The Native American Trickster

Abstract

In my thesis I would like to examine the significant role played by the Native American trickster as a culture hero in the world of urban Indians through two alternative trickster attitudes, namely that of the arrogant challenger in N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn and the supportive one in Gerald Vizenor’s short story collection entitled Wordarrows. The Dictionary of Native American Literature argues that the trickster is “the most popular, problematic, and powerful figure in Native American literature” (99). The question necessarily comes up what makes him such an important, questionable and vigorous figure at the same time, not only in the eyes of the Indian authors, who often invoke his aid in their works, but also for all the other Native Americans who either live on reservations or in the great cities of the United States.