This story is about a man named Jackson Jackson, who is homeless, after moving to Seattle to go to college and then flunking. It is set in first person perspective, in the life of Jackson, a Spokane Native American who has worked many jobs, married a couple of times, and fathered two or three kids, then went crazy. He is very cultured and has many experiences with other tribes and Indians around the area. The main conflict is Jackson attempting to regain his grandmother’s regalia from a pawn shop, of which it was stolen from her fifty years ago. He is a very romantic person and decides he does not want to report it stolen, but however, finds the money and goes on a quest to retrieve it back for himself as a part of his heritage once again.
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The author wrote this story to shed the light on homelessness and poverty of Native Americans and how they have been stripped of their identity through generations and the unique way they live being pawned by modern American life. The main character is having trouble during the story to find out what he is looking for, or what he needs to do with his life. He goes through very tough times where anyone he knows always abandons him so he never has a true friend or companion, and anything that is troubling in his life, he tends to resort to alcohol to solve his pains. In America, there is a certain idea of ownership of something that you have to buy to get back, even if it was originally yours, like in the time when the trail of tears occurred and many Native Americans had to relocate their homes because of it being taken away from them in the first place. This happened when Jackson’s grandmother lost her Regalia fifty years ago and he realized that it belongs to him, and not the pawn shop that currently carries it. Yet Native Americans are always adaptable and come back from their hardships and suffering through this myth and storytelling about everyday life. The purpose of this story is to show what is happening through Jackson’s life and how he faces his loss of identity and disappearance, ending with him successfully earning his grandmother’s regalia back and recover his identity. “I took my grandmother’s regalia and walked outside. Outside, I wrapped myself in my grandmother’s regalia and breathed her in. I stepped off the sidewalk and into the intersection. Pedestrians stopped. Cars stopped. The city stopped. They all watched me dance with my grandmother. I was my grandmother, dancing.”
The author wrote this story to shed the light on homelessness and poverty of Native Americans and how they have been stripped of their identity through generations and the unique way they live being pawned by modern American life. The main character is having trouble during the story to find out what he is looking for, or what he needs to do with his life. He goes through very tough times where anyone he knows always abandons him so he never has a true friend or companion, and anything that is troubling in his life, he tends to resort to alcohol to solve his pains. In America, there is a certain idea of ownership of something that you have to buy to get back, even if it was originally yours, like in the time when the trail of tears occurred and many Native Americans had to relocate their homes because of it being taken away from them in the first place. This happened when Jackson’s grandmother lost her Regalia fifty years ago and he realized that it belongs to him, and not the pawn shop that currently carries it. Yet Native Americans are always adaptable and come back from their hardships and suffering through this myth and storytelling about everyday life. The purpose of this story is to show what is happening through Jackson’s life and how he faces his loss of identity and disappearance, ending with him successfully earning his grandmother’s regalia back and recover his identity. “I took my grandmother’s regalia and walked outside. Outside, I wrapped myself in my grandmother’s regalia and breathed her in. I stepped off the sidewalk and into the intersection. Pedestrians stopped. Cars stopped. The city stopped. They all watched me dance with my grandmother. I was my grandmother, dancing.”