Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)
STUDIES - Bruce J. Degi: Braiding the New Native American Narrative: Michael Dorrié Yellow Raft in Blue Water.
the words themselves, her words —the oral tradition in native American art —that create the history and tell the story. As a novelist, Michael Dorris embraces Aunt Ida's ability to tell his story —their stories —free of "white history." But, of course, Dorris consciously ties his story to the "white paper." "Nearly a decade ago ... Dorris wrote that 'there is no such thing as 'Native American literature,' though it may yet, someday, come into being ... one of the necessary requisites being a reflection of a shared consciousness, an inherently identifiable world view" (qtd in Western American Literature 56). A Yellow Raft tells Aunt Ida's story, and Christine's story, and Rayona's story, on Dorris' paper as a reflection of this shared consciousness. A point well noted by yet another American review which concludes that: Perhaps better than any other form of writing by contemporary Indian authors, the novel has begun to fulfil Dorris' requirement. To a remarkable degree, there is a shared consciousness amongst novels by Indian authors, a consciousness defined primarily by a quest for identity as Indians in contemporary American, that is central to nearly every work by an Indian author. (56) One traditional aspect of this "shared consciousness" which also dominates Yellow Raft, ; as Anatole Broyard states in his review, "Eccentricity Was All They Could Afford," for the New York Times, is that: Their life is full of images that remind us that the Indian has been "trashed" in our history. When they travel, they pack their stuff in plastic garbage bags. During one of the spells when Christine "loses" her daughter, the way you lose a cat or dog you don't want, Rayona gets a job in a state park spearing Utter. (7). 'This is the kind of thing that could scar me for life. I use a phrase I've heard on 'All My Children,'" (15) states Rayona throughout her section of the novel whenever confronted by "trashed" elements of her existence. But the scaring is necessary, if not exactly what we would 28
