The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Read between September 6 - September 14, 2024
3%
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And hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better.
5%
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It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re poor because you’re stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it.
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So I heard the boom of my father’s rifle when he shot my best friend. A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that.
8%
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Rowdy isn’t a fast reader, but he’s persistent.
8%
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Can your best friend be more important than your family? I think so.
9%
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It was like some kind of prison-work farm for our liberal, white, vegetarian do-gooders and conservative, white missionary saviors.
11%
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It doesn’t matter what you intended to do. What happens is what you really did.
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We were trying to kill Indian culture.”
26%
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We Spirits stay in one place. We are absolutely tribal. For good or bad, we don’t leave one another.
29%
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“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.” Wow. That was a huge idea.
36%
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I’d made it through the evening without revealing my poverty.
38%
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If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.
38%
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“Well, life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
44%
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I don’t know why I said it was okay. For some reason, I was protecting the feelings of the man who had broken my heart yet again.
45%
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Of course, ever since white people showed up and brought along their Christianity and their fears of eccentricity, Indians have gradually lost all of their tolerance.
46%
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I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.
50%
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“I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,” I said. “By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not.”
72%
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I like to joke and tell people that I’m not one of those Indians who believe in magic, but I believe in interpreting coincidence exactly the way I want to.
74%
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And, oh man, he was right about that.