HUM 221: 'Smoke Signals' - some questions and a background link

The questions are basically the same ones you asked yourself Friday as we watched Sherman Alexie's 2001 lecture at Rutgers University-Newark. I'll copy them below, and you can scroll down a couple of posts for more information about it. The questions (lightly edited):

1. How are Alexie's life experiences reflected in his writing. What do you think he wants his movie audiences to experience? What's his message?

2. Alexie's mother was Spokane Indian, and his father was Coeur d-Alene. How is his Native American background reflected in the movie? Would you say he's a Native American screenwriter or a writer who happens to be Native American?

3. How do you, as a white or black American, react to what he says? If you have Native heritage in your family, does that affect the way you feel about him? If not, does that affect the way you feel? How many of his themes -- affect you as a moviegoer? In your opinion, is he talking about American Indians or human nature?

If you suspect I'm leading up to the final exam with these questions, you're exactly right.

Here's a link to the page on Coeur d'Alene culture and history on the Native-Languages website. It begins:

As a complement to our Coeur d'Alene language information, here is our collection of indexed links about the Coeur dAlene tribe and their society. Please note that Coeur dAlenes and other American Indians are living people with a present and a future as well as a past. Coeur d'Alene history is interesting and important, but the Coeur d'Alene Indians are still here today, too, and we try to feature modern writers as well as traditional folklore, contemporary art as well as museum pieces, and the life and struggles of today as well as the tragedies of yesterday.

Good advice for us, too, as we watch "Smoke Signals" and get ready for the final exam in HUM 221.