THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS: A NOVEL (2021)
By Stephen Graham Jones
Saga Press, 312 pages.
★★★★★
Social scientists use the word “thin” when referencing cultures in which the boundaries between the natural and supernatural are porous. This describes well the world views of many indigenous peoples. Steven Graham Jones—a member of the Blackfeet nation—plays upon thinness in a new novel that’s equal parts mystery and horror tale. He keeps us guessing through the entirety of the novel. Are we reading about an elaborate murder revenge plot, or something beyond our comprehension?
It is set in and around Great Falls, Montana, where there is a Blackfeet reservation, but also a lot of Crow Natives who have migrated northward. The story centers on four Blackfeet friends from childhood—Ricky, Lewis, Cassidy, and Gabe—and opens in North Dakota, where Ricky dies after being trampled by a herd of elk. Sudden death of young Natives is, alas, an all too common phenomenon, but Ricky’s death unsettles his friends, especially Lewis, who long ago moved off the reservation with his longtime white partner, Peta.
Lewis is trying to break away from the reservation’s cycle of poverty. He and Peta live near Great Falls and Lewis holds down a steady job with the U.S. postal service. He makes up joking headlines to parody himself and Native life, such as “Indian Man First in History to Pick Up After Himself,” and immerses himself in reading graphic novels. He is, though, haunted by an incident from his high school years when he, Ricky, Cass, and Gabe trespassed on lands reserved for the elders and blasted away at a herd of elk. Much to his eternal consternation, he shot a calf and had to kill it rather brutally as it struggled. It was pregnant and he felt so horrible that he butchered it, gave away the meat, skinned it, and has carried the hide with him for more than a decade. Imagine the chill when he thinks he sees an elk-headed woman as he is trying to fix a ceiling fan. Is he being pranked by Shaney, a Native woman who seems to have designs on him? Have the graphic novels warped his perspective? His conclusions are chilling to say the least, as is his fate.
Back on the reservation, Cass and Gabe prepare for a sweat that will help teach young Nathan, the son of game warden Denny Pease, the ways of the Blackfeet, not that they are necessarily the best representatives of those traditions. Before the night is over, they too will be imperiled, as will be Denny, Cass’s Crow girlfriend Jo, and Gabe’s daughter Denorah, a high school basketball star who finds herself in a pickup game and flight for her life. And again the question arises as to who is responsible for what transpires. I sincerely doubt that you will anticipate the novel’s resolution or how it gets there, though I’m sure you will admire the resourceful Denorah.
Jones is a consummate storyteller who doesn’t care whether or not you think myth and reality can collide. Does the Elk-Headed Spirit haunt in the material world, in the mind, or is it merely an elaborate and sanguinary ruse? Must old debts be paid before anyone can rest? Do ghosts walk among us, correct the past, and then fade? In a thin world view, all things are possible. Or do they merely appear to be so? The Only Good Indians bears some resemblance to literary works employing magical realism, but even this doesn’t quite get it. Think thin. Think also of maternal determination and female self-empowerment.
This is a white-knuckle novel masterfully told. It will make you quake and rethink what you think justice demands. It is said that revenge is a dish best served cold. You have no idea how cold!
Rob Weir
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