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Cowboys and East Indians
Set in Wyoming and India, the short-story collection COWBOYS AND EAST INDIANS explores the immigrant experience and the collisions of cultures in the American West as seen through the eyes of outsiders. From motel owners to rig workers, cross-dressers to exchange students, this book examines the rural immigrant experience -- and how identity is shaped by place.
199 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2013
1128 people want to read
About the author
Nina McConigley
3 books104 followersNINA McCONIGLEY is the author of the story collection Cowboys and East Indians, which was the winner of the PEN/Open Book Award and the High Plains Book Award. She has received grants and fellowships from the NEA, the Radcliffe Institute, Bread Loaf, Vermont Studio Center, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She was a recipient of the Wyoming Arts Council’s Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Writing Award and a finalist for a National Magazine Award for her columns in High Country News. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Orion, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Salon, among other outlets. Born in Singapore and raised in Wyoming, she now lives in Colorado and teaches at Colorado State University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 11, 2022
A distinct short story collection about East Indians living in Wyoming. I thought Nina McConigley did an excellent job portraying the difficulties of this lived experience, like the racial microaggressions, feelings of “otherness,” and searching for your identity when you feel like you’ve lost it or it was never yours to begin with. At the same time, I found these stories repetitive in their focus on suffering. While I appreciate learning about and bearing witness to people’s pain, I also felt that this collection ignored this marginalized group’s potential for strength and racial solidarity. For example, in the last story, an Indian woman spends a year in India to try and reconnect with her roots, and then an Indian woman who already lives in India makes fun of her online for it – I felt confused about what greater societal message McConginely hoped to impart through this relational conflict. I also noticed a few casual moments of unaddressed anti-Blackness throughout these stories, like East Indian children preferring white dolls over Black dolls and marrying white people but not Black people, which felt iffy to me.
I know I’ve left several three-star reviews in a row and I am hoping to shake this trend soon! Fingers crossed.
I know I’ve left several three-star reviews in a row and I am hoping to shake this trend soon! Fingers crossed.
July 7, 2016
"We were the wrong kind of Indians living in Wyoming."
While in college I worked in an after school program, and a five year old girl asked me if I was Spanish. When I said I was Indian, she paused, squinted her eyes, and then calmly said, " I thought all the Indians were dead."
Another flashback. When we were kids playing Cowboys and Indians in Kenya, all of us wanted to be Cowboys, because they were the good guys, besides the Indians all got killed. Sigh.
The immigrant experience tends to be unique to each immigrant, but so is the American experience. It is too easy to cast all Americans into one bucket and call it done, but the author quickly dissuades you of that notion. These stories all have an Indian at their center, the dot not feather kind, which is also the category I fall into.
I'm not a fan of the short story format, but I really liked the voice and glimpses of the American experience captured in this one. As with any collection, there are stories I loved, and others I did not, and the ones I loved have stayed me.
While in college I worked in an after school program, and a five year old girl asked me if I was Spanish. When I said I was Indian, she paused, squinted her eyes, and then calmly said, " I thought all the Indians were dead."
Another flashback. When we were kids playing Cowboys and Indians in Kenya, all of us wanted to be Cowboys, because they were the good guys, besides the Indians all got killed. Sigh.
The immigrant experience tends to be unique to each immigrant, but so is the American experience. It is too easy to cast all Americans into one bucket and call it done, but the author quickly dissuades you of that notion. These stories all have an Indian at their center, the dot not feather kind, which is also the category I fall into.
I'm not a fan of the short story format, but I really liked the voice and glimpses of the American experience captured in this one. As with any collection, there are stories I loved, and others I did not, and the ones I loved have stayed me.
December 27, 2013
Full Disclosure: Nina is a former student and a friend. That said, there's no mistaking the strength of this collection. Each piece is fresh and focused. And we can't, in my opinion, have too many new voices -- saying new and challenging things -- in America (especially in the West). My favorites are "Pomp and Circumstances," "Fenced Out," and "Curating Your Life." The last one gives us a luscious hint of what Nina McConigley will be like as a novelist. Marvelous.
September 25, 2013
http://www.hcn.org/issues/45.16/the-w...
Cowboys and East Indians
Nina McConigley
195 pages, softcover: $15.95.
FiveChapters Books, 2013.
In her captivating debut story collection, Casper-raised author Nina McConigley examines with wit and empathy what it means to be "the wrong kind of Indians living in Wyoming." Although prejudice and ignorance surface, there are few bad guys in this game of cowboys and Indians, only complicated human beings.
The characters in Cowboys and East Indians must explain themselves frequently -- they are never quite what those who encounter them expect. In the story "Dot or Feather," a foreign exchange student from India tells a Wyoming kid dressed up as a Native American, "There are two kinds of Indians. Some wear dots, others wear feathers. You're a feather Indian. I wear a dot."
A gnawing sense of never-belonging troubles many of McConigley's characters. In the title story, Faith Henderson, a "dot Indian" adopted at age 2, remembers how she and an Arapaho classmate, the only other non-white student at her school, took turns portraying Mary "in various school Christmas pageants, since Mary was Middle Eastern." While attending college in Laramie, Faith tries to befriend a group of East Indian graduate students, hoping they will invite her to share their lives and culture. Instead, they take advantage of her, asking her to drive them places in her minivan. In the delightful, surprising "Pomp and Circumstances," Chitra is an Indian immigrant whose husband's job brings them to Casper. At an office Christmas party, she tells an anecdote about a "hijra," a traditional Indian transvestite, and soon her husband's boss, Richard Larson, invites her for tea with his wife. While there, Richard asks if she can help him try on a sari, and introduces Chitra to his elaborate cross-dressing wardrobe hidden in his gun locker. A weird and wonderful secret understanding develops between the three people. "It is unspoken between them," McConigley writes. "This kind of thing can get you killed in Wyoming."
But despite Wyoming's harsh social rules, abundant oil derricks, and scrappy towns that aren't "the West people were expecting," the characters in Cowboys and East Indians love their state, and its wildlife and landscape color the way they experience the world. These people are as skinny as a "lodgepole pine" or as unpredictable as a prairie dog poised on the edge of the highway -- and they belong to Wyoming. As in all great fiction, McConigley has delved into the particular and emerged with genuine stories that touch the universal.
Cowboys and East Indians
Nina McConigley
195 pages, softcover: $15.95.
FiveChapters Books, 2013.
In her captivating debut story collection, Casper-raised author Nina McConigley examines with wit and empathy what it means to be "the wrong kind of Indians living in Wyoming." Although prejudice and ignorance surface, there are few bad guys in this game of cowboys and Indians, only complicated human beings.
The characters in Cowboys and East Indians must explain themselves frequently -- they are never quite what those who encounter them expect. In the story "Dot or Feather," a foreign exchange student from India tells a Wyoming kid dressed up as a Native American, "There are two kinds of Indians. Some wear dots, others wear feathers. You're a feather Indian. I wear a dot."
A gnawing sense of never-belonging troubles many of McConigley's characters. In the title story, Faith Henderson, a "dot Indian" adopted at age 2, remembers how she and an Arapaho classmate, the only other non-white student at her school, took turns portraying Mary "in various school Christmas pageants, since Mary was Middle Eastern." While attending college in Laramie, Faith tries to befriend a group of East Indian graduate students, hoping they will invite her to share their lives and culture. Instead, they take advantage of her, asking her to drive them places in her minivan. In the delightful, surprising "Pomp and Circumstances," Chitra is an Indian immigrant whose husband's job brings them to Casper. At an office Christmas party, she tells an anecdote about a "hijra," a traditional Indian transvestite, and soon her husband's boss, Richard Larson, invites her for tea with his wife. While there, Richard asks if she can help him try on a sari, and introduces Chitra to his elaborate cross-dressing wardrobe hidden in his gun locker. A weird and wonderful secret understanding develops between the three people. "It is unspoken between them," McConigley writes. "This kind of thing can get you killed in Wyoming."
But despite Wyoming's harsh social rules, abundant oil derricks, and scrappy towns that aren't "the West people were expecting," the characters in Cowboys and East Indians love their state, and its wildlife and landscape color the way they experience the world. These people are as skinny as a "lodgepole pine" or as unpredictable as a prairie dog poised on the edge of the highway -- and they belong to Wyoming. As in all great fiction, McConigley has delved into the particular and emerged with genuine stories that touch the universal.
February 15, 2016
I had the great fortune of reading with Nina in New York's esteemed Sunday Salon reading series in October, 2013. At that event, she sold out of copies of her book before I had the chance to purchase one! And for good reason. So thrilled I finally had the chance to take her stories in. Among my favorites are "Pomp and Circumstance," "Dot or Feather," and "Fenced Out." These illustrate the quiet, troubling protagonists, outsiders all, mixed cultures and ethnicities, and the wide swath of landscape known as Wyoming. And yet, among Nina's brilliant stories resonates these Universal Truths: as diverse as we may appear outwardly, we are all so alike on the inside: insecure, liars, cross-dressers, thieves, acne-ridden, pock-marked, closeted, aloof. It matters not, these stories ring with a culpable sense of bling and zing. But the "not in your face" kind. The Wyoming way.
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August 26, 2016I've never read a collection of stories like this before: Nina McConigley's debut collection focuses on East Indians living in the American West. The stories are laced through with a wry, bittersweet humor that made me laugh and wince at the same time. Take the first line of "Dot or Feather": "By the time Sindu Thyagaraja came to live in Wyoming, she was already calling herself Cindy." There aren't nearly enough stories out there exploring the ways immigrants, and their descendants, navigate the complexities of identity and culture--let alone this particular group, the "wrong kind of Indians," as the first story in the collection puts it. I'm glad this book, and McConigley's voice, have come into the world.
September 27, 2014
It's hard to convey on how many levels I identified with characters throughout these stories. The very first story read like I have often felt. It's pretty unique when that happens. I give out 5 stars rather freely, this one deserves at least 7. I wish I had more words for this, but I think you would ALL be better served to read it yourselves and create your own words for this book. It deserves them.
October 1, 2015
An insightful collection of stories, exploring themes of belonging, otherness and identity as something both inherited and created. Each story felt intensely personal, and had the kind of high-stakes emotional impact needed to keep the pages turning. But there's a lot of humor here, and unique perspectives driving the narratives. A unique collection, straight out of the heart of Wyoming.
September 10, 2019
I thought this was a collection of beautifully curated short stories by incredibly talented writers. Now realizing all these are written by the same person, I am even more impressed; not only does McConigley have talent and depth, but range to boot. So many of my favorite themes are here: multi-cultural coming-of-age, finding oneself, covert racism exposed, and transportive travel writing.
March 29, 2015
Really thought-provoking book about the clash of cultures created by immigration of East Indians to Wyoming through the generations. Think of it as Jhumpa Lahiri meets Annie Proulx.
May 16, 2025
A collection of short stories about (southeast) Indian tourists to U.S. citizens in Wyoming, and also about white Wyoming folks either in India or interacting with Indian Wyomingans (even if just briefly.) There were themes of displacement for everyone.
The first “flash” story didn’t do very much for me; “Melting,” which was about a dark-skinned Indian boy in Wyoming who misunderstood a racial slur. Not a lot of room to explore things too deeply.
But starting with the next story, the titular one, McConigley started going into the weeds of interesting character development. Maybe other stories in the collection technically fit the title better, but instead we got Faith Henderson, born as Ranjani on a church doorstep in Madras (often the setting in India) and then adopted by white Wyoming parents. But now her parents are divorced, her boyfriend exoticizes her, and she’s looking for connection with Indian exchange students at the local college. Unfortunately, like many characters discover here, there is no easy way in.
One notable exception might be Richard Larson in “Pomp and Circumstance.” Chitra, the main character of the story, is the wife of Richard’s colleague, and they meet at a holiday party. Conversation rambles off, and suddenly Chitra is explaining the “hijra” (a transgender group of people in India,) and she invites Richard to secretly try on her saris. “’First you make a knot like this and tuck it in,’ [Chitra] says while tucking the end of the silk into his waistband. It’s the first time beyond a handshake that she has touched Richard Larson. Somehow feeling the soft give of his belly and sensing the paleness of his arms, she feels protective of him. She senses his vulnerability…When she is done, she takes a long look at Richard Larson. It is as if he’s no longer Richard Larson, but Clara. He stands very still, almost as if he’s taking something in.”
I’m almost embarrassed by how much I liked “Split Estate,” where the Indian character is very much an afterthought. The bulk of the story revolves around Lewis, a geologist working at a coalbed methane well, is dealing with gout, a down-on-his-luck colleague and his small son, gambling and loneliness. In some ways this environment was the most foreign to me, and McConigley painted a riveting picture.
In other stories, Indian exchange student Sindu dealt with America not living up to her Archie-Comics expectations by stealing from her babysitting clients. Devout Helen went to a church in Chennai where she was secretly looking for facial cream for her bad acne, but instead found her fair skin to label her attractive for the first time. In the story where maybe “Cowboys and East Indians” would have been too trite a title, a mixed-race bride has an elaborate wedding featuring both cultures, while her sister is haunted by their mother’s death and can’t seem to find her place. Delia’s life is upside down in many ways except that she’s an esteemed sewer, so she commits a petty act of theft when the wife of the new Indian doctor wins a doll-dressing prize. And an Indian-American raised in Wyoming finds less acceptance than she hoped for when she takes on a nonprofit job in her parents’ home country.
A nice, eclectic and surprisingly wide-ranging set of stories given the common themes. I will say the penultimate story, “Fenced Out,” kind of took me out of the flow for a bit due to sheer depression. Madhu, part of an Indian family that moves to Wyoming to operate a motel, is already living a dismal life before a horrible car accident leaves her paralyzed from the neck down. Her husband pretty much has no character except for how awful he is, and her only friend appears to be her translator, Padma, for what good it does her through this story. Not a lot. :/
Maybe I’d beg McConigley, if I could, to write a follow-up story or novel/novella where Madhu might be able to experience some happiness, or at least peace for once. But otherwise, this was a very enjoyable experience.
The first “flash” story didn’t do very much for me; “Melting,” which was about a dark-skinned Indian boy in Wyoming who misunderstood a racial slur. Not a lot of room to explore things too deeply.
But starting with the next story, the titular one, McConigley started going into the weeds of interesting character development. Maybe other stories in the collection technically fit the title better, but instead we got Faith Henderson, born as Ranjani on a church doorstep in Madras (often the setting in India) and then adopted by white Wyoming parents. But now her parents are divorced, her boyfriend exoticizes her, and she’s looking for connection with Indian exchange students at the local college. Unfortunately, like many characters discover here, there is no easy way in.
One notable exception might be Richard Larson in “Pomp and Circumstance.” Chitra, the main character of the story, is the wife of Richard’s colleague, and they meet at a holiday party. Conversation rambles off, and suddenly Chitra is explaining the “hijra” (a transgender group of people in India,) and she invites Richard to secretly try on her saris. “’First you make a knot like this and tuck it in,’ [Chitra] says while tucking the end of the silk into his waistband. It’s the first time beyond a handshake that she has touched Richard Larson. Somehow feeling the soft give of his belly and sensing the paleness of his arms, she feels protective of him. She senses his vulnerability…When she is done, she takes a long look at Richard Larson. It is as if he’s no longer Richard Larson, but Clara. He stands very still, almost as if he’s taking something in.”
I’m almost embarrassed by how much I liked “Split Estate,” where the Indian character is very much an afterthought. The bulk of the story revolves around Lewis, a geologist working at a coalbed methane well, is dealing with gout, a down-on-his-luck colleague and his small son, gambling and loneliness. In some ways this environment was the most foreign to me, and McConigley painted a riveting picture.
In other stories, Indian exchange student Sindu dealt with America not living up to her Archie-Comics expectations by stealing from her babysitting clients. Devout Helen went to a church in Chennai where she was secretly looking for facial cream for her bad acne, but instead found her fair skin to label her attractive for the first time. In the story where maybe “Cowboys and East Indians” would have been too trite a title, a mixed-race bride has an elaborate wedding featuring both cultures, while her sister is haunted by their mother’s death and can’t seem to find her place. Delia’s life is upside down in many ways except that she’s an esteemed sewer, so she commits a petty act of theft when the wife of the new Indian doctor wins a doll-dressing prize. And an Indian-American raised in Wyoming finds less acceptance than she hoped for when she takes on a nonprofit job in her parents’ home country.
A nice, eclectic and surprisingly wide-ranging set of stories given the common themes. I will say the penultimate story, “Fenced Out,” kind of took me out of the flow for a bit due to sheer depression. Madhu, part of an Indian family that moves to Wyoming to operate a motel, is already living a dismal life before a horrible car accident leaves her paralyzed from the neck down. Her husband pretty much has no character except for how awful he is, and her only friend appears to be her translator, Padma, for what good it does her through this story. Not a lot. :/
Maybe I’d beg McConigley, if I could, to write a follow-up story or novel/novella where Madhu might be able to experience some happiness, or at least peace for once. But otherwise, this was a very enjoyable experience.
May 4, 2016
McConigley has the ability to breathe incredible life into all of the characters in each of these short stories. It doesn't matter if you don't know what it's like to be the "wrong kind of Indian" in Wyoming, if you've never been to Wyoming, never been to India, or don't have a particular strong opinion on whether Midwestern steak or pav bhaji is the better comfort food. I believe every reader will find moments and characters to relate to. Whether it's a cross-dressing roughneck or a 20-something barista hungry to fit in, though? The answer might surprise you.
December 7, 2019
Really powerful prose - there’s an undercurrent of melancholy woven throughout. Rich, beautiful descriptions of realities - both external and internal - so you’re transported to where the characters are, physically and emotionally.
“No, Lucky, you’re like one of those prairie dogs you see by the side of the road. When you’re driving. The ones that pause there on the edge, and you never know if they’re going to dart across the road, or have sense to turn back around onto the prairie. They’re just there frozen and you never know what choice they’re going to make.”
You know the pit-of-the-stomach feeling? Every single story. ‘Fenced Out’ was the hardest to read - but that’s because of my own difficulty with reading about a broken future that is not of one’s own making. ‘White wedding’, I think, was my favorite - closely followed by the title story. The last story was especially powerful. Great collection!
“No, Lucky, you’re like one of those prairie dogs you see by the side of the road. When you’re driving. The ones that pause there on the edge, and you never know if they’re going to dart across the road, or have sense to turn back around onto the prairie. They’re just there frozen and you never know what choice they’re going to make.”
You know the pit-of-the-stomach feeling? Every single story. ‘Fenced Out’ was the hardest to read - but that’s because of my own difficulty with reading about a broken future that is not of one’s own making. ‘White wedding’, I think, was my favorite - closely followed by the title story. The last story was especially powerful. Great collection!
December 23, 2020
4.5 stars. Cowboys and East Indians is a collection of short stories about the very unique immigrant experience of being “the wrong kind of Indians living in Wyoming,” written in spare prose that infuses its characters with warmth and its small-town settings with mythic nostalgia. “White Wedding” is my favorite here by far, a meditation on loss and familial obligation wrapped up in a coming-of-age story about biracial identity and post-college funk. It’s such a high bar to set that it became my benchmark for the rest of the collection, with “Fenced Out” being the only other piece to decimate me in a similar way, while others like “Pomp and Circumstance” were good, but in much quieter ways. Adding Nina McConigley to my MFA fantasy faculty lineup!
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January 9, 2023these are some creative, odd, and potent stories. really impressed and inspired by nina’s ability to create unique, well-formed, attention-grabbing characters in the span of a short story. many of the plots are interesting, yes, but what makes the stories stick are their flawed characters, all who have their own ailments and anxieties and quirks and histories. feelings of being lost and searching, of being constantly in-between and unsettled, of being on the outside pleading for a way in abound.
my favorite stories:
pomp and circumstance
split estate
white wedding
reserve champion
my favorite stories:
pomp and circumstance
split estate
white wedding
reserve champion
August 28, 2020
Great book
I loved this collection of short stories. I am a culture lover and adore reading about culture clashes. I grew up as an American in Kenya. This author describes a multitude of ways that Indian and American culture can clash and can combine. Her connection to Wyoming makes the stories more compelling than if they were centered around a big city.
I heard this author on The Moth and knew immediately that I should read her book. I was right.
I loved this collection of short stories. I am a culture lover and adore reading about culture clashes. I grew up as an American in Kenya. This author describes a multitude of ways that Indian and American culture can clash and can combine. Her connection to Wyoming makes the stories more compelling than if they were centered around a big city.
I heard this author on The Moth and knew immediately that I should read her book. I was right.
September 21, 2022
Book of short stories all involving East Indians living in Wyoming or from Wyoming living In India. Interesting perspective on cultural issues. Never thought about what it would be like to be transplanted into such a different world like Wyoming. I think it would be hard for me, as a city dwelling midwesterner. I can’t imagine what it would be like coming from half way around the world. But Nina McConigley can.
May 6, 2017
Feeling Ambivalent. Much like those in the book straddling different cultures. Felt too negative about the Indian culture without showing the positives. Stories seemed really extreme and hard for me to connect with. I did like the stereotype breaking that occurred in Reserve Champion. I really appreciated the story Melting and wrongly thought the book would be more like that.
July 19, 2019
This is an excellent book in a format I enjoy more than any other: Themed Short Story Anthology akin to The Things They Carried. What bugs me though is whether or not this is creative nonfiction or fiction. I started reading this believing it was the author's personal experiences. But now I'm left wondering how much of this is entirely imagined and how much really happened.
July 15, 2020
I read this book a few years ago. I grew up in this part of the world and I'm of East Indian descent. She has produced a work of amazing, observant creative fiction. It really feels like you are there. She's captured the desolation, the isolation, the ignorance, often masked by kindness and "warmth". It's all in there. Good work and important literary contribution.
November 9, 2021
Every once in a while I meet someone with an interesting story and even if I never see them again, I will remember their story. This collection of short stories is like that. I think I will remember them for a long time.
Each story was unique and stood on its own. Some were fun to read, others painful. I appreciated both. I definitely recommend!
Each story was unique and stood on its own. Some were fun to read, others painful. I appreciated both. I definitely recommend!
September 3, 2023
Two four star stories for me: Cowboys and East Indians and Pomp and Circumstance. One five star story: White Wedding. These three stories were fanatastic, but the other stories fell very flat for me. I did not understand what they were trying to do.
Probably worth reading for the stories you will end up loving, but the collection overall is very different.
Probably worth reading for the stories you will end up loving, but the collection overall is very different.
May 7, 2020
I thought this was a good collection of short stories with an uncommon perspective. Some, like ‘Pomp and Circumstances’ and ‘Cowboys and East Indians’ were more interested than others. I’ll likely revisit a few of the stories, and I suggest it to friends for a different viewpoint.
May 12, 2021
This was Wyoming. I was truly blown away by this collection and it caught me by surprise. Every story was as unique and heart-wrenching as the next. What an incredible feat. Love love loved it, so grateful I discovered it in my states challenge.
October 25, 2024
Four stars for the quality writing, but this is a dispiriting collection. What is it about Wyoming and hopelessness? (See Rock Springs by Richard Ford) The constant, oppressive sense of being an outsider in these stories needs something for relief.
July 17, 2017
OMG loved this book! Disclaimer: Nina was at Fishtrap and I heard her speak and read, but did not take her workshop. Lovely writing nonetheless.
February 12, 2018
Really interesting stories and I enjoyed the book.
March 1, 2018
I really like short stories. As with many compilations, there were a couple of stories that fell flat for me, but the majority were well written and a few were exceptional. Well worth reading.
June 11, 2018
What I love about these short stories was that Nina finds flawed characters and then makes them come alive for us! And then there’s the O’Henry endings that are not what we expected.
August 5, 2018
An enjoyable romp through neatly-crafted short stories. Indian Americans in Wyoming is a literary perspective quite unique.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews