The question of identity is extremely important in the book, with its title including the phrase “part-time Indian.” The phrase indicates Junior’s conflict between his identity as a Spokane Indian on the reservation and as a student in a white-dominated school. The conflict arises because the two identities have a complex relationship with each other. Further, Junior also feels torn between his identity as an individualistic person interested in art and the pressure to adopt a tough-guy persona. He considers himself an outsider even within the reservation because of his physical condition. Thus, Junior navigates several issues around his identity.

As a Spokane Indian on a reservation (rez), cultural and racial identity preoccupies Junior greatly. He is aware of the great historical injustices meted out to Indigenous people by white people, yet he knows he lives in a majority-white country. While other people like Rowdy believe Indigenous people should confine themselves to the reservation in order to resist white culture, Junior wants to venture out to explore different opportunities. This casts him as a traitor and an “apple,” as he tells Gordy: someone who is “red on the outside and white on the inside.” Leaving the rez school alienates Junior from Rowdy as well. However, when he enters the world of Reardan, he experiences another question of identity. Symbols of racism are all around him: the school’s mascot is a stereotyped image of an Indigenous man, and students call him racist epithets. Further, his nickname, “Junior,” draws sniggers, and the revelation that his real name is Arnold Spirit makes his classmates think he is lying. They simply do not understand the tradition of nicknames that is common on the rez. Junior is torn between his Junior persona and his Arnold persona.

Although Junior is aware that many problems on the reservation—such as poverty and alcoholism—are a direct result of Indigenous people being dispossessed and subjugated, he does tend to look down upon life on the rez. As the narrative progresses, Junior begins to see the vast gulf between opportunities available to his white classmates and his Indigenous friends. While the former are all set for an expensive college education, his Indigenous friends study from decades-old textbooks. At the beginning of the novel, Junior believes that white culture represents hope. However, at the end he realizes that there is great hope, too, in the Indigenous way of dealing with life with humor and celebration. The lack of hope is not an intrinsic function of rez life, but something imposed upon it by racism and lack of opportunities.

Junior now begins to see that the reservation is beautiful. At the same time, he has the epiphany that no person belongs to just one tribe. Every person has multiple identities. The identities do not always need to overlap or fit with each other, and one shouldn’t be ashamed of their affiliations. As his friend Gordy tells him, “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” Junior learns to balance his individuality and his various communities.