In this poem, Sherman Alexie shows a side to him I have not seen before. He is full of utter hatred for Columbus and what he has done to both his tribe and the whole of Native American civilization.
His tone remains sarcastic when writing to Columbus, saying "Can you hear me over the white noise of your television set?" He is constantly attacking Columbus in this poem, taking everything that every American grew up believing and revealing the tragic truth about it.
Textbooks have been written misinforming peers of my generation on the truth of the pioneers and the Native Americans. Columbus and his lot were a cruel folk, making promises to the Native Americans and shamelessly breaking them.
Before reading this poem, I was indifferent to both Columbus and his national holiday. I now side with Alexie on the fact that Columbus is not the discoverer of America, but a person who did not know where he was going, accidentally ended up on Native American land and brutally killed off many innocent people. The pioneers truly bit the hand that fed them.
Columbus is not a hero in the eyes of the Native Americans, but is viewed as someone as vicious as Hitler to their people. He cast them away from their lands and now Native Americans are forced to live on reservations where they are living in poverty and are constantly escaping through alcoholism.
In the last stanza of his poem, Alexie mocks America saying that the first tree they destroy will be named America. This has multiple meanings that I think really demonstrate the overall tone of the poem. Firstly, the fact that Native Americans essentially live off of the land. Trees bear fruit and sustain life, and this was the Native American's main source. By naming the first tree they destroy America, Alexie is making a statement, because America tried to destroy the Native American heritage and way of life. By destroying a tree, they are destroying life, and by naming that destroyed tree America, they are stating that America has ruined their life.
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