The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Mary emails Junior from Montana, saying she loves her new life. She is looking for a job and describes the Flathead Reservation, which has six or seven towns, a few of which are full of White people. She tells Junior about her honeymoon on Flathead Lake, where she and her husband stayed in a hotel and ordered room service, including Indian fry bread. She imagined a Flathead Indian grandmother making it in the hotel kitchen. She ends her letter saying she loves her life, her husband, and Montana, and she tells Junior she loves him as well.

Junior and his family celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. He remarks that it’s funny that Indians celebrate Thanksgiving because a few years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the pilgrims were shooting Indians. His dad says they’re thankful that the pilgrims didn’t kill all of them, and they laugh. Junior notes his dad is sober and it’s a great day.

Junior misses Rowdy, so he draws a cartoon of them as superheroes and brings it to Rowdy’s house. Rowdy’s obviously drunk father answers the door, and Junior leaves the cartoon with him. Rowdy’s father says Junior is “kind of gay” (103).