The Long Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Essay

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Throughout the book The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie the Indians were always treated as minorities. For example, when the narrator walked into the 7-Eleven, the clerk “looked me over so he could describe me to the police later. I knew the look.” (Alexie 182) The clerk kept watching him, thinking he was about to steal something. The wars were the same. In the end, the Indians lost the war, most of their land, and almost all of their possessions. Alexie provided examples of racism in the past, present, and future. There will always be reasons found of why racism should exist. The Coeur d’Alene war/ Spokane Plains War both occurred in 1858. There was not much recorded about the Spokane Plains War other than the fact that the Battle of Spokane Plains was a conflict between United States Army forces under the leadership of George Wright and members of the Coeur d'Alene, Yakima, and Spokane Native American tribes.
On the other hand the Coeur d’Alene war has many recordings. It was a war between the 600 American men led by George Wright and the one thousand Indian members of the Coeur d'Alene, Yakima, and Spokane Native American tribes. The Indians did not realize they were …show more content…

Their freedom. Although the Indians fought hard for their freedom and land, the Americans were still victorious. For example ,in the book The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie when Thomas-Build-the-Fire was on trial, he was explaining what happened while he was in the Spokane Plains war. He said “It all started on September 8th, 1858… Colonel George Wright took me and seven hundred ninety nine of my brothers captive.”(Alexie 96). Thomas was not allowed to be in the reservation. In the end the Indians were forced to relocate to a reservation that was a fraction of the size of the land they previously