Reservation Love Song

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

“Reservation Love Song” was published in 1992—the same year Laura Coltelli published Winged Words: American Indian Writers Speak. In her book, Coltelli interviews famous Indigenous writers—Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Simon Ortiz, among them—about Indigenous representation, myths, and stereotypes. Many of the authors agree that Indigenous writers should make readers examine what the United States government did to Indigenous people. Thus, Alexie’s poem is part of this movement to give voice to the realities of Indigenous life. Using humor, Alexie forces readers to confront alcoholism, lackluster government support, and other disquieting elements often found on reservations across America.

In 1992, James R. Kincaid wrote an article called “Who Gets to Tell Their Stories?” (The New York Times Book Review) that Alexie credits with pushing him into the limelight. Kincaid reviewed Coltelli’s book and the work of other Indigenous authors, including Alexie’s book The Business of Fancydancing. Kincaid describes Alexie’s work as “wonderfully grounded, often comically, and usually poignantly.” These qualities are on full display in “Reservation Long Song.”

Another literary context for “Reservation Love Song” is Postmodernism. Postmodernists focus on playfulness, symbolism, and experimentation. Postmodernists reject the highbrow/lowbrow binary associated with Modernism. They thought poems could be about anything, written in any number of ways, and contain no objective meaning/knowledge-base. Thus, Postmodern poets like David Trinidad, Eileen Myles, and Kenneth Goldsmith publish(ed) poems about toys, sports, TV shows, pop music, and Hollywood movies.

Alexie’s poem emphasizes Postmodernism’s playfulness. He plays with the poetry genre by calling his poem a “love song,” he plays with syntax by using the ampersand (&), and by banishing commas, periods, and almost any kind of punctuation mark. Alexie’s poem also subverts the highbrow/lowbrow binary with intentionally crude diction.

Historical Context

Reservation Love Song” reflects the centuries of persecution Indigenous people have faced in the United States. Before European colonists and settlers made their way to the populated land that would become known as the United States, Indigenous tribes cultivated advanced, sustainable cultures and communities. According to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2014), tribes developed herbal medication, dentistry, and surgery. The Europeans then brought disease and destruction. As the colonies turned into the United States of America and the settlers became Americans, the Americans, in the words of Dunbar-Ortiz, “crushed and subjected” the Indigenous people. They took their land and confined them to isolated, poorly financed reservations. In his memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, Alexie calls reservations “rural concentration camps” built by white men.

The punitive, brutal history of reservations manifests in “Reservation Love Song.” The speaker doesn’t possess much besides beer, a truck, inadequate support from the government, and their grandma’s old blankets. The lack of possessions reflects all that Indigenous people have lost due to how Europeans and Americans attacked, killed, and displaced them for centuries. Their long history of pain is one reason why some experts believe Indigenous people experience alcoholism at a disproportionately high rate (Ehlers, Cindy L., et al. “Measuring historical trauma in an American Indian community sample: Contributions of substance dependence, affective disorder, conduct disorder and PTSD.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1 Nov. 2013, pp. 180-187). In the poem, the speaker and their romantic partner arguably drink so much beer to try and forget their traumatic environment and history. In his memoir, Alexie says people approach him and, in reference to his dad’s drinking, exclaim, “Damn, why didn’t he drink more?” (You Don't Have to Say You Love Me).