way. People who voted
for (Ralph) Nader voted for Nader. There is plenty
of racism in this country right now. State Liber
tarians took votes away from Bush. In Wiscon
sin, Iowa and New Mexico if the Libertarians
in those states had voted for Bush he would have
carried those states and we wouldn't be having
this discussion right now. So, it goes both ways.
I'm glad that Nader did it. Hopefully what this
will create with the Democrats is that they can't
ignore the progressive left which they have
been. They have been fleeing toward the middle.
Maybe this is a wake-up call. Maybe it's not I
don't know. As for Indians. I don't think Indians
are very Liberal or Democratic. I think we give
our money to Democrats and vote for Republicans.
By and large, I think that Indians are very con
servative socially you know pro-gun, pro-death
penalty, pro-war, homophobic. So our social
agenda as Indians by and large is very conserva
tive. I can't get into any of that. I'm liberal all the
way socially and economically. I mean we vote
for Democrats to preserve our sovereignty when I
think Indians live Republican lives.
Is it lifestyle?
I think it is rural.
Rural. That ideal that my gun is my gun and
you can't take it away from me and these are
my taxes and I don't want to pay anymore?
Yep. And, I always like to do this in rural areas
because it really pisses them off. I do research in
any given area and find out how much tax money
was spent in that area and how much tax money
was taken out of that area. The simple fact re
mains that cities pay for small towns. It is amaz
ing how we as Indians think of ourselves as Tribes
and taking care of the Tribe. The whole country
is a Tribe and we are responsible for each other.
So when they say it takes a Tribe to raise a
child...
Well, it takes a Tribe to take care of poor people.
You can raise your own damn kids.
Speaking of kids you know one of the
things that is a real issue is the use of In
dian mascots by high schools and colleges.
I know that locally we have a high school in
Amity and they are known as the Warriors
and they have an Indian mascot. When I
worked for the Northwest Indian Fish Com
mission one of my Tribes was Swinomish.
The Tribal Chairman there Bob Joe
loved the fact that the local high school was
known as the Braves because it brought at
tention to the fact that there was a local
Tribe in that area.
Well, there is also the difference that in La
Conner there actually is Indians in the school. So
you can see people accepting that if they are actu
ally in the school. Welpinit, where I'm from, they
kept the name Redskins. But, the school is 99 per
cent Indians so in some sense I guess it is a little
, bit justified if the school's Indians keep the Indian
mascot. I doubt there are any Indians in Amity,
so it isn't anything about reputation and honor.
The way I talk about it but, it never works
the way I talk about it is not in terms of race, but
in religion. Those feathers and paint and songs
are Indian religious symbols so those mascots are
not racist they are blasphemous. They are ex
ploiting somebody's religion for sports. Having an
Indian up on the wall is like having a Jesuit Priest
up on the wall or a Rabbi up on the wall.
The Nation's capitol has a team called the
Redskins. Redskins is meant to be deroga
tory. To me it is the most offensive. There
would never be a team called the Alabama
N. You wouldn't have a team called