The+Lone+Ranger+and+Tonto+Fistfight+in+Heaven

By [|Sherman Alexie]
===**//I always tell people that the five primary influences in my life are my father, for his nontraditional Indian stories, my grandmother for her traditional Indian stories, [|Stephen King], [|John Steinbeck], and [|The Brady Bunch]. That's who I am. I think a lot of Indian artists like to pretend that they're not influenced by pop culture or Western culture, but I am, and I'm happy to admit it. A lot of independent filmmakers would look down their nose at their own pop influences, or at my pop influences. It's a cultural currency.//**===

**Sherman Alexie**

 * Synopsis**: Is it a novel? Is it a collection of short stories? Does this work even need to be categorized? When it was first published in 1993, //The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven// established Sherman Alexie as a stunning new talent of American letters. The basis for the award-winning movie //Smoke Signals//, it remains one of his most beloved and widely praised books.

Sherman Alexie's critically celebrated first collection, //The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven// established its author as one of America's most important and provocative voices. Vividly weaving memory, fantasy, and stark reality to paint a portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian reservation, this book introduces some of Alexie's most beloved characters who inhabit his distinctive landscape. There is Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the storyteller who no one seems to listen to, and his compatriot—and sometimes not-so-great friend—Victor, the basketball hero who turned into a recovering alcoholic. Now with two new stories and an introduction from Alexie, these twenty-four interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet filled with passion and affection, myth and charm. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past ([|groveatlantic.com]).

Gina Macdonald writes, "Sherman Alexie, whose works repeatedly underscore the importance of retaining tribal connections, draws on the oral, religious, and political traditions of his [|Spokane/Coeur d'Alene] Indian heritage. The wandering story lines of his novels reflect non-mainstream organizational structures, approaches, and attitudes as they shift time settings (mythical, historical, and modern), place, and person to gradually reveal tribal, family, and personal connections in keeping with the Native American philosophical framework, the web of life. As in oral tradition, Alexie's narratives aim for sudden, brief insights as connections that initially elude readers gradually take meaningful shape over time; their humor is dark, and their goal, in part, is to debunk what Alexie sees as political and cultural myths. Alexie, who began his writing career as a small press poet, asserts that, for the reservation Indian, imagination, given impetus by anger, is the only way to survive a life of despair worsened by alcoholism, abuse, poverty, diabetes, and economic dead ends."

In order to have a rich discussion about //The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven//, the classroom teacher needs to provide supplementary materials to students in an effort to help them to better understand Alexie's work. There are many different elements at work in Alexie's fiction: Popular culture, Native American culture, Alexie's background, Identity, etc. Due to the complex, controversial nature of Alexie's work, it is important for teachers to provide scaffolding for students. If this is missing, there is a danger of students misinterpreting Alexie's intent. This section will provide links to sites that will help students understand the context of Alexie's work.
 * Challenge 1: I don't get the references**

media type="custom" key="94877"**Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock**

The aural backdrop to one of the stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is Jimi Hendrix's rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. Many of our students were not part of "The Woodstock Generation" and have never heard this revolutionary rendition of the anthem. This video link can help students understand the urgency of Hendrix's infamous reworking and better understand Alexie's use of it in this section of the book.

These links will also help:

http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/loneranger.html Valuable resource on the novel.

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/alexie.html Cool lesson ideas

http://www.enotes.com/lone-ranger/ Lesson Ideas

http://www.spokanetribe.com/ Alexie's cultural background

http://www.native-languages.org/coeur.htm Alexie's cultural background

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger The Lone Ranger

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1955.html Alexie lesson plans

[|http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources]A guide to Native American cultures

Many students want to know a bit about the author in order to connect and contextualize the text. These sites will help students get to know Alexie a little better. Often, students need to see and hear the person behind the writing in order to invest in the reading. Alexie's wit and wisdom should have students hooked.
 * Challenge 2: Connecting to the author: Who is this guy, anyway?**

[|Alexie Homepage] Sherman's very own official website. While it is not always necessary for students to now everything about an author to make meaning from a text, this site will help those students who want to now more about the author of these tales. Plus, it will also help with putting the stories into context.

[|Modern American Poetry:]Conversations with Sherman, and some of his work.

[|NPR: Alexie with audio] Sherman on Sherman.

http://members.aol.com/ptrleblanc/alexie.html Sherman's unofficial fan club.

http://www.salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/alexie/ Alexie audio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nj-ggMaGCs Alexie live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfIUg9ab5jo&mode=related&search= Alexie Live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WUA8vL1L5Q Alexie Live

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/alexie.html

http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2000/07/20000703_a_main.asp Alexie Audio

-Jeff Patterson