Alexie recalls struggles at off-reservation school
Monday, March 9, 2009
Filed Under:
Arts & Entertainment
Author
Sherman Alexie faced discrimination when he attended a school off the Spokane Reservation in Washington.
Alexie, who is
Spokane and
Coeur d'Alene, was mocked as the only Indian student at the school. "I was so scared of them," he said at a lecture at
Cornell University in New York, The Cornell Daily Sun reported.
Alexie eventually learned the non-Indian students were just as afraid of him. "They literally thought I was going to pull out a bone arrow and shoot them," he said.
The experience formed the basis of "The Partially True Story of the True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Alexie's award-winning first young adult novel.
Get the Story:
Native American Writer Details Personal Struggle
(The Cornell Daily Sun 3/9)
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