There There: Dene Oxendene and Tommy Orange

 Dene Oxendene, a young Native American artist exploring native identity, is, in many ways, the literary personification of Tommy Orange, author of “There There.”  Both Dene and Tommy are on a quest to understand what it means to be Native American, in hopes of bringing to light that their people are modern and individualistic.  Both explore native identity within the contexts of a city, Oakland, where the native population has become quite large, contradicting many people’s assumption that natives are limited to the same stereotypical reservation and thus, way of life.  

Orange, in the prologue of the novel, provides the audience with both historical contexts not typically mentioned in school curriculum, as well as further insight into modern native communities, who “know the sound of the freeway better than we do rivers” (Orange 11). Orange reframes the perception of Native Americans by challenging the perception that they move through the world in perfect unison with the land.  The city of Oakland, although a city, still “belongs(s) to the earth,” leading Orange to ascertain that “being Indian has never been about returning to the land.  The land is everywhere or nowhere” (Orange 11).   Similarly, Dene, in his pitch to the grant board shares Orange’s belief, explaining that “we haven’t seen the Urban Indian story,” but rather one full of “sad” stereotypes, that perpetuate the idea that Native Americans are “pathetic or weak or in need of pity” (Orange 40).  Both Dene and Orange present a desire to push past these stereotypes and they use their creative projects in order to do so.  

 Additionally, Dene’s video project mirrors that of the structure of the novel.  The novel and video project work hand in hand to illustrate the various struggles relating to being Native American, further diversifying people’s perception of what native looks like.  Dene allows his subjects the freedom to discuss whatever it is that they want.  By doing so, Dene does not limit the scope of their experiences; it prevents him from pushing a certain narrative, “no direction, or manipulation, or agenda” (Orange 40), and thus creates a more developed mosaic of what the native experience is, rather than the one created by history.  Orange, similarly, creates a mosaic of native experience by writing this novel through the point of view of many different people, differing in age, gender, and knowledge and acceptance of their native identity.  In this way, storytelling becomes an important resource in representation of experience, as well as the widening of the general public’s understanding of Native Americans.  Ultimately, the use of Dene as a reflection of Orange’s voice acts a guide throughout the novel, allowing for the meaning of being native to adapt and change with each new perspective being shared, both within the structure of the novel itself, as well as those within Dene’s chapters.