Texts by and about Natives: Texts
18. Sherman Alexie, "The Business of Fancydancing" (1992)
Sherman Alexie, “The Business of Fancydancing,” in The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems
(Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hanging Loose Press, 1992), 69.
After driving all night, trying to reach
Arlee in time for the fancydance
finals, a case of empty
beer bottles shaking our foundations, we
stop at a liquor store, count out money,
and would believe in the promiseof any man with a twenty, a promise
thin and wrinkled in his hand, reach-
ing into the window of our car. Money
is an Indian Boy who can fancydance
from powwow to powwow. We
got our boy, Vernon WildShoe, to fill our emptywallets and stomachs, to fill our empty
cooler. Vernon is like some promise
to pay the light bill, a credit card we
Indians get to use. When he reach-
es his hands up, feathers held high, in a dance
that makes old women speak English, the moneyfor first place belongs to us, all in cash, money
we tuck in our shoes, leaving our wallets empty
in case we pass out. At the modern dance,
where Indians dance white, a twenty is a promise
that can last all night long, a promise reach-
ing into the back pocket of unfamiliar Levis. Weget Vernon there in time for the finals and we
watch him like he was dancing on money,
which he is, watch the young girls reach-
ing for him like he was Elvis in braids and an empty
tipi, like Vernon could make a promise
with every step he took, like a fancydancecould change their lives. We watch him dance
and he never talks. It’s all a business we
understand. Every drum beat is a promise
note written in the dust, measured exactly. Money
is a tool, putty to fill all the empty
spaces, a ladder so we can reachfor more. A promise is just like money.
Something we can hold, in twenties, a dream we reach.
It’s business, a fancydance to fill where it’s empty.