Escaping the reservation without actually leaving

In Sherman Alexie's story, "Somebody Kept Saying Powwow," Norma shows us that she does not need to leave the reservation to find happiness. In some of Alexie's other stories, his characters talk about trying to get off the reservation as a means of escaping their Indian life, but Norma is able to escape the "Reservation of her mind" without physically leaving it.

The ways in which Norma mentally frees herself from the reservation is by connecting with others and nurturing relationships through dancing, sleeping with people, and telling stories.

Norma dances all night long, with lots of people at the powwows on the Reservation. She has the heart of a dancer, and by dancing with people she is having fun while physically bonding with others.

Just like Alexie did, Norma wrote for the local newspaper, which is how he started his writing career and is also a form of connecting with others through words. Norma tells stories with Junior which is another form creating solid relationships that can help her happiness.

The last way that Norma nurtures relationships is by taking guys into her tepee some nights and sleeping with them, Norma is physically connecting with others and is, what junior calls, "Body Medicine," (Alexie 203). This is also a way that she mentally frees herself from the reservation, by having sex with different men because she is not confined to the reservation and can do what she pleases.

By challenging the conventions of the stereo typical Indian lifestyle of alcohol and hopelessness, Norma discovers how to stay a reservation Indian, but live the content and exciting life of a white person that lives outside the reservation. She has a different, more positive outlook on life on the reservation and believes that she can find happiness in what she already has.

She teaches the reader that in the end, it is not about whether you live on the reservation or not, as long as one find happiness wherever they live, they will be free.