In three chapters of Sherman Alexie's 1996 novel "Indian Killer", Alexie critiques mainstream criticism of Native American literature through a dialogue between Marie Polatkin, a Native student, and Dr. Clarence Mather, a professor of Native literature. Marie challenges Dr. Mather's reading list, which relies heavily on non-Native authored works and includes a hoax. Their discussions expose Dr. Mather's idealized and inaccurate views of Native culture, as well as his dismissal of Native perspectives and experiences. The chapters provide an insightful fictional critique of how Eurocentric scholarship has historically misrepresented and marginalized Native voices in analyzing Native literature.

1. Pre-print Giacomo Frate
Academia.edu
Month 2021 1
A close reading of Sherman Alexie’s chapters on Native
American Literature in Higher Education
Giacomo Frate
Abstract
In this paper it will be argued that in three chapters from Sherman Alexie’s 1996 novel
Indian Killer, the author is masterfully able to provide readers with a review of the key
issues with mainstream critics of Native American Literature, something which is
rarely attainable in a work of fiction as it is in academic writing. Some passages from
the book will be presented, explained and further analysed to provide insights about
the research question.
Keywords: Native American Literature, Close Reading, Cultural Studies, Sherman Alexie
1. Introduction
In his 1980 essay Facing West: The Metaphysics of
Indian-Hating and Empire-Building, Richard Drinnon
argues that the systematic misrepresentation of Native
Americans in literature traces its root in the colonial need
to conquer land and exploit its resources1
. As liberty –
one of the key motifs in early American propaganda – is
incompatible with conquest, Anglo-American authors
had to construct a prosopopoeic image of Native
Americans to justify their dominance over the land2
.
Starting from the 1990s onwards, critics have started
to overcome this limit3
and some4
have argued for a
review of the misconceptions about Native Americans
and Native American Literature.
It can be argued that one of the most insightful and
creative pieces of criticism against this view is not found
in scientific literature but in fiction. Native American
author Sherman Alexie provides us with a complete
review of the issue in his 1996 novel “Indian Killer” in
the form of three breath-taking dialogues between Marie
Polatkin, a Native American student, and Doctor
Clarence Mather, a professor of Native American
1
Mariani (2003), pp. 36-38
2
Ibid.
3
Mariani (2003), pp. 24-27, 60-61
Literature of British and Irish descent, respectively in
Chapter 7 and 10 of Part 1 and Chapter 17 of Part 2.
In these chapters young Marie Polatkin
metonymically embodies all of the doubts and
suspicions of modern Native Americans towards
Eurocentric scholarship, personified by Doctor Mather.
2. Close Reading
Lecture settings in fiction have always provided an
effective mean of delivering complex information
without losing spontaneity by staging a dialogue
between learners and an expert in the field. However,
very few authors have deconstructed the traditional role
of the scholar and introduced the point of view of the
misrepresented. Undoubtedly, one key example is short
story Sandra Street by Trinidadian writer Michael
Anthony, in which school teacher Mr. Blades criticizes
essays written by students from namesake location
Sandra Street because they describe the neighbourhood
in a way that is not relevant to individuals from the city
centre – such as Mr. Blades himself. Ashford, Griffiths
and Tiffin argue that this episode represents «the
authority of the centre at the expense of those who live
at the margin of the Empire»5
. While this case study is
4
Most notably Lucy Maddox, Myra Jehlen, Eric Sundquist,
Susan Scheckel and Helen Carr.
5
Ashford, Griffiths and Tiffin (2002), pp. 90-96

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definitely relevant to outline the problems of British
education in former colonies, the role of the teacher is
seen as patronizing and oppressive but never as factually
incorrect. One of the key strengths of Alexie’s chapters
about Doctor Mather’s Native Literature classes is that
the novel effortlessly portrays many of the issues and
inaccuracies that are associated to the misrepresentation
of Native Americans.
A close reading of the three scenes requires a tripartite
analysis. First, this paper will discuss the characters and
how they fit in the background of the story. Second, it
will analyse Doctor Mather’s syllabus and reading list
for his course. Third, it will describe how the attitudes
of Doctor Mather are representative of colonial
discourse.
2.1 The characters into play
Marie Polatkin initially unfolds as the main love
interest of the story. Protagonist John Smith had met her
at a protest powwow in Seattle, where the two
awkwardly dance together. She is introduced as a very
active and humane volunteer for the Native community
in the city and a clever college student. At some point
she signs up to an introductory Native American
Literature class.
«She’d signed up for the class because she’d heard
that Dr. Clarence Mather, the white professor,
supposedly loved Indians, or perhaps his idea of
Indians, and gave them good grades. But he was also
a wannabe Indian […] and Marie wanted to challenge
Mather’s role as the official dispenser of Indian
education». (p. 58)
In a single paragraph, Alexie egregiously covers two
of the main issues about misrepresentation of Native
Americans through Marie’s flow of thought. The author
notes that the roussovian idealization of the Indian is
nothing but a fiction and clarifies that as non-Native
scholars are very often considered the most important
and authoritative dispensers of knowledge, they often
reinforce this fiction.
6
Bolo ties are associated to Western wear and are
commonly thought to be worn by all Natives. However,
anthropologist Clara Lee Tanner argues that they originated
exclusively in some south-western cultures, like the Hopi
and the Pueblo.
When Doctor Mather walks in, everything in Alexie’s
physical and attitudinal description emanates colonial
allusions. He wears a bolo tie6
and a ponytail of grey
hair, two prototypical symbols of cultural appropriation.
Alexie interlaces the scene with Marie’s flashback of a
Native woman telling her about Doctor Mather’s
wannabe Indian attitudes – like wanting to sing, play
instruments or share the peace pipe – and his improper
behaviour towards Indian women.
In the three chapters where they appear together, the
two develop a tense relationship whereby Mather’s
lectures are frequently interrupted by Marie. She
criticizes his reading list of the course, accusing him of
privileging non-Native scholarship, as-told-to
biographies and even frauds, a critique that has been
directed to many real-life scholars like Élemire Zolla and
Leslie Fiedler. Later, she accuses him of imposing his
Marxist view on Native issues like the widespread
presence of gambling casino and alcohol sales, which
according to Marie is poorly understood in practical
terms by Mather.
Throughout the novel, their dialogue is increasingly
infertile, and their in-class relationship deteriorates up to
the point where Marie – the only Native American
student – is expelled from the course.
2.2 The reading list of the course
One of the most insightful scenes of the subplot is the
presentation of the reading list and Marie’s subsequent
reaction. As Alexie laconically summarizes it:
«After seeing the reading list, Marie knew that Dr.
Mather was full of shit» (p. 59)
Doctor Mather’s course reading list comprises eleven
texts. One of them, The Education of Little Tree, was the
alleged autobiography of a Cherokee man and enjoyed a
decent success for its message of environmentalism and
simple life before being exposed as a hoax fabricated by
Ku Klux Klan member Asa Earl Carter under the
pseudonym Forrest Carter7
, which numerous scholarly
articles have shown to contain a romanticized and
7
Randall, D. (September 1, 2002) The tall tale of Little Tree
and the Cherokee who was really a Klansman, The
Independent.

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fraudulent idea of Native American practices8
. Despite
this being common knowledge, Doctor Mather actively
refuses to care about the implications of the origins of
the book and prefers to use it to reinforce his own ideas.
«I’m aware that the origins of the book have been put
into question […] But I hardly believe that matters.
The Education of Little Tree is a beautiful and
touching book» (p. 59)
For Mather, the authentic experience of Native
Americans is not as important as the preconceived idea
presented by commentaries, hence the authorship
controversy about Little Tree deserves no mention or
further clarification within the course.
Three further texts in the reading list are
autobiographies of Native American people as told to
Anglo-American authors. These texts tend to be plagued
by similar problems, because the material compilers of
the texts often value romantic sensationalism over
accuracy and fair representation. Black Elk Speaks
(1932), possibly one of the most famous Native
American autobiographies, was written by American
poet John Neihardt – who didn’t speak Lakota and based
his text on translations by Black Elk’s son. He has been
profusely criticized for his excessive use of poetic
license and his text is widely considered to be poorly
representative of traditional Lakota beliefs9
. The
remaining two autobiographies, Lame Deer: Seekers of
Visions and Lakota Women, were co-written by author
and political activist Richard Erdoes, who – despite
being profoundly involved in the defence of activists of
the American Indian Movement (a trait which he
curiously shares with Doctor Clarence Mather) – has
been criticized for focusing on sensationalistic
ethnography and ignoring political discourse10
.
The remaining seven books are all unnamed but the
last. However, they give the final colour to the biased
nature of the syllabus.
«The other seven books included three anthologies of
traditional Indian stories edited by white men, two
nonfiction studies of Indian spirituality written by
white women, a book of traditional Indian poetry
8
Even though Alexie himself declared in an interview for
Washington Post (November 6, 2007) that the novel could
be an act of atonement by a guilt-ridden author.
9
Mariani (2003), pp. 103-105
translations edited by a Polish-American Jewish man,
and an Indian murder mystery written by come local
white writer named Jack Wilson, who claimed he was
a Shilshomish Indian» (p. 59)
This paragraph serves the purpose of informing the
reader about the plethora of scientific literature written
by non-Natives about Native culture. The last book is a
pseudobiblion within the narrative universe of the novel
and was written by former policeman and wannabe
Indian Jack Wilson, whom Alexie introduced in the
novel as a strange double of himself, a fictional writer
who represents everything Alexie himself does not want
to be: a wannabe Indian obsessed with Native American
culture and social issues and a classical mystery novelist
concerned with exposing a single culprit11
. It is beyond
the scope of this paper to discuss Indianness and identity,
therefore I will overlook a close reading of the section
about Wilson’s authenticity and I will defer this task to
further works.
2.3 An attitude of Colonization
According to pioneering post-colonial scholar
Edward Said, the bulk of academic work commissioned
and funded by European nations to study Eastern
cultures was purposefully directed at creating a distorted
and idealized idea of the Orient, one which European
powers could exploit to assert their domination12
. This
idea does not limit itself to European misrepresentations
of the Arabs or the Chinese and it also neatly applies to
the attitude of Anglo-American scholars towards Native
American Literature. Frequently, mainstream
scholarship has not only produced inaccurate
representations of Native cultures due to incompetence
or carelessness, but also consciously overlooked Native
voices on various themes, most importantly political
issues.
Doctor Mather’s character is an excellent
personification of this discourse. Introduced in the novel
as a wannabe Indian who wants to participate in
traditional activities such as sweat purification
ceremonies, sharing the piece pipe or playing drums, he
is also implied to be an icky womanizer and an arrogant
10
Cook-Lynn (1991), p. 78
11
Mariani (2003), pp. 143-144
12
Said (1978), pp. 14-18

4. Pre-print Giacomo Frate
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professor. Marie Polatkin – who had signed up to the
course to challenge his role as the dispenser of Indian
Education at University – immediately questions his
dubious choice of texts in the reading list, only to be
reminded that the authenticity of sources about Native
American culture «hardly matters». His patronizing
attitude is best exemplified when Marie accuses him of
incompetence about Native sources and Doctor Mathers
engages in meaningless display of notions about the
Spokane, Marie’s tribe. Doctor Mather represents the
project – to put it in Said’s terminology – to fabricate
«A Native American literature that is shaped by both
Indian and white hands. In order to see that this
premise is verifiable, we need only acknowledge that
the imagination has no limits. That in fact, to
paraphrase Whitman, every good story that belongs to
Indians belongs to non-Indians, too» (p. 61).
In the second of the three lessons narrated by Alexie,
Doctor Mather openly criticizes Indians for their
widespread ownership of gambling casinos, postulating
an inherent economic substructure.
«The establishment of casinos is an act of fiscal rebellion
[…] However, I worry about long-time cultural
implications […] Are Indians polluting their cultural
purity by engaging in such a boldly capitalistic
activity?» (p. 83)
This notion openly contrasts with empirical evidence
that Native Americans living on reservations are among
the poorest individuals in America and tribal casinos
have been linked to increases in violent crime, thefts and
social problems13
. When confronted by Marie – who
maintains that Native Americans need casinos to survive
and to bring food to the family table rather than to
operate a fiscal rebellion – Mather insists that the
importance of his own theoretical framework exceeds
that of Native experience. «I’m a Marxist» – he says and
he is met by a terse response – «I am a Libra».
In the third and final chapter where the two characters
interact, tensions grow up to the point where Marie is
sent out of the class and drops out of the course. Before
leaving, she announces one of the key concepts of this
prolonged interaction: Doctor Mather sees Native
Culture as an objectified commodity sitting in a display
13
Evans and Topoleski (2001), pp. 1-5.
case for scholars to observe, whereas Marie embodies
the living proof that Indians are not Vanishing
Americans or cheap metaphors for Marxist beliefs, but a
true and living ethnicity.
«I’m not an Indian warrior, I’m not some demure little
Indian woman healer talking spider this, spider that
[…] I’m talking like a twenty-first Indian woman […]
and you can’t handle it, you wimp» (pp. 247-248).
4. Conclusions
In Indian Killer, the history of Native American
Literature comes alive in the form of dialogues between
two characters, representative of respectively Native
Americans and biased Eurocentric scholarship. Alexie
masterfully presents various issues about the mainstream
interpretation of Native culture: roussovian idealization,
excessive focus on spirituality, tampered
autobiographies and downplay of political issues.
Bibliography
[1]Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G. and Tiffin, H. 2002, The
Empire Writes Back, Routledge.
[2]Baiesi, S. and Gebbia, A. 2014, La letteratura
coloniale e postcoloniale in Crisafulli, L. M, and
Elam, K., 2014, Manuale di Letteratura Inglese,
Bononia University Press, pp. 413-462.
[3]Cook-Lynn, E., 1991, Studies in American Indian
Literatures, Series 2, Vol. 3, No. 4 (1991), pp. 77-
80.
[4]Evans, W. N. and Topoleski, J. H., 2001, The Social
and Economic Impact of Native American Casinos,
National Beaureau of Economic Research.
[5]Hollrah, P., 2001, Sherman Alexie's Challenge to the
Academy's Teaching of Native American Literature,
Non-Native Writers, and Critics, in Studies in
American Indian Literatures, Series 2, Vol. 13.
[6]Mariani, G., 2001, Negotiating Violence and
Identity in Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer, Forum
for Inter-American Research 4.2..
[7]Mariani, G. 2003, La penna e il tamburo, Ombre
Corte.
[8]Randall, D. (September 1, 2002) The tall tale of
Little Tree and the Cherokee who was really a
Klansman, The Independent.
[9]Said, E. 1978, Orientalism, Pantheon Books.