The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Junior includes a cartoon of his final report card. He gets As in everything, except for a B+ in Geology and a B- in Woodshop.

Junior and his parents visit the cemetery to clean the graves of Grandmother Spirit, Eugene, and Mary. His mother tells him she’s so proud of him. Junior knows staying on the reservation will kill him, and it makes him cry. He knows 10-15 more Spokane Indians will die in the next year because of alcohol.

Junior cries because he realizes he will have a better life in the White world and because he’s not alone in his loneliness. He realizes he is a Spokane Indian, but he belongs to many other tribes, like basketball players, cartoonists, and chips-and-salsa lovers. He misses Rowdy intensely and includes a drawing of them holding hands and jumping into Turtle Lake when they were nine.

Junior says the reservation is beautiful, covered in ancient Ponderosa pines, and he has climbed maybe one hundred of them. The tallest is out past Turtle Lake and over 100 feet tall, and he climbed it with Rowdy one summer day when they were 10. They were in Junior’s basement, imagining getting rich and playing in the NBA until Rowdy suggested they go swimming at Turtle Lake.