Upon reaching his late father’s house, a rechid odor greets them. A friend of his, Thomas Builds-The-Fire pays for the plane ticket but also travels with him. Here, Victor is informed his father has died and he struggles with raising enough money to travel to bring his possessions home. An example of this is present in the story “This is what it means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”. Victor’s interactions with other members of his reservation paint a picture of destitution.
In many of the stories, Alexie’s portrayal of Native American life is filled with poverty and loss. In these, he applied what he personally saw and experienced as a Spokane Indian on the reservation. In this collection of interrelated short stories, Alexie describes many of the struggles of reservation life. The 20th century aftermath of such involuntary transitions towards the white man’s liking is described in Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which depicts the upbringing of a Spokane Indian named Victor. It wasn’t until 1990 that the Native American Languages Act allowed the regular practice of Native American languages. The natives were treated as if they were beasts rather than human, being stripped of much of their culture and ancestral way of life, and being forced into boarding schools at an attempt to “civilize” them. English was now mandated to be the exclusive language on all American Indian Reservations. This new sector was labeled as the Spokane Reservation. In 1881 legislation was passed dividing the territory into much smaller reservations, without the consent of the native inhabitants. Exposure to exploring populations in the early 1800’s introduced the tribe to copious amounts of alcohol, and left their population combating new and foreign diseases. Previously spanning over three million acres from Washington to Idaho, the Spokane Indian territory used to be home to 2,500 of its people, providing them with bountiful resources and general peace of mind.However, throughout history much of what was once previously belonging to the Spokane Indians was seized, including its culture. One of the most dramatic illustrations of this can be seen during the 18th and 19th centuries, right here in the United States. Consequences of forced intervention and assimilation can be seen throughout history in many examples, ranging from captured foreigners, to previously native people.