is the unacknowledged hero of the Reservation. Yet Victor knows that this status will not last; he remembers his own fall from glory years before. He confirms that fact in a conversation with Adrian, as they reflect on great ballplayers of past years. The reverie is interrupted by a bout of laughter over the broken traffic signal, followed by speculation over the distant sound of breaking glass. A commentary on the nature of hope and heroism on the Reservation sustains the interlude from the plotline.

The action resumes exactly one year later on the same porch. Victor and Adrian observe Julius as he walks by, drunk and high this time. This bad sign yields disappointing results at the game that night; Julius is benched even before the end of the game due to his sloppy performance. The fans, not to be deterred by this development, shift their attention to a new prospect, “a kid named Lucy in the third grade who already had a nice move or two.”

After the game, Victor and Adrian briefly discuss the pain of losing another hero, then dismiss this concern and depart for a night in Spokane. Upon their return, they find Julius asleep and officially demote him to the status of “bum.” They let him sleep it off and they retire to the porch. Hope is renewed as Lucy, the new prospect, walks by with a group of children. The story ends as they proclaim faith in her, throw a coffee cup into the air, and watch it hit the ground as the sun rises.

Analysis

These two stories address themes of hope and despair, success and failure, naïveté and experience. The focal point for these thematic contrasts is the difficulty with believing in American Indian heroes.

The figure of Crazy Horse provides the key reference for “Crazy Horse Dreams.” Crazy Horse was a famous Sioux Chief who led his tribe to victory over General Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. He was eventually captured and executed by the United States Army. However, he remains a key figure in Native American culture and an important symbol in this book. The name of Crazy Horse is often invoked to stand for the quintessential Indian war hero; he is the perfect, fearless warrior.

In “Crazy Horse Dreams,” Victor is pursued, and then rejected, by a young woman at a powwow. The flirtation between the two teenagers resembles a sparring match; they seem to be competing with one another rather than engaging in a seduction. Their banter finally seems to form a bond of shared experience between them, as they laugh at themselves and share stories from their lives.

Yet, this bond is tenuous at best. It is broken as quickly as it forms by Victor’s suspicion that she desires a better life than he can provide. Bus rides into the city would not be fitting for this suburban girl in the expensive ribbon shirt, who is accustomed to a life of “freeway exits and cable television.” The story ends with Victor’s departure, a silent admission that he cannot be her Crazy Horse.
This story suggests that Victor is unsure, even insecure, about his identity. The question still remains: How will his life measure up to the models surrounding him, in Native American or white culture?

The following story, “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore,” revisits this question a few years later. The emphasis in this story is not on Victor specifically, but rather, on the status of heroes in his community more generally. Victor’s fate is already fixed when the story begins; he has failed at love and basketball. The emphasis is placed instead on the challenges facing a new generation of heroes on the Reservation.

It is thus appropriate that these heroes are found in the present state of Reservation basketball, not in the annals of past tribal battles. In fact, the narrator points out that basketball on the Spokane Indian Reservation has always supplied community heroes, even before “James Naismith supposedly invented” the sport. He clearly intends to reclaim both the sport and its heroes from white dominance.

The challenges that face Native Americans and their cultural heroes, however, complicate this goal and even occasionally make it impossible to achieve. The case of Julius Windmaker makes this point clear. Victor and Adrian observe Julius’s rise and fall as a basketball star so promising at age fifteen that he scores up to sixty-seven points in one game. Yet the pair displays little surprise when Julius starts drinking and eventually fails; they simply redirect their attention to the next up-and-coming prospect, a third-grader named Lucy. Victor and Adrian might express high hopes followed by great despair over Julius’s rise and fall; the intensity of their emotions, however, does not prevent them from undertaking the project again.

Their determination demonstrates that survival is more important than success. The narrator’s direct commentary on hope and heroes at the climax of the story, just before the game and Julius’s fall, makes this point clear. It might be difficult to believe in heroes, for Indians are not accustomed to seeing themselves succeed, especially in dominant culture. Instead, they are busy merely surviving not only the “big stuff,” but also the “small things that hurt . . . [like t]he white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.” Yet Alexie suggests that these experiences of racism and oppression themselves bring hope for survival. Native American peoples and cultures have endured challenging circumstances against difficult odds. Moreover, the tradition of storytelling itself reminds them of this fact; stories ensure that heroes, as well as the hope they inspire, are eternal. Alexie writes: “A reservation hero is a hero forever. In fact, their status grows over the years as the stories are told and retold.”

The connection between hope and heroes finally reveals the meaning of the story’s title. Victor and Adrian cannot help believing in heroes, much like they cannot stop wishing for a new traffic light. Even though there is little traffic, a signal is needed; even though there is little reason for hope, heroes are found, again and again. The final scene offers promise that this cycle will continue; the carefree tossing of the coffee cup against a rising sun serves as a symbol of hope and happiness to come.