Racism In Custer

From the beginning of our story I was immediately exposed to racism. “Two cops, one

Big and the other little, traveled through the dark. The big cop hated Indians.” On their way to

Little Bighorn to act out what seems to be, at least for the big cop, revenge for the 7th Cavalry.

After the first few lines of the story I’ve become outraged, mind blown at the closed-mindedness

of the big cop. After a few more lines my outrage only grows stronger after becoming more

involved with the cops. Then we get some background on the big cop’s stance towards Indians,

while it's true he has seen some terrible things, and arrested so many Indians you start to

understand why he feels the way he does. We then come to find out they have two badly beaten

Indians in the

Is it just some fantastic dark irony that the men who rise from their graves

and kill the police are soldiers instead of Indians, if not irony then why soldiers? Why is Edgar

having these visions? Is he in some way related to Custer? Is this why the soldiers respond to

his commands once he figures out they can hear him? All in all I enjoyed “Ghost Dance” it too

me on a rollercoaster ride of emotion and left me with a ton of questions I’m not sure will ever

get answered. I know the answers are up to me to interpret anyway I choose, but most of the

questions I still have will largely go unanswered.

My final thoughts on Alexie’s work are that he intended to point out racism and probably

abuse of power by police not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Atrocities are committed all over

the world some are spurred by race, religion, and gender. In recent years a number of high

profile cases claiming racism against police have gone on in the U.S. and I think this is why this

story is included in our readings for this semester. My final thought is on why zombies?

Honestly I think Alexie used zombies in his story because they are incapable of