Indian Education

Sherman Alexie is a Spokane-Coeur d’Alene writer who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. Alexie is one of the most prominent contemporary Indigenous writers and is known for works that blend humor and tragedy. His writing often explores the lived experience of Indigenous American communities throughout the United States, centering themes such as cultural identity, historical trauma, poverty, and resilience. “Indian Education,” first featured in Alexie’s 1993 short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, is considered an important work of Indigenous literature. The collection’s interwoven stories depict reservation life through the perspective of several main characters, including Junior Polatkin and Victor, who briefly appears at the end of “Indian Education.”

Like the protagonist of “Indian Education,” Junior Polatkin, Alexie experienced poverty, illness, and cultural marginalization from an early age. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that causes fluid to build up in one’s brain, and consequently underwent extensive medical treatments as an infant. Growing up, he often felt alienated both on and off the Spokane reservation. Like Junior, Alexie attended predominantly white schools while living on the reservation, thus navigating two competing systems of cultural norms. Alexie has written and spoken about feeling that his successful academic career came at the expense of cultural betrayal or distance from his community, an emotional conflict echoed in Junior’s experience as valedictorian of a predominantly white high school and his status as one of the first in his community to receive a college education. 

Despite his literary success, Alexie has a complicated reputation. In 2018, several women came forward with credible allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Alexie issued a statement acknowledging his inappropriate behavior but denying some of the allegations. In response to the accusations, the American Library Association rescinded Alexie’s 2008 Young Adult Book of the Year Award for his novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and many other institutions distanced themselves from Alexie, reevaluating their engagement with his works. Despite this, many continue to study and teach Alexie’s fiction due to its literary significance and groundbreaking contributions to Indigenous representation in mainstream American literature.