Ask someone what comes to mind when they think of an Indian reservation and you might get anything from tribal dances with feathery headdresses, and teepees to buffalo running wild, Indians on horseback, the Calvary chasing close behind with their guns blazing. That was mostly due to the cinematic depiction in the 1950's and 1960's. That image changed in recent years to a more sympathetic feeling toward Native Americans. How Native American culture is perceived may have changed, but to those that live on a reservation life may have not changed as much as a person might see form television. Native American authors have shown this for a few years. Two of the more prominent Native American authors in the last twenty years are Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. The way they portray life on a reservation have some distinct similarities, along with a few contrasts. .
Erdrich and Alexie both paint reservation life as one that is not concerned with the daily hustle and bustle that is normally associated with life in a big city. The life that they describe more closely resembles one of a small town, or rural country community. However Erdrich and Alexie's depiction of characters is suggestive of the prevailing diversity about the Native American people and their culture. The works of both Alexie and Erdrich commonly highlight Native Americans, representing them as a generation of people neglected, looked down, oppressed, and severely under represented in nearly all spheres of an average American life. Their characters portray the lack of understanding present in the American society for the Native Americans and the anger prevalent amongst the culture. Both authors have awakened the literary world on the existence of a culture that had always been there for possibly thousands of years, but only through an occasional perspective from an anthropologist and or a historian. .
Erdrich in The Red Convertible and Alexie in This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona each address issues of gender and cultural roles among contemporary Native American populations.
