November is National American Indian Heritage Month, established in 1990 by President George Bush, lengthening the holiday from its original week-long celebration.

November was chosen because this month concluded the traditional harvest season and was generally a time of thanksgiving for Native Americans.

One voice capturing the Native American experience is Sherman Alexie of the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribes. Alexie was born hydrocephalic, overcoming hardship and ridicule to rise to a prominent position among American writers. His first collection of short stories, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction in 1993. One of the stories, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” became the basis for the award-winning movie “Smoke Signals.” His first novel, “Reservation Blues,” published in 1995, follows the rock ‘n’ roll exploits of Thomas Builds-the-Fire, to whom the legendary blues man Robert Johnson has passed on his guitar.

Just recently Alexie penned his first young adult novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” based partly on his own decision to leave the Wellpinit reservation school and attend Reardan High School, where he was the only Native American. The novel’s protagonist, Arnold Spirit, nicknamed Junior, loves reading and cartooning, but at 14 he already sees the hopelessness and poverty of reservation life, which he calls “the saddest thing in the world.” Arnold is also mercilessly picked on because of his nerdy love of literature.

When his geometry teacher tells him, “The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up,” Arnold begs his parents to transfer to a wealthy all-white high school nearby, where he continues to be bullied for other reasons. Through his diary entries we follow Arnold's first year as he adjusts to life in the bigger world. Alexie has said that he hopes one thing young readers will examine in this book is escaping and confronting familial and tribal expectations. Internal and external life expectations are forces every teen must deal with, making Arnold a sympathetic figure that transcends his Indian heritage and speaks to all of us who have a bigger plan for our lives, unhampered by race, gender, class or culture. His heartfelt story rings absolutely true.

A novel recommendation from Alexie is the recently released “The Financial Lives of the Poets” by his friend Jess Walter. Here are recommendations for your table based on our Native American foods fused with European traditions.

CARLA’S CORN DIP

2 cans Green Giant Chipotle Niblets

2 cans chopped green chilies

1 red bell pepper chopped

1 yellow bell pepper chopped

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1 large bag shredded cheese