Beyond Cowboys and Indians

When I was a kid, westerns were popular in TV and movies, and we played cowboys and Indians. Little blonde haired and blue eyed Elise, always sided with the Indians. (Please don’t shoot me for not being politically correct. I mean no disrespect to our Indigenous people, but that was what we did before we knew better.) When I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee as a teenager, I wept and was ashamed to be a white person. I don’t know why I felt that connection so strongly—maybe I was part of some indigenous tribe in a previous life. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to Sherman Alexie’s work.

If you’re not familiar with Sherman Alexie, let me introduce you. He is a Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation had to overcome many hardships. He was born with congenital hydrocephalus and had brain surgery at 6 months old that left him to deal with harsh side effects, including seizures. He had bad eyesight, a stutter and a lisp. So as you may guess, he was bullied quite a bit. It is a miracle that he has been able to rise above those hardships and produce work that will make you laugh and cry, and maybe most of all—make you think.

I have read quite a lot of his work, and had the pleasure of listening to him read a lot of it through audiobooks. Listening to him doing the reading, brings it to a whole other level. As I searched for some of his poetry to share with you, I could only find one where he was doing the reading, but I think the others who are reading do a wonderful job and prove that Alexie’s work has merit whether you live on a reservation or in a big city. I hope you’ll appreciate his poetry as much as I do. Enjoy.

Happy Poetry Month!

Elise Skidmore ©2025