JUNE 1, 2005
MCC
MAI
A Publication of the Grand Rondo Tribe
www.grandronde.org
Non-Traditional Native American
Novelist, Poet, and Comedian Sherman Alexie
(Spokane) entertained a large crowd on
Thursday, May 19 at Oregon State University's
LaSells Stewart Center. Alexie has written
many novels including "The Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," "Reservation
Blues" and he wrote the screenplay for the
movie "Smoke Signals." Alexie opened his
show by saying "in case you came here to see
a traditional Indian, you better leave now."
H
Sherman Alexie brings down the house at OSU.
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By Ron Karten
Looking back, you'd have to
say that vegans took the
worst beating at the hands of
Indian Country's premier novelist
and poet.
Sherman Alexie (Spokane) was mer
ciless on them during his two-hour
show at Oregon State University's
LaSells Stewart Cen
ter on Thursday,
May 19, and it must
be a long-running
shtick for him be
cause, he said, "I've
gotten death threats
from vegans."
But he wasn't
afraid. "What are
they going to do?
Throw their
Birkenstocks at me?"
He took down lib
erals and conservatives with equal
gusto, moved on to Oprah and the mili
tary, men with little pony tails, Indi
ans acting tough, anti-war demon
strators doing anything, fundamental
ism in general and in specific, and
Indian casinos, too, just to let you
know that he wasn't playing favorites.
"There's nothing better than ex
pressing our sovereignty by partici
pating in the worst excesses of capi
talism," he said.
V 71
s ' -2 J
Sherman Alexie
On the sweat lodge experience,
he said, "Yeah, that's what I want
to do in flu season crawl into
an indigenous Petri dish."
Not even childhood escaped.
"People who say that childhood is
wonderful are full of shit," he said.
"I fully understand why people
throw kids out of car
windows. You don't
do it, but for a
minute you think,
'They'll bounce.'"
He started the
show with a nod to
the two young
women who signed
his program for the
deaf. They blushed
frequently as they
struggled to trans
late four-letter words
and to express such concepts as
walking down the aisle of a plane
in extreme gastric distress, but first,
Alexie thoughtfully included them.
He sidled up to the working signer,
and asked her, "How do you say, 'I
have a crush on the big Indian'?
Now, Alexie has perfect timing in
his delivery, and he waited a beat
See ALEXIE
on page 6
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