Coyote Springs

Music is meant to be felt from head to toe, and down all the way into your toes. It is supposed to make you feel every single note and hang on to it until the next note goes back. Coyote Springs had the ability to do just that, but with fame comes misfortune and it is a never-ending cycle. Alexie demonstrates how suffering has left a powerful impact on his characters

dwelling on the Spokane Reservation, and how they are left to find their own way out by using music.

Sherman Alexie puts at each chapter a song from the band that they created, and these songs leave such a lasting emotion. The first song, reservation blues, when you read it makes you think about on a superficial level, that he is poor and unhappy. Taking a better look at it makes

you realize that whoever wrote this wasn’t just unhappy and poor, but rather they were depressed with the life they were living. There is a hunger that is repeated constantly and this hunger is never being sated because there is unrest within the person themselves. Alexie states “And if you ain’t got choices. What else do you choose?” (1). This song encompasses Junior since he always felt like he was stuck on the reservation and he had no way to get of it. He seemed to always be dragged back to the reservation, anytime he was able to leave. When he went to college, he thought that he could finally make something out of himself and never have to come back. That idea didn’t last long because his parents died and he had to come back. He finally thought he had done it, when they made Coyote Springs, it looked like everything was changing for him. He had a past that kept creeping up on him that he never could shake. For him, he lost everything: his parents, siblings, and the love of his life, but then the music came along and helped him, but once again he lost that as well.
With life, you don’t always get what you bargained for and there are some who come out on top of situations and those who cannot. Joel Janicki’s “The Art of Losing: Historical Allusions in Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues” expresses his concern about daily Native American life by divulging into their history. Janicki states “The history of the North American Indians is one that until recently has been told primarily by the “victors” in the struggle for supremacy over the continent with the “losers” who lost not only their land and way of life but also their voice in expressing their version of events.” (23). It is this strive to finally be able to one-up the people who are looking down on those are “winners”, the fight to be able to get over on the white man. The battle of being better than their white counterparts is the ultimate fight and this fight isn’t black or white. The problem with being better involves them becoming just like the white people. Coyote Springs had this constant battle between them all, and some would say that Junior's death was a failure, but in actuality it is him winning. By Junior deciding that if he could no longer figure a way out of the reservation; than what was the point of always having to constantly suffer.
The constantly having to suffer over and over without receiving or wanting any kind of help was what made Victor the person he is. Victor had to always put up this hard front in
order to feel like he ran the show.

The only person he claims to be scared of was Michael White Hawk, but other than that any and everyone was fair game for him. The problem with the way Victor went about is that he had to hide behind a mask of masculinity. The song Father and Farther captures his essence completely by stating “Are like a warrior. Who can only paint half of his face. While the other half cries and cries and cries.” (Alexie 93). It helps the perception to see that just because Victor is considered a bully, he had a rough past that he may not be able to cope. The built-up rage that he feels over situations that were out of his control is the reason why he became such an aggressive person. The incident with the pastor that was noted but wasn’t a topic that went into detail about. Andrea Smith, a Native American studies scholar, and activist, in her book, Conquest, goes into how rape was used as a tool for genocide. Smith goes into what rape is “...’nothing more or less’ a tool of patriarchal control...” (7). That’s exactly how it is said to be in many cases, a power play. It is used by men with high standings, typical a white man, to belittle someone they feel is less than them. The pastor using a young Native American boy for his own sick pleasure is nothing short of an injustice, but the problem lies with that many won’t convict them based off this alone it needs more than just a child who is a minority. Victor was also ruled by his abandonment issues which

is why he changed so much after Junior died because the crutch was no longer there.
You have to take into consideration the dream he had that involved his mother, father, and step-father; which possibly correlates to how he has some abandonment issues. Harold, his step-father, is one of the main reasons he hates himself so much because he couldn't accept that he was Native American; even though he had gotten with a Native American woman by stating "You can go any damn place you please, but I don't want no Indian kid hanging around us no more." (107). For Victor, it shows what is really valued by society: being a white; this is why I think having white women hanging off his arm didn't bother him. It was to be spiteful towards his past, that an Indian man has no problem getting with a white woman. They don't say at what age that he was, but the way you can tell it still affects him so is because given the opportunity he would kill to be with them again. He was prepared to face death again, even if it meant that he had to die in order to see them just one more time. In the dream, when he was running to catch up his hair was leaving him, but he couldn't see past the hurt and loneliness he knew would come for him. At the end of the dream, Victor expresses how much he hates being without his parents since "He dug because his father, Emery, and mother, Matilda, waited on a better reservation at the center of the world. On the reservation, Victor doesn't have any other family members and the closest person to him is Junior, but even then, he still doesn't seem to connect as well. It seems as if, he never had any kind of closure from his parents and step-father, and it haunts him in this dream. His dream has dark themes in it, that doesn't really make any sense and yet Victor still to want to run away from the unknown. Makes him not look as intimating anymore, but more as a coward.
Being a coward doesn’t mean a bad thing, but rather it shows that you have the ability to contain restraint against being more spontaneous.

If you take Checkers, for example, she was a coward that hid behind a fake name and persona, but she always knew what she wanted. She was a bold woman who knew what she had and didn’t mind flaunting it if it was necessary. Deep down she was scared, scared of being unwanted. She looked for men, who wouldn’t be a good match for her and rode it out until it came to a screeching halt. For her, nothing ever seemed to go right in her love life and the song treaties explains it with “Somebody breaks a hard promise. Somebody breaks your tired heart.” (Alexie 30). She is this lost torn soul who couldn’t help, but to want to be out of her own skin. She is missing out on the enjoyment of herself by embracing what she only has to offer. She has more than just her body to give. She can give so much more but is limited to the way she views herself. Smith goes into detail about the hierarchy of how it is viewed being a woman, man, and then a priest. Smith notes that “They had to convince ‘both men and women that a woman’s proper place was under the authority of her husband and that a man’s proper place was under the authority of the priests.’” (23). By trying to align herself with Father Arnold, she would have a lot more influence than those around her. Janicki even realizes that Alexie uses her own wants against her by playing up that she would rather

be white. By Janicki declaring Alexie's own feelings, "Sherman Alexie, in this story, accuses himself of being a racist, of stereotyping his own people, while at the same time, through his writing, he attempts to heal deep wounds.” (24). This would be the easiest way for her to be skyrocketed into popularity and be able to branch off from her sister by using Father Arnold. She could claim a white title just not have the blonde hair and blue eyes, her children would be half but as time goes on it would get diluted into almost nothing. They no longer would hold a shared identity as twins, but their own individual and ambitions set each sister apart from another.
Siblings all share similar wants and goals, but when it comes down to how they achieve them are different. Chess like her name played the long, strategic game in order to get the future she felt like she deserved. She always willing to do what it took to stay together with Thomas. She knew her twin would be alright and her tolerance for Junior and Victor didn’t seem to be too high. Chess in many different situations was the one who was able to stay strong; the song she connected well with was Indian Boy Love Song. The song reveals her role with “I hear you talking about your Trail of Tears. If you feel the need I can help calm your fears.” (Alexie 53). When Junior is having the nightmare and has to sing his death song, she doesn’t look back to try and comfort him. She looks to Thomas and makes sure he is alright, that the nightmare wasn’t affecting him. Chess was quick to latch onto Thomas as quickly as possible and once she did she tried to show him new ideas. One was to go back to church; which for Thomas was a big leap to take since he stopped going because he didn’t believe in it any longer. This argument stemmed from how religion was used a weapon to make Native Americans conform and lean on the government. Janicki points out the idea by disclosing “The novel provides insight on their long victimization by the forces of American Manifest Destiny, including their current over-dependence on a paternalistic bureaucratic government epitomized in the novel by the recurring acronyms HUD, BIA and IHS.” (26). They as a couple agree to disagree on the religion topic, but it was not a defining part of their relationship. The music was always the bigger picture for them and that together the songs would always be there to comfort them in times of need.
Music was an important role in each member life, but it seemed like Thomas always had the sparkle about that made it possible for him to succeed. He was the character that seemed the most put together, a well-rounded individual that wasn’t too soft or too hard. He empathized with anyone who crossed his path, and he never was the one to take judgment out on someone. I think this was his own secret way in order to gain more knowledge, so he could tell his stories. It was his natural ability to make stories, that he was able to make songs as well. He used the sorrows of those around him to redeem them. That was the real reason he wanted to leave the reservation because he no longer had any new stories to come up with. Just like in the song wake, "I can't bury my fear...I think it's time for us to find a way." (Alexie 276). This statement rung deep since they are going to a new place to leave the reservation behind them to forge a new path. Not many have the opportunity to leave and start anew and have the knowledge that everything will get better one day.