2015TR

TUSCARORA REVIEW 2016

2016 TUSCARORA REVIEW

likely and assumed as much. When he returns to Lyman, his younger brother

immediately recognizes he is different and that “the change was no good.” Henry

was “jumpy and mean” and “always up and moving around” (129). And when he

could sit still, he had an overly extreme fascination with Lyman’s color television,

so much so that “it was the only time he was completely still” (129). But it wasn’t

a true calmness, as Lyman describes it as “the kind of stillness that you see in a

rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt” (129). The trauma is clearly evident

and leads to the incident where Henry unknowingly bites his own lip so badly that

it begins bleeding. His mother and Lyman

don’t know what to do and say nothing

as they all eat dinner. And with no regard

for his broken lip, Henry continued to the

point of bleeding all over his food and

eating it.

Henry’s negative behavior and

standoffishness affected Lyman, their

mother, and the rest of the reservation

tremendously. “They got to leaving him

alone most of the time, and I didn’t

blame them,” Lyman says (129). Henry

was so badly affected by his PTSD that

no one knew how to help. Lyman and

his mother briefly discuss sending him to

a “regular” hospital off the reservation but they quickly dismiss it. Lyman states,

“We wouldn’t get him there in the first place, so let’s just forget about it” (129).

Lyman understands that Henry is so entirely consumed by the tragedies and

violence that he witnessed and participated in while stationed in Vietnam. But

what could anyone do that had never experienced PTSD themselves or been in a

situation where a loved one is suffering in such a way? As tightknit a community as

reservation life is, they must have all felt entirely helpless.

One mechanism that often helped American Indian Vietnam Veterans was

reintegration into the cultural traditions of their people and the use of traditional

healing ceremonies. However, Henry was a Northern Plains Indian from North

Dakota, and according to the National Center for PTSD, “[T]he Northern Plains

Veterans had great difficulty in rejoining the very tightly knit extended families

and communities of their tribes after the war. For example, only one in seven of

these Veterans had participated in a traditional healing ceremony, compared to

one in two Southwest Indian Veterans.” Not only was Henry affected severely

with PTSD as a result of his American Indian heritage but he even suffered more

severely with less hope of recovery than other American Indian Vietnam Veterans

from other tribes.

In a last ditch effort to do anything he could to save Henry from himself, Lyman

destroys the red Oldsmobile convertible, which he had so painstakingly kept in

topnotch order while Henry was away in Vietnam. And because Henry was so

lost within his own mind, it took him months to realize the car wasn’t like it used

“

But what could anyone

do that had never

experienced PTSD

themselves or been in

a situation where a

loved one is suffering in

such a way?

”

Red Convertible” or had anecdotal evidence from personal accounts of actual

American Indian Vietnam Veterans because her fictional story contains several

truths and realities. According to the National Center for PTSD, a branch of the

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, American Indian Vietnam Veterans “were

more likely than any other ethnic group to serve in the Marines (the branch of

service with the most combat duty) and in the northernmost sector of Vietnam

(I-corps, the area under greatest enemy attack).” (“Psychological Trauma for

American Indians”) Henry fell into both of these categories. He was drafted as a

Marine and fought in the “northern hill country” (Erdrich 128), making him one

of the most susceptible to the extreme traumas, violence, and subsequent PTSD

of any in-country active-duty soldier. American Indian Vietnam Veterans such as

Henry were exposed to horrendous acts of violence and trauma. The National

Center for PTSD states:

More than one in two American Indian Veterans experienced war-related

trauma in Vietnam. The war traumas included being on frequent or prolonged

combat missions in enemy territory; encountering ambushes and firefights;

being attacked by sappers, snipers, artillery, or rockets; and witnessing death

and terrible harm to their own or others’ bodies. Traumas also included being

under fire on helicopters, cargo and reconnaissance aircraft, patrol boats, and

cargo trucks and being on very hazardous duty such as walking point or being a

radio operator, medic, scout, tunnel rat, perimeter sentry, long range patrol, or

door gunner. (“Psychological Trauma for American Indians”)

It isn’t clear what Henry did in the Marines while in Vietnam but he certainly

saw combat and the traumas and evils that come with it. Being Native American

also increased his chances of encountering violence and combat because

American Indian soldiers were more often selected for missions or even shot at

by friendly fire simply because of their skin color and its resemblance to that of

the Vietnamese (Beals et al. 95). In the book

Healing Journeys: Study Abroad with

Vietnam Veterans

, author Raymond Scurfield documents one American Indian

Vietnam Veteran’s own personal account:

One American Indian soldier became painfully aware of the difference between

his own tribal warrior culture and the war in Vietnam: We went into a ville

one day after an air strike. The first body I saw in Nam was a little kid. He was

burnt up—napalm—and his arms were kind of curled up. He was on his back

but his arms were curled and sticking up in the air. Made me sick. It turned

me around. See, in our way we’re not supposed to kill women and children

in battle. The old people say it’s bad medicine and killing women and children

doesn’t prove that you’re brave. It’s just the opposite. (82)

American Indians were proud and honored not only to serve their country but

also “wanted to become warriors to protect their families, to uphold the honor

of their tribes, and to prove themselves as men” (“Psychological Trauma for

American Indians”). However, reality was far from this and many American Indian

soldiers had problems reconciling the differences between their cultural traditions

and the values of the U.S. military and the brutal atrocities of the war. While it

is not explicitly stated whether Henry had such experiences, it is certainly quite