Unmasking
There’s a terrific investigative article by Matthew Fleischer in the most recent L.A. Weekly. Called Navahoax, it unmasks the celebrated Navajo author “Nasdijj” as a Michigan-born Anglo named Tim Barrus.
Sherman Alexie is quoted extensively in the article, as probably the first prominent literary figure to realize that Nasdijj was full of crap. The best bit in the article is Alexie’s explanation of why white people seem to be forever impersonating Indians:
My stepfather once told me, if you want anyone in the world to like you, just tell them that you’re Indian. For some reason we are elevated simply because of our race. I’m so popular I could start a cult. I could have 45 German women living with me tomorrow.
The fact of the matter is that Sherman Alexie’s considerable draw is the result of his talent and his body of work, not his ethnic background. I’ve read The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and I saw Smoke Signals when it was released, I think at the Angelika in Manhattan. I enjoyed both and I really ought to get around to reading more of Alexie’s short stories and novels. (I’ll skip the poetry.)
Filed under: Ejecta
Loved your piece. And wish the creepy Barrus an “interesting life” - as the Chinese curse has it - after this.
I had a very similar (I think) reaction to yours about Sherman Alexie. First read him in “Granta”, bought a collection, liked it - but let his voice become drowned out by too many others - even while odd scraps of his writing kept knocking around in my memory. Reading Alexie’s quotes in the Barrus take-down has given me a violent urge to revisit his fiction - and buy more of it. Just one tiny way of thanking a writer like him for keeping his terrific talent honest.
Not trying to be prissy here. I’ve read - and been wickedly fascinated by - yards and yards of stuff about Frey/Jayson Blair/ the “A Child called ‘It’” (or whatever) author et al. For vaguely professional reasons, I don’t consider this a waste of my time. But hitting my Amazon account on behalf of Sherman suddenly seems a positive step. Thanks for the nudge.
I’ve gone over “Nasdijj” looking for anagrams, acronyms, etc, and I can’t figure out if it means anything. I’d love to know how Barrus came up with it. It looks a little like “NASDAQ” but if it’s meant as social commentary on capitalism it falls short.