1 1) Critics and consumers alike have long regarded satire as that rare form of comedy

with a purpose. Targets are not selected for laughs alone but are rather chosen by agenda, the skewering of certain individuals or institutions meant to inspire the audiences development of a similar disdain toward them. This brand of guided scorn derives much of its potency from the very people and systems put to use as comic fodder; the subjects own failings hypocrisy, incompetence, general displays of gross stupidity are turned against them as punch-lines, a new flaw primed for excoriation with each successive joke. Satirists come of many strains and persuasions, all united by a common will to change what they see as wrong with society though widely divergent from one another for this exact reason. Each artist, after all, has their own distinct vision of what needs to be discarded, what changes can be affected, and most contentiously to what end the subsequent alterations can be applied. Matters of comedy, as it happens, can be quite serious in their broader cultural implications, a fact well illustrated by Blake Hausmans darkly humorous sci-fi novel, Riding the Trail of Tears. Although it is at first limited to outmoded American settler culture and its modern commercial expressions, the mockery of foolish and incongruous social mores soon drops any pretense of confinement to the majority and, in their turn, the beliefs of contemporary Native society are taken to task as well. The intent of this linked analysis is not to reveal Hausman as an equal opportunity offender against traditional values, but is rather constructed as such to demonstrate how social realities illuminated through satire of the dominant culture are deeply linked to the oft-parodied failures of contemporaneous marginalia, American Indians in this instance. Indeed, the bizarrely liberalized version of white-American exceptionalism that underlies the first

2 examined passages most salient comedic beats provides the necessary background to fully appreciate the second, Native focused passages essential brokenness and what it owes this current state to. The initial selection to be explored highlighting the satirized elements of American settler culture opens with an escalating conflict over owning a racially insensitive vehicle. The world Hausmans characters inhabit is largely one in the same with modern America at present and, save for the existence of fully immersive virtual reality chambers and true, autonomous AI programs, they are the social products of a comparable environment. To wit, the offending vehicle was a Jeep Cherokee, hardly a vehicle of the deep future and seemingly of little note. Guided by Tallulah Wilson a mixed-blood Cherokee on a Level I TREPP tour, the group under her supervision has signed up for an up-close, family friendly look at one of the United States most odious crimes against humanity. Still unsuspecting of any greater threat inside the virtual world Irmas disappearance aside and now complacently dozing off on contented, full stomachs, their leader has successfully ushered them to a simulated sequence designed to be their last comfortable experience on the Trail of Tears. Of course, these ideal conditions do little to put the collegiate tourists at ease for long, what with the spontaneous tremors of inescapable moral outrage that seem to affect at least one of them. Broadly drawn caricatures though they may be, the ensuing moment of low-stakes conflict is still of acute importance in defining Hausmans perception of the modern American identity with regard to its racially-charged settler past and the way in which such background factors can continue operating insidiously, their continued damage left unnoticed or addressed ineffectively without proper context.

3 Spencer, the aforementioned conduit of morality tremors, inexplicably explodes out of sleep in limb-flailing terror at the realization that his roommate Danny drives a Cherokee. Unstated but implied, it would seem that after only a single simulated day of trekking through the digitally designed, comfortable wilderness paired with a handful of Tallulahs Native fun facts, this preternaturally nave student now feels as if he understands the harshness of tribal life and thus sees the conversion of the Cherokee name into one shared with a purchasable product as existentially horrifying. Comically overblown as Spencers reaction is with its multiple Oh fuck! shouts, he is actually supported by other members of the tour group as being right about the Jeeps grave offensiveness. When he asks Tallulah point-blank if she takes issue with the Jeep Cherokee, Rachel Rosenberg on the Trail of Tears with her husband and grandparents for a fun, family outing is barely even awake when she answers in her place with an unequivocal yes, as if their guide has no choice but to feel insulted as her ethnicity demands. In actuality, the car causes no great emotional change in her, she instead finds herself first visualizing an absurdly Americanized Cherokee man happily driving his Jeep through Oklahoma, then revisiting thoughts of her Grandfather Art and the Jeep Cherokee he converted into the first Removal simulator. When she finally responds for herself, all Tallulah has to say about the name is that it depends upon how easily offense is taken. Carmen, another member of the college group, is left unsatisfied with the open-ended response and demands an elaboration. Placed in relief of her own hair-trigger temper, which sees her flying so far off base that she ends up attacking Danny on the grounds of his surname sounding like a common slave-owners, Carmen demanding a better explanation from Tallulah may very well have amounted to a demand

4 for more anger. The current levels simply dont cohere with her preconceived notions of the intrinsically fierce Indian, one of many mass-mediated assumptions of how cultures outside the mainstream are thought to be. Hausmans satire of this continual recurrence of the archaic, settler culture model in mainstream American cultural exchange extends throughout every ideological fiber of the selected passage. A new breed of American exceptionalism is actively reshaping the dynamics of racial power and inequality, creating a type of minority fetishism that ultimately functions to the same dehumanizing ends as earlier, more violent eras of racial subjugation. Conceptually warped and hidden away under the deluge of purchasable affectations of multiculturalism, Anglo-American social norms are covertly preserved as the central perspective against which all other subcultures are judged, an implicit yet almost immediate secondary status afforded to other ethnicities as they are increasingly experienced as entertainment instead of as tangible human beings. Notice, in the novels telling of the future, the trend has only deepened with the entire Trail of Tears experience now available for consumption as entertainment, variable pricing options available for higher levels of atrocity included. A grave national crime perpetrated in its time with a callous inhumanity is reanimated with roughly the same degree of care, repurposing an event that would alter an entire peoples course of existence to serve the masses as nothing more than yet another sad Native story, their past being one of scant few tradable currencies afforded to them. Bearing this in mind, Tallulahs lack of any serious reaction to the Jeep Cherokees commercialized name. The past having been thoroughly plumbed for value and sold down to the grimmest possible accounts, it is comparatively difficult to be

5 phased by something so trivial as a vehicles brand name. Hausman pokes particular fun at the inordinate degree of outrage generated by the younger American tourists. They are fully immersed within a living expression of the entire culture as an entertainment commodity yet there is no recognition of this issue beyond the smallest possible target. Spencer and Carmen cry out against the implications of attaching the Cherokee name to vehicular connotations of long-distance travel through harsh badlands but the broader sale of the tribes entire past fails to register altogether. Here, the constant consumer is mocked as an ignorant facilitator of the system, only capable of perceiving injustice when faced with a concrete model of settler cultures shift to this strangely softened form of paternalistic fetishism. The ideology responsible for such conditions is left largely unscathed, however, as the product status of Native culture itself is mixed freely with the negative milieu of a forfeit future and irrelevant present. As such, it is not just the implicitly misanthropic controllers of American culture that are targeted for a dark, comic skewering but their unwitting supporters who, as members of the mainstream consciousness, make cogs of themselves through active, commercial participation. Contemporary Native culture is in its turn subject to satirical assault as well, though the rationale for their attacked behavior is a distinctly murkier matter. Cherokee society on the whole seems cognizant of how Indian populations are reduced to secondary status within their own communities having transformed into pets and performers for minimal pay yet they are possessed of no strong desire to subvert these objectifying conditions. Contrasting with their general resignation, Hausman outlines a largely rejected origin story that, in mythological terms, establishes the Cherokee as a tribe of chosen people, fated to prosperity just as the manifest destiny American believes

6 himself to be. Forced to leave their dying home island, the tribe sets sail toward fertile new land and, after years of wandering, are finally called by the Creator to settle in the southeastern territory to prosper in peace. Depending on how it is told, there might be 12 ships in the original fleet, thus allowing for Mormon-esque claims to being the Lost Tribe of Israel. If narrated by Tallulahs sense of whimsy, Jesus Christ himself potentially appeared amongst them, as fully Cherokee as any other member of the tribe. Regardless of the given storyteller, Cherokee are still defined as the principle people who migrated to a land of natural vitality in which they thrived regardless of certain unavoidable obstacles, typical of any such mass exodus and resettlement. Indeed, Hausman laces the varying details with so much promise, the punch-line almost appears to be written into the ridiculously over-the-top glorification of this particular narrative structure. The true joke, however, is that this story was ultimately forgotten again by the Band that recovered it. Tallulah suspects they have no desire to label themselves as settlers nor do they wish to forfeit their claims to the land as theirs by right of indigenous life. Most importantly, they do not want to diminish the tragic tale of a stolen homeland by admitting it to not be naturally theirs either. In essence, the tribe is unwilling to let go of its state of victimhood. Although an explicit line of logic is never provided as to why preserving their communal sorrow is treated as necessary, the prior discussion of American settler cultures current manifestation as a commercializing force may provide a viable answer to the missing rationale. Insofar that the Cherokee already view their identity as divorced from the present, the will to capitalize off of what can be sensationalized and sold as the work of an authentic disgruntled Indian is relatively easy to act upon. Cynicism tends to

7 set in when one recognizes the human capacity to turn roughly anything into a for-profittransaction, even ones own identity. This being noted, the hopefulness encapsulated in rejected stories such as the Cherokee Migration is not necessarily discarded due to individual misery. A willingness to do away with any attempts at reframing the story for better or for worse can whither communally in the face of static hardships and few reasonable ways out. In this regard, Tallulah initially considers telling the remains of her tour group about the migration as a way of restoring hope and breaking their concentration from their ragged condition. Thus, it is a very telling moment in terms of both character development and the elucidation of Hausmans personal view of contemporary Native identity when she decides against mentioning it at all, assuming no one is listening anyhow. 2) It has been claimed to the point of platitude that in finding the enemy of your

enemy, a friend is gained. Typically said by one archetypal movie tough to another, it bears mention that film is likely the only location where this brand of logic is likely to meet with any sort of success. Even in the face of a stronger common enemy, community divisions and infighting have a tendency to continue on regardless of whatever damages may result. As much can be witnessed in both Erdrichs Last Report and Hausmans Riding the Trail, respectively, serving an integral narrative role in conveying the threat posed by continued disunity and the absolute irrationality displayed in preserving it. Between the Kashpaws and the Lazarres, there is a history of bad blood deep enough to extend all the way down through the children. Thus, when Nector and his cousins find that they have accidentally joy-rode their uncles car straight into Lazarre territory, a positive resolution is not really thought of as a possibility. Could anyone say,

8 however, that the Lazarres response intrusion or no is anything short of insane regardless of the inter-clan hostility that existed at the time. Adik, the undisputed alpha male of the opposing group suggests binding all the Kashpaw boys into the car at once and staging their drowning death to appear accidental; all of his friends agree that this is a brilliant idea and get right off to executing it. Before any further description, note the minor offense of unwanted social presence relative to the planned retaliation it somehow warranted, a quadruple homicide. Given, bullying behaviors exhibited in adolescents are rarely ever rational expressions but this hardly explains or excuses the sudden emergence of extreme, sociopathic disregard for human life. That the entire group of Lazarres is in instant, mutual agreement without a hint of trepidation seems to point less to organic psychopathy and more to a frightening pattern of socialization by which these children learned to dissociate human status from hated outsiders altogether. Prior to even arriving at the passages resolution, Erdrich succeeds in posing a trenchant argument for minimizing inner-community strife, in light of risking cross-generational trauma in far excess of the original problem. Being the clear protagonists of this piece, the boys manage to free themselves from the partially submerged vehicle and begin swimming for safety, Adik giving chase for most of the way until he is met with a head-butt from the aptly named Rockhead. Knocked unconscious in a single blow, the Lazarre alpha-male sinks to the bottom of the lake where he drowns (presumably in irony). Nector, upon reaching safety, recommends that he and his friends pay a visit to Nanapush to figure out what can be done to favorably fix history for the younger Kashpaws. Ultimately, it is decided that Adik had stolen the

9 joyride car rather than Makoons having taken it without permission, Nector and his friends are true heroes in having followed the purloined vehicle all the way to hostile lands, and lastly, the Lazarres are to be the aggressors throughout, thus removing any question as to whether currently sympathetic members of the community will remain firmly aligned with the Kashpaws. In creating a monolithic block of support within their immediate surroundings, the boys have done well in keeping the composition consistent and the community happy with this version of the truth. Still, this outcome should not be taken as a validation of ultimate success; the Lazarres still remain a threat, growing in anger since Adiks death and thus precluding any chance of solidarity in the face of John James Mausers insatiable land ambitions, a unified opposition that would be of great assistance. Riding the Trail presents a significantly simpler matter of community conflict; Chef and the Misfit Chiefs are in disagreement over Irmas status, either as an omen of deliverance or just another human holed up in the TREPP experience hoping to get out. Though this dissent in belief is at first kept between Chef and Irma, the importance of their communitys salvation promise is quickly made appreciable when put in relief of the Misfits apparent identity as cannon fodder for trigger-happy purging programs, cemented as mundane by Chef nonchalant reaction to the Suits massacring the young again. The difference between a stupid mistake and messianic-prophecy-fulfillment is of little consequence to denizens of the outside world but, to the artificial intelligences trapped inside, Irmas symbolic meaning is of the utmost importance in determining whether or not escape is imminent or if they will be left trapped to being killed and recycled in another one of the Suits slaughters. Noting that the Misfit AIs believe

10 themselves to be every bit as real as a physical human entity, they are possessed of the same psychological vulnerabilities as the original animal organism and have in fact been slipping quite steadily into varying states of dissociative madness as a result of their programmed roles and apparent lack of purpose beyond their termination. With identities already broken, uncertainties high, and repeated death a fact of their lives, a divide in the communitys leadership to even the slightest extent could easily spell disaster. In both cases, the authors see it fit to emphasize instances of community infighting and other forms of internal disunity not in spite of, but because greater dangers loom over all participants equally in these petty struggles. The representation of these internal divisions and differences is of vital importance to accurately portraying the true nature of contemporary Native conflicts with broader, Anglo-American society. Such movements are not unified fronts and do not represent monolithic goals or singular values. Native American tribes and families are not identical units spread across vast expanses of land and should not be treated as such. 3) Across the sci-fi re-imaginings presented in Riding the Trail of Tears and

Cherokee Hero alike, the Native population emerges as a culture of resistance, fighting against the oppressive structures that force their removal. In each case, the Indians engaged in the fight for freedom are augmented by their fictionalized conditions in means and ability, given a more even chance at challenging the odds stacked against them. In the case of Cherokee Hero, resistance is framed in traditional terms of combat and flight, supplemented by Native knowledge and perspectives. With Riding the Trail, a decidedly different approach can be employed, calling to question the very nature of how such situations are to be dealt with.

11 The deep future landscape of Cherokee Hero sees America cast deep into an Orwellian abyss of militaristic government and citizen oppression. Developing new scientific theories and corresponding technologies through the factual basis of traditional mystic practices, the Cherokee rose to prominence as the vanguard of bleeding edge intellectual development during a period of absolute collapse. Unfortunately per the genre demands of dystopian storytelling - the Native population comes to be marked as a terrorist entity by politicians of the interchangeably evil persuasion and as such, a new Removal effort begins. Though relatively short in length as far as animated narratives go, it was articulated in the resistance dialogue throughout that the key to fighting the governments tyrannical measures is to confound it with the knowledge it lacks. Traditional Cherokee medicines and practices possess in a substantial reversal of previous roles a power of physical potency that is essential for more than just the cultural preservation of the tribe but as an aid in combating the fascist authority and its single-minded agenda of homogeneity. Upon stepping into the TREPP simulator, the individual is processed into the environment as a Cherokee Indian, first in their altered appearance and soon after in the altered treatment, as doled out by sadistic soldiers more or less on a whim. While the computer rendered Natives engage in their own brand of rebellion against the system, it is interesting to consider that the ordinary and unprepared tourists who walk the digital landscape are not any better equipped to fight than their counterparts were during the Removal Era, at least not initially. Though not apparent at first, beating the system code as illustrated by Tallulahs avoidant advice across multiple occasions is a behavioral plan contingent upon cowardice and non-engagement. Fought as a breakable code rather than

12 as a situation, the urge to resist must itself be resisted as the simulation deliberately goads tourists to take a stand and invite their own deaths. Note how with Carmens death or that of the twins mother, Tallulahs immediate instinct is to ensure noninvolvement, limiting any desire to hit back with assuaging talk of visits to the Old Medicine Man. Mandys killing sees an escalation to sexual violence that is almost intolerable for the remaining men to witness yet by doing nothing, they leave the mental scripts in hostile programs like the Drawl soldier either un-tripped or singularly focused on the current victim. To this end, the fight is for survival, not dignity and in acknowledging this, one better understands the nature of scraping by in such times; reality is not built on predictable computer routines but the abandonment of conventional morality as if one were subject to such binaries might still help keep ones head low enough for it to remain attached. 4) Much earlier in her career, Tallulah was not merely a guide for TREPP tours but a

researcher with a hand in their design. As is addressed in this passage of recollection, it is not enough for her to play the part of authentic Cherokee, the experience has to register as such down to the gory details. To this end, she would pore over hundreds of documents in pursuit of those storied moments in which the suffering depicted reveals something so abominable, it would have to be accepted as the grim truth. When the same eyewitness account began to overlap, again and again though never lessening in disgusting impact, Tallulah felt as if her pursuit of the awful authenticating truth had reached its definitive end. All accounts claimed to be primary but with so many retellings of such a uniquely foul event, the passing of rumors and the fictionalizing of certain situations must in

13 fairness be accounted for. That aside, Tallulah still strongly believed that some essential truth must be held across all reports; why else would something of this nature even bear mentioning, otherwise? A pregnant woman on the path could not keep pace with the crowd as soldiers herded them along and so, having stumbled again, was pulled out of line and sliced open with fixed bayonets, her baby cut out of her and its own life ended with multiple rifle shots. Surely, if this was not at least authentic Cherokee suffering, this was certainly an authentic atrocity, one that people could not help but trust in all its ugliness. It took time, hundreds of retellings to hundreds of tour groups as a rough estimate, but the day finally came where Tallulah could no longer restrain herself from inquiring inward, what is it about this story that makes her so certain of its truth? She wondered if it only happened once but scarred so many or if it was a repeat occurrence, the outward expression of an officers boredom. How many people only ever heard the rumor? Who actually saw it in motion? Did it even happen at all? If ever there were a tangible reason for belief she held to, it had certainly run far away. And so the telling of the mother and infants story ceased. Tallulah continues heading tour groups, still playing the authentic Cherokee guide sans the grotesque fun facts though her enjoyment of this act has remained relatively stable at a constant low. Why is it so stressful for an authentic Indian to be authentic? The authenticity craved by audiences is not going to be embodied by real people with real lives and real problems; it is high drama, terror, and romance the likes of which most ordinary men and women will never make contact with. To be authentic, Tallulah must be grossly inauthentic and not

14 even her sadness can belong to her, a true Native carries enough shock and misery for everyone. 5) Mouse is a failed documentarian that only ever owned a single, compact video

camera of dubious quality. He is a skilled violinist whose most frequent audience was comprised of the woods he isolated himself in when he felt like playing. He has experienced the rare and luminous honor of having been plagiarized from by a major, award-winning author. He was a drinker, a drug abuser, an eater of bathroom cleaner sandwiches and a personification of how reservation life beats so many down to nothingness, only sharing hopelessness in abundance. Charley is a Native American who left the traditional land behind in search of better things, which he did quite well in finding, now the proud owner of a sleek, red Porsche and a penthouse level apartment room. All of his successes can be chalked up to finding success in legal representation, more specifically in representation of the very same company that hounds his hometown for the right to run its hydroelectric dam on the neighboring river. Though he likely does not regard himself as such, he very closely personifies the word sellout. Dr. Apelles is a quiet man with a quiet life, practically invisible at work, in his research, and walking through the city. Prior to his life with Campaspe, he would spend his nights reading academic journals about recent translations from obscure and dead languages. Occasionally he has a beer or two to ease off into the night but very rarely drinks to get drunk. His love life for most of adulthood has been transaction based, alternating between desistance and renewal on a weekly basis with Friday always being the day. He has no interest in just being known by his Native American ethnicity, fearing

15 that what little of his personality is known to others will be subsumed by the past of his people. The present tense leaves him slightly terrified as he feels as if he has no words for it or within it. These three profiles capture radically different characters, each embodying a set of values, perspectives, and background experiences entirely distinct from the other two points of reference. Mouses character speaks to crushed dreams and an indifferent world, a tragic failure to escape. Charley proves that as an Indian, rising through the ranks in mainstream society is not an impossibility, although his character may also exemplify how people can lose themselves, even in something as pleasant as ones own success. As for Dr. Apelles, his quiet life is suggestive of emotional isolation, an obsession with structure, and a slow stagnation caused by the mingling of the two; his life is saved as these pillars collapse. Together, they do not cohere to form a singular message about contemporary Native American lives, about what it means to be Indian in modernity. Therein lies the truth, however, about what a Native American can be in this day. There is no one path to walk, no preordained life to live, and no single perspective with which to see, all based solely on the skin one is born into. Not all is ideal, though not all has to be, so long as one is given life and the freedom to live it.