The Unwinnable Game

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            The Reardan vs. Wellpinit basketball game acts as a perfect foil for colonialism and the continued marginalization of Native Americans. As Junior puts it, “I felt like one of those Indian scouts who led the U.S. Calvary against other Indians” (Alexie 182). While Reardan does not “invade” the reservation (it’s a home game), they do one worse. *Reardan appropriates the title of “Indian” while Wellpinit is denigrated by the distinctly more derogatory denomination of “Redskins” (Alexie 195). By taking the name of the Wellpinit Indians, Reardan has in fact taken a piece of their identity. This is not unlike the colonial powers, who seized control of Native American lands that were central to the native cultural identity (“Spokane Indian Tribe”).

            Reardan wins the basketball game by a landslide. “We killed the Redskins. Yep, we had humiliated them” (Alexie 194). In the tradition of the conquering colonials, the predominantly white Reardan team exerts their innate social and economic advantages to soundly defeat their Native American opponents. Junior acknowledges the disadvantages of the Wellpinit team when he observes “I knew that… those Indians might not have eaten breakfast that morning…[,] lived with drunken mothers and fathers[, and]... I knew that none of them were going to college. Not one of them” (Alexie 195).

            For Junior, this realization is less a tipping point and more a moment of reckoning. An articulation of the inherent educational, social, and economic disparities imposed on the marginalized Native American culture. Disparities that Reardan exploited, either intentionally or opportunistically, to win the match up. Junior is ultimately sickened by his “Goliath” revelation and is filled with puke inducing shame (Alexie 196). A sentiment that his white teammates symbolically do not share.

            Wellpinit’s loss to Reardan is not simply intended to mimic the behavior of white colonialism, but also to showcase the echoes of its impact on Native American culture. The game acts as an illustration of how those echoes have created impassable economic and educational hurdles that have trapped Native Americans on poverty-stricken reservations. “Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know” (Alexie 216)? To put it bluntly, Native Americans have no hope of winning the white “game.” Malnourished and abused, contending with cultural and conventional PTSD in addition to blatant and institutionalized racism, the Wellpinit Redskins never had a fair chance in either the literal or metaphorical sense.

 

*I am operating under the assumption that “Indian” is the term preferred by Junior and, by extension, his tribe. They “own” the label and it is used frequently throughout the novel in lieu of the more (supposedly) p.c. “Native American.” The internalization of colonial cultural terms by the minority cultures they marginalize is an entirely separate topic of discussion and not one I am going to explore in depth for this particular post.


Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian. Little Brown and Company, 2007.

“Spokane Indian Tribe.” Introduction to U-S-History.com, Online Highways, 2020,  https://u-s-history.com/pages/h1570.html. Accessed on 27 August 2020.

Comments

  1. Aniya HallSeptember 4, 2020 at 1:47 PM

    Hey Chelsea! Your blog post is beautifully written. I, too, discussed how pivotal the last game was to Junior's realization and how it reflects the post-colonial ideology. I didn't even notice the irony behind the "Reardan Indians" name, it is a direct shot to the Native Americans and their culture. I love that you mentioned "Wellpinit’s loss to Reardan is not simply intended to mimic the behavior of white colonialism, but also to showcase the echoes of its impact on Native American culture. The game acts as an illustration of how those echoes have created impassable economic and educational hurdles that have trapped Native Americans on poverty-stricken reservations." This game is the climax of the novel because it alludes at all the problems that colonist have caused on Native Americans for hundreds of years. And its interesting because Junior is aware of these issues and still somehow gets trapped in a "colonist" mindset while playing the game. After seeing the damages done post-game, Junior comes to a realization that he needs to be there for the people that need him...and that's not the wealthy Reardan team members.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nalayna HyattSeptember 8, 2020 at 8:12 AM

    Chelsea, I absolutely love your post. It perfectly describes the importance of the final game and, while I saw it as a reference to white colonialism, you describing it as something that "showcase[s] the echoes of its impact on Native American culture" was something i hadn't thought of. While winning the game should have made Junior cheerful, it instead led to him realizing how all of the Wellpinit players were at a disadvantage and likely doomed from the start. He realizes that they're just a bunch of kids that are trying to do what they can with what they've got .

    ReplyDelete
  3. Logan SandorSeptember 8, 2020 at 12:31 PM

    Chelsea, your topic/title is spot on. Your quotes are perfectly explained. The last sentence sums everything up perfectly.

    ReplyDelete

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