The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Chapter 6 Summary

Junior thinks about his life and what Mr. P has told him.  When his parents come home, he asks them, "Who has the most hope?"  Both of his parents, without hesitation, answer that "white people" have the most hope.  Junior then tells them that he wants to transfer schools.

Junior does not want to go to Hunters, a school on the west end of the reservation "filled with poor Indians and poorer white kids", nor does he want to attend Springdale, a school on the reservation border "filled with the poorest Indians and poorer-than-poorest white kids".  He has set his sights on Reardan, which is located in a rich, white farm town twenty-two miles away.  Reardan is "a hick town...filled with farmers and rednecks and racist cops who stop every Indian that drives through", but it also has one of the state's best small schools, with a computer room, big chemistry lab, a drama club, and two basketball courts.

Junior can't believe it when he hears himself saying he wants to go to Reardan.  His parents, however, quickly agree to his plans.  Junior realizes that his parents really do love him and his sister, and want to help them, and that, though his parents are drunks, "they don't want their kids to be drunks".

It will be hard for Junior to attend Reardan.  There is no transportation, and the other Indians will be angry that Junior is leaving.  Junior knows, though, that if he doesn't do this now, he never will.