He also feels like his identity is divided between Reardan and the reservation, particularly because the white teachers call him by his given name, Arnold, instead of Junior. Junior is heartbroken, realizing that his best friend has become his worst enemy.Īt the Reardan school, Junior is the only Indian besides the racist mascot, and he feels deeply alienated from the white students, who either ignore him or call him names. He punches Junior in the face, screams that he hates him, and walks away. In particular, when Junior tells Rowdy he is changing schools and asks him to come along, Rowdy is angry and betrayed. Junior’s parents support his decision, but warn him that most of the tribe will see him as a traitor. P’s advice, Junior decides to transfer to the high school in Reardan, a wealthy white farm town twenty-two miles away. P reveals, used to want to be a romance writer, but now spends all her time alone in the family’s basement-and the other adults in his life have done.īecause of Mr.

Otherwise, the culture of defeat, depression, and alcoholism on the reservation will force him to give up his dreams, just as his older sister Mary-who, Mr. P comes to visit him and tells Junior he forgives him, but advises him that he must leave the reservation. As a result, Junior is suspended from school. Suddenly furious that the reservation school is so poorly funded that it must use old and outdated books, Junior throws the textbook across the room-accidentally hitting Mr. P, passes out textbooks, Junior realizes that the books are at least thirty years old. On his first day of high school at Wellpinit (the school on the reservation), Junior is particularly excited for geometry class. Rowdy always protects Junior, though, and the two boys share a special bond, telling each other their secrets and dreams. He also loves spending time with his best friend, Rowdy, whose violent temper makes the other kids afraid of him.

He loves to draw, and thinks his cartoons pose his best chance of getting off the reservation and out of the poverty that has held his family and his tribe back for generations. As a result, Junior has spent a lot of his time alone, reading or drawing cartoons.

This condition gave him a stutter, seizures, and a number of physical differences, such as a large head, that make him a frequent target for bullies on the reservation where he lives. Fourteen-year-old Junior, a Spokane Indian boy, was “born with water on the brain” or hydrocephalus.

The true diary of a part time indian