Short Story: You Don T Look Indian

Identity Crisis

Some people struggle with understanding who they are every day. They constantly look for ways to fit in. Curiosity can make him or her search for their place in society. In the narrative “You don’t look Indian” by Greg Sarris, we follow him in his journey to finding out his true identity.

Gregg Sarris was given up at birth in the mid nineteen hundreds. He was adopted and grew up around Pomo Indians. Although he identified himself as an Indian, his physical appearance suggested otherwise.” And here I am with blue eyes and fair skin.” (161) During the time that Sarris was growing up, whites were still not that receptive of people with Hispanic origin. “A counselor called me in and asked if my family knew I went around with Mexicans.

‘Yes,’ I said.” (161) Because his biological mother died not long after he was born, Sarris had very little to trace back to who he was. He mentions that just like American Indian writer Louise Erdrich, people would often inform him that he didn’t look Indian.
Being a part of the Indian ethnicity was all Sarris knew.

He had been surrounded by Indians almost his whole life. From a very young age, he had been taken in by a Pomo Indian family. To think that these weren’t his people was probably upsetting. He had learned the Indian culture and even some of the Pomo Indian language. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t actually Indian biologically. He was nothing less than Indian at heart.

Sarris eventually goes on a search for his roots. The little information that he had, was given to the medical staff by his white mother while she was delivering him. “My mother uttered something on the delivery table about the father being Spanish.” (161) Sarris was indeed confused about who he was. However, he didn’t give up on finding the answer to his question. He would eventually meet his biological mother’s brother, who would give him a possible name for his assumed to be Indian father.

Emilio was the name given for Sarris’s father. After thirty-six years of life, Sarris had finally been given a piece of information that could help him in finding out his “true identity”. He was nothing less than excited. “To have a name, even a nickname, seemed unfathomable.” (159) He would now begin the frantic search for his

father.
Unfortunately, by the time Greg Sarris finds his father, he has been dead for about five years. Nonetheless, his search isn’t in vain. He meets his father’s half-brother, and his grandfather. His grandfather is Filipino. While people weren’t quite sure what ethnicity his grandmother was, he discovers his she had an Indian mother. So, all of those years of feeling like he was in some way misplaced, he was reassured that he was indeed an Indian.
Greg Sarris story ends in triumph. Although he didn’t get a chance to meet the people responsible for his being here, he got the chance to ease his troubled mind. Sure, he was a part of an ethnic group with a complicated background, but to him they were family. It didn’t matter if people would aggravate him with their remarks of how he looked on the outside. All that mattered is that he finally knew who he was, and that is Indian.