So, one peculiar moment I had while teaching Ceremony last term was realizing that many of my students weren’t familiar with the ‘drunken indian’ as a stereotype or character trope. Part of me is pleased that they’re innocent of such things, but part of me knows that this depiction is still out there, and, anyway, is at least an historical reality that helps one understand the kind of fire Silko was playing with when she depicted her characters in frequent, destructive bouts of drinking, and then asked her readers to empathize with them.
So I’ve been scouring the internet for a couple of months. It’s actually now easier to find intelligent discussion of the stereotype than it is to find hideous historical examples of it. (The linked site has some comics, but none of them are sourced, which makes their use a little more problematic.) Where to find this kind of cultural refuse?
Ebay.
The above is a vintage ad for stringbeans and a flask from Wisconsin that the seller estimates to be from the 50s. That flask would make a “great” teaching prop if it wasn’t $50.
