Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's

Tiffany Midge

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781496215574
• eBook ISBN: 9781496218032
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Why is there no Native woman David Sedaris? Or Native Anne Lamott? Humor categories in publishing are packed with books by funny women and humorous sociocultural-political commentary—but no Native women. There are presumably more important concerns in Indian Country. More important than humor? Among the Diné/Navajo, a ceremony is held in honor of a baby’s first laugh. While the context is different, it nonetheless reminds us that laughter is precious, even sacred. Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, stand-alone musings into a memoir that stares down colonialism while chastising hipsters for abusing pumpkin spice. She explains why she does not like pussy hats, mercilessly dismantles pretendians, and confesses her own struggles with white-bread privilege.   Midge goes on to ponder Standing Rock, feminism, and a tweeting president, all while exploring her own complex identity and the loss of her mother. Employing humor as an act of resistance, these slices of life and matchless takes on urban-Indigenous identity disrupt the colonial narrative and provide commentary on popular culture, media, feminism, and the complications of identity, race, and politics.  

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Geary Hobson xv
• Part I: My Origin Story Is a Cross between “Call Me Ishmael,” a Few Too Many Whiskey Sours Packed in an Old Thermos at the Drive-In Double Feature, and That Little Voice That Says, “You Got This”
• Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s
• Headlines
• Part II: Instead of a “Raised by Wolves” T-Shirt, Mine Says “Raised by Functional Alcoholics with Intimacy Phobias & Low Self-Esteem”
• The Jimmy Report
• My Name Is Moonbeam McSwine
• The Siam Sequences
• Part III: Micro (Aggression) Memoirs
• First World (Story) Problems: Brown Girl Multiple Choice Edition
• Tweets as Assigned Texts for aNative American Studies Course
• Ghoul, Interrupted
• Part IV: Garsh Durn It! You Say Patriarchy, I Say Patri-Malarkey, Dollars to Donuts Cuckoo Banana Pants, You Gals & Your Lady Power This ’n’ That
• An Open Letter to White Women Concerning The Handmaid’s Tale and America’s Historical Amnesia
• Fertility Rites
• Wonder Woman Hits Theaters, Smashes Patriarchy
• Jame Gumb, Hero and Pioneer of the Fat-Positivity Movement
• Post-Election Message to the 53 Percent
• Committee of Barnyard Swine to Determine Fate for Women’s Health
• Champion Our Native Sisters! (but Only Selectively and under Certain Conditions)
• An Open Letter to White Girls Regarding Pumpkin Spice and Cultural Appropriation
• Part V: Me, Cutting in Front of All the People in All the Lines Forever: “It’s Okay, I Literally Was Here First” #Decolonizedaf
• Thousands of Jingle Dress Dancers Magically Appear at Standing Rock Protector Site
• Satire Article Goes Viral on Day of 2016 Presidential Election Results
• Attack of the Fifty-Foot (Lakota) Woman
• Minnesota Art Gallery to Demolish “Indian Uprisings” Exhibit after Caucasian Community Protest
• Why I Don’t Like “Pussy” Hats
• Li-Li-Li-Li-Land, Standing Rock, the Musical!
• Part VI: Merciless Indian Savages? Try Merciless Indian Fabulous!
• Redeeming the English Language (Acquisition) Series
• Fifty Shades of Buckskin
• Conversations with My Lakota Mom
• Feast Smudge Snag
• Eight Types of Native Moms
• Part VII: “Shill the Pretendian, Unfav the Genuine” Is the 2018 Remix of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”
• Red like Me: I Knew Rachel Dolezal Back When She Was Indigenous
• A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit
• I Have White Bread Privilege
• Things Pseudo-Native Authors Have Claimed to Be but Actually Are Not
• You Might Be a Pretendian
• Part VIII: I Watched Woman Walks Ahead and Frankly Was Offended by the Cookie-Cutter, Stereotypical Portrayal of the Menacing White Soldier
• Reel Indians Don’t Eat Quiche: The Fight for Authentic Roles in Hollywood
• Are You There, Christmas? It’s Me, Carol!
• Post-Election U.S. Open in Racist Tirades Competition
• West Wing World
• Part IX: The Native Americans Used every Part of the Sacred Turkey
• Hey America, I’m Taking Back Thanksgiving
• Clown Costumes Banned, Racist Native American Halloween Costumes Still Okay
• Thanksgiving Shopping at Costco: I Just Can’t Even
• Politically Correct Alternatives to Culturally Insensitive Halloween Costumes
• Part X: breaking news—Your Neighbor Who Said, “Whoa, Dude, This Whole Trump Thing’s, Like, So Fricken Surreal,” Might Actually Be on to Something
• Step Right Up, Folks
• Trump Pardons Zombie Apocalypse
• There’s Something about Andrew Jackson
• Trump Administration to Repeal Bison as First National Mammal
• President Trump Scheduled for Whirlwind Tour to Desecrate World’s Treasures
• Part XI: The Trump Administration’s Pop-Up, Coloring, Scratch ’n’ Sniff, Edible, and Radioactive Activity Book
• You’ve Got Mail!
• Executive Order Requiring All Americans Take Up Cigarettes by End of 2017
• The Wild West (Wing) and Wild Bill Hiccup
• Give a Chump a Chance
• Ars Poetica by Donald J. Trump
• Acknowledgments