Summary
In the continuance of this already tragic story we are introduced to Rowdy, the toughest kid on the reservation. Surprisingly, he is Junior's best friend. He cares about Junior and always tells him the truth. Rowdy's father is a hard drinker and is always punching Rowdy and his mother. Juniors house is a safe place, so Rowdy spends most of his time there. Rowdy loves comic books, and Junior's cartoons make him laugh. Rowdy is a dreamer, just like Junior, and he only talks about his dreams with his friend. Junior thinks Rowdy may be the most important person in his life.
On this particular day, Rowdy wants to go to the powwow. Junior likes the dancers and singers at the powwow, but he does not like the Indians who attend and get drunk and get into fights. Junior is also afraid someone he knows will recognize him and pick on him, but Rowdy, promising to stick up for him, convinces him to go. At the powwow, Rowdy trips and bumps into a window, and when Junior laughs, Rowdy goes into one of his infamous rages. Junior runs, but is accosted by the Andruss brothers, who, at age thirty, are the cruelest triplets in the history of the world. The brothers make fun of Junior and beat him up, and when Rowdy finds out, he resolves to seek revenge for his friend. When the Andruss boys fall asleep in their camp, Rowdy sneaks in, shaves their eyebrows, and cuts off their braids, which is about the worst thing you can do to an Indian guy.
Junior is fourteen, and is happy about starting high school. He is especially anxious to take his first geometry class. Unlike his sister, Mary, who spends her days alone in the basement. Mr. P is Junior's geometry teacher. He is described as a weird-looking dude. The tribe houses all the teachers at the reservation school in cottages on-site, and sometimes Mr. P forgets to come to school, and, when summoned, ends up teaching in his pajamas. Junior has had some strange teachers before, but Mr. P isn't like them. Junior thinks Mr. P is a lonely old man who used to be a lonely young man, who, like many lonely white people love to hang around lonelier Indians.
When Mr. P passes out the geometry books, Junior is ecstatic. He cracks it open with great anticipation, and is stunned to read inside the front cover: This book belongs to Agnes Adams. Agnes Adams is Junior's mother, and Junior is horrified when he realizes that the books are at least thirty years older than he is.
In the book, Juniors draws individual pictures. The pictures he draws are more of doodles of other characters in the book. So that means that some of the pictures have characteristics that reveals what type of character the person is, such as Rowdy. On Rowdy's picture there are tiny squiggles coming off his head to show how heated he is, and angry comments surround his picture. comments that read things like life sucks and "you white lover", which is frowned upon in an Indian reservation because it seems like your abandoning your tribal heritage for the white man who has put you in such a poorly managed condition.
Quote
"Cutting off their braids, is about the worst thing you can do to an Indian guy" (Alexie 80).
Reaction
This is a surprise to hear this from Junior. I thought that Junior was always depressed and looked down on his people. However by saying that the worst thing to do to an Indian is cutting off their braids then he actually shows that they have values. He makes them seem like real people instead of drunken idiots. How does one look down on a moralled person?
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