MSU English 337

Here's a picture of Sherman right after he signed my book.


Here's a picture of Sherman and Valerie

i wrote this about Shermans lectures:
Mick Leslie
4/21/05
Extra Credit
Sherman Alexie

Humor is the tool which has allowed Native Americans to survive 500 years of oppression, broken contracts, and genocide. Sherman Alexie, the author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto: Fist Fight in Heaven adapted for the movie Smoke Signals, is a master in the use of humor to express, preserve and teach his Native culture. I heard him speak twice tonight, once in EPS and again in the SUB ballroom.
In EPS, the audience was almost entirely composed of students from Native American studies classes. Sherman was much warmer with this smaller audience than in the big ballroom later on in the evening. The informal “question and answers” session was composed mostly of Sherman making the entire room laugh. He was ruthless in his humor and left no one without a momentary feeling of embarrassment. Somewhere in making fun of every possible American label and stereotype, a sense of belonging, of bonding with The Other, whoever that Other may be, seemed to exist. A family is composed of different members and, in a sense, all the different groups in America constitute a family. A healthy family is one which can make fun of itself. The talk he gave later on in the ballroom was much more informal and far less interesting for me. He repeats most of his jokes but it was still fun to listen.
I greatly appreciated being able to thank him for writing the short stories in Ten Little Indians. As a New Yorker, I’ve had a particularly difficult time coming to terms with my thoughts and feelings with the events of september eleventh. Ten Little Indians is one of the most important books I’ve ever read. How can someone who has been the victim of extreme terror have a permanent healing process? The answer is with humor and with life. The best short story I’ve ever read is “Do Not Go Gently” in Ten Little Indians. I never thought I’d see so many important things in one 5 page story.

and i wrote this about Simon Ortiz:
Mick Leslie
2/21/05
Extra Credit
Simon Ortiz, Poetry

Simon Ortiz is a Pueblo Indian of the Acoma tribe. His facination with oral stories began at a young age earning him the nick name “the reporter”. He first began writing in English while in school at University of New Mexico and teaching at the University of Iowa. This was during the 60’s; he had a very large audience for the ideas he was writing about. Human rights and social justice have never left his writing and, for over three decades, he has been publishing.
I enjoyed hearing him speak. Ortiz had a very deep and calming voice. So calming, in fact, for several long periods, I forget entirely about the girl in the chair next to me. Considering how I feel about her, I would never have believed this possible.
Of the poetry and stories he read to us, one theme struck me the most. Memory! It is a device of uncommon power and a central theme in most of his stories. How can a person who feels out of place, disoriented, and without normal roots find something firm to grasp at? With the memory of ancestors, old ways, tradition, and with the memory of history. Writing out these things on paper and keeping them that way would destroy their meaning as they are communicated to the people who need them. Oral tradition was such an important way of life, in the memory of Pueblo history, speaking about the history of the Pueblo people is far more important than writing it down. Hearing Simon Ortiz read his poetry outloud touched me far more than if someone handed me one of his books and said “read this, you’ll enjoy it”. There is such an overwelming amount of sadness in the last few hundred years of his peoples history, it hurts just to hear him mention it, however briefly. As he would recite his poems, I felt as though I could hear all the things he was not saying, but implied. It made me understand, while being amazed at my own vivid imagination, memory for the audience is just as important of a tool as for the speaker/author in an oral culture. Memory, how it is used, and why it is used, was the theme which struck me most.
In thanking Ortiz, Walter, the head of the Native American Studies department, announced there were two things which any planes indian tribe would be obligated to do for visitors: feed their guests and keep them warm. Ortiz was presented with a blanket and had a private dinner following the talk. We, the audience, were fed with his poetry and it definatly made me feel warm inside. I went right home and wrote some poetry of my own. While typing this write-up(Monday night), I wrote the poem I will hand print on the back.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
my silly poem
The land is leaving us by going away
Into our pocketbooks and bank accounts.
It is becoming television, supermarkets,
Concrete, cell phones and western medicine.
Because we do not
Watch the sky
Feed of the Earth
Walk on dirt
Speak to faces
Or feel Her healing.

We are leaving the land by saying it’s ok
To only give to it in smaller and smaller amounts.
Now it’s about politics, tax write-offs,
Building equity, for those who are afraid to begin again.
Live day to day, season by season.
What was there could do more
Than just what it can do for you.
As long as you are not a member
Of those who understand that
The land is a living thing,
You will not know this.

Let go of your technologies
And understand what was here before you.
Learn what has worked and learn why
So you can push bounderies safely.
Understand yourself
Before you go and make a mess of things.