The Only Good Indians | Review and Discussion

Generational guilt, cultural identity, and killer elk ghosts. What else could you want!?

The Only Good Indians book review and spoiler discussion.

Overview and First Impressions

I finished reading “The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones maybe a week ago and I’ve been letting the story ruminate in my head trying to figure out how exactly I feel about it. Before I get into any spoilers I’ll give a general summary of what the story is about. “The Only Good Indians” is a story about generational guilt, revenge, and cultural identity. It follows four Native Americans who refer to themselves as Indians knowing that the culture at large has moved away from the term and I think that distinction is an important part of the story and the theme of identity. The story follows four native american men who are members of the Blackfeet tribe as they are haunted by a ghost of sorts from their past. The four men ended up breaking some rules of the reservation they were living on and did so knowingly. 

The story picks up years after they had gone their separate ways but as the 10 year anniversary of their transgression approaches pieces and memories of their past begin to creep back into their lives. As the back of the book says - Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. 

Creepy and not too Spooky but Worth a Read!

Overall I really enjoyed the story. There were some parts that I felt dragged a little bit and some of the motivations for certain characters in certain situations weren’t completely clear. Sometimes throughout the book there are sudden perspective changes that caught me off guard; it took me a while to get used to that and kind of accept that as part of the story telling. The book isn’t super scary but I like the general vibe of mystery, suspense, and creepiness. I like the themes explored in the story, especially the ones centered around cultural identity and generational trauma. There is some violence towards animals but some of that is within the context of hunting (I don’t know if that makes it better or worse for you, but that’s up to you to decide). There isn’t non-stop violence and spooky thrills throughout the book but when there is some killing and violence it happens pretty suddenly and almost so fast that I had to re-read some sentences to make sure I was understanding what just happened. I felt like the pacing in the final quarter of the book slowed down a bit and there is a kind of “show down” scene that you may or may not find ridiculous. At first I was taken a little out of the story during this big climatic showdown because of how it was presented but the longer I’ve sat with it the more I understand what the motivations were. 

I think if you’re looking for something spooky and haunting to read with themes of cultural identity and generational trauma and guilt, then I’d definitely recommend “The Only Good Indians”. If I had to give it a number I’d give it a solid 7 out of 10. I really liked the narrative flow most of the time and the way the themes were presented but while it was haunting it wasn’t especially scary so it would be a good read for someone wanting to ease into horror or doesn’t want to be too spooked!

Spoiler Discussion Starts Now

Cowboys and Rednecks and Native Americans, Oh My!

Okay, I think I’m just going to go through the story in narrative order and talk about things that happened and what I think about them in terms of themes and what not. The story opens from the point of view of a character named Ricky. He’s one of the four native american men that this story is centered around. It’s made clear that Ricky has completely abandoned life on the reservation and did so after his younger brother died of an overdose. If I remember correctly Ricky has been wandering around doing odd jobs and whatnot in different towns where he can get work. Ricky is at the local dive bar after working his shift and it’s where all of the locals drink, where he is obviously an outsider because the bar is full of white men and he can feel their eyes on him. He leaves the bar to go pee because the line inside is way too long and he can’t wait but when he gets outside he’s greeted by a large elk. As Ricky stares in disbelief at the large animal in front of him it begins to slam into cars and trucks, the same cars and trucks belonging to the “cowboys and rednecks'' inside the bar who start pouring into the parking lot to see what all the commotion is. Before the white men from the bar can see an elk crashing into their cars it somehow disappears and what they instead see is a bunch of damaged vehicles and one native american man in the middle of it. What we then get is an exciting chase sequence in which Ricky is determined to out maneuver and out run these cowboys. For a while it seems like he is going to get away but is caught at the last minute and the scene ends with Ricky being beaten to death in that dive bar parking lot. The last image we are left with is just across the way there is a large herd of elk just past the last reaches of light watching Ricky die.

Ricky’s Death Set the Tone and Themes we’ll Explore

I think this opening scene does a lot to set up some of the themes we’ll be seeing throughout the rest of the story. Ricky had left the reservation but thoughts of the home he left were always in the back of his mind which I think speaks to the guilt of leaving behind your culture and traditions. The way Ricky is on guard and interacts with the majority white people he’s now surrounded by and how he’s treated by them makes me think of having a foot in two different worlds but not really belonging entirely to one. Throughout the story we see examples of characters trying to laugh off their traditional upbringing and try to lean into a more western way of life but there is always a touch of guilt and regret when making those choices. The herd of elk essentially starting the chain reaction that leads to Ricky’s death and then watching him get killed symbolizes his native american past and culture and guilt haunting him and finally catching up to him. But this was just the set up which I think was wonderfully done and clearly sets the mood for the rest of the story. 

Generational Guilt and Trauma

The next portion of the book focuses on a character named Lewis and this section is the longest but I thought this part of the book was the most interesting. I believe Lewis was the first of the four friends to leave the reservation; he ended up meeting and marrying a white woman named Peta. Lewis experiences a lot of guilt and shame centered around leaving the reservation and feeling like he’s abandoned his culture and despite the fact that Peta is really good for Lewis and he loves her and still can’t shake the idea that he’s abandoned his friends and the reservation to “run off with some white girl.” Lewis works at the local post office and upon being introduced to him we are told he is in charge of training a new girl, who is also native american, named Shaney. Shaney is young and flirty towards Lewis and every time she is around he feels uneasy and unsure of what to make of her. He starts to have thoughts of “oh maybe the two indians should be together” and things like that. The way Shaney makes him feel is important and the reason is revealed later in the story. Shaney pushes her way into Lewis’ life and in a way it’s like his past forcing its way back into his mind making him reckon with his past.

Revenge is a Woman (with an Elk Head)

Lewis has begun to have visions of what he thinks is a creature that has the body of a woman but the head of an elk. These visions are starting to get the better of him and he’s slowly losing his grip on reality. A big contributor to that is that the visions started as the days lead up to the 10 year anniversary of what Lewis and his friends back on the reservation had dubbed “The Thanksgiving Classic.” The Thanksgiving classic is central to the story and really explains a lot of what drives our protagonists and the antagonist. Lewis explains to his wife Peta that ten years ago he and his friends, Ricky, Gabe, and Cass went hunting on the reservation. They weren’t having much luck and as they were starting to get desperate they end up in an area of the reservation that only elders are allowed to hunt on during certain times of the year but they stumble upon a very large group of elk out in the open. The four friends open fire on the elk killing all of them in what is less of a hunt and more of a massacre. One of the elk (the one Lewis knows for sure he killed) is actually pregnant which is strange for this time of the year. Native Americans have a long tradition of living in harmony with nature and part of that is using every part of an animal when they are hunted as a way of showing respect. The park ranger actually shows up at this point and seeing that they illegally killed all of these elk, he doesn’t allow them to take any of the elk they just killed. The four friends have to abandon the bodies in the snow, in this isolated area of the reservation essentially creating an elk graveyard. Lewis convinces the ranger to allow him to at least take the skin of the mother elk he shot. 

The thanksgiving classic represents what we might be able to call the ultimate taboo in terms of being a native american living on the reservation. Not only that but they are all essentially banned for life from hunting in the area which is a huge blow to the traditional views of being a hunter and provider. The guilt from this event has been weighing on Lewis for a decade and it is finally catching up to him. Ultimately Lewis comes to the realization that Shaney, his co-worker, is the spirit of that would-be mother elk coming back to haunt him. I think the elk is a physical manifestation of guilt that’s out for revenge. Lewis and his friends disrupted the agreement between the native americans and nature and the elk is there to remind him of what they did and enact revenge. I don’t want to get too into the weeds on this but some elk ghost shenanigans happen, some people die, Lewis tries to flee back to the reservation but ends up getting gunned down on his way there. 

Caught Between Two Worlds

The end of the story features both Cass and Gabe who still live on the reservation. Cass has settled down with his girlfriend, Jo, who he credits for helping him turn his life around. He’s become more productive and has given up alcohol and overall wants to live a better life. Gabe is essentially the opposite, he’s kind of a deadbeat dad but he does try to be involved in her life. His daughter is named Denorah and she becomes central to the ending of this story. 

The end of the book kind of meanders a little in my opinion but we do get some nice backstory of what everyone has been up to and how they’ve dealt with the memories of the thanksgiving classic. At this point we get a very detailed description of how Denorah, Gabe’s daughter, is the best basketball player that the reservation and the town has ever seen. She is pretty much guaranteed to make it out of the town using basketball as the vehicle to pay her way. At this point I was wondering why there was so much basketball in the story and I’m a little embarrassed to say I had to do some research but I found out that basketball is wildly popular on reservations and can be considered as an expression of identity and pride. This made things make a lot more sense to me. While the four main characters were struggling with their identities and life on the reservation, the next generation in Denorah has found her place in the world, a common culture to bind her native american heritage to the western world. 

Cass and Gabe decide to hold an old fashioned sweat lodge session to cleanse themselves. They were also paid by a local native american cop to do this so his son could participate and get a taste of his heritage and hopefully straighten him out. It’s during this sweat session that the elks attacks and essentially kills them one at a time in some pretty brutal ways. Not only does she kill Cass and Gabe, she kills Cass’s girlfriend and the cop. The elk also doesn’t just want them dead she has been emotionally manipulating them to turn them on each other and confuse them. The elk wants revenge for her unborn calf in the worst way so that means not just taking their lives but destroying everything they have - which is bad news for Denorah as she is the child of one of the thanksgiving classic perpetrators. 

Basketball Showdown

This next part of the story has me on the fence, like I just said basketball is super important to native cultures and Denorah has solidly established her identity in the sport. But as part of the elks revenge she takes the form of Shaney (Lewis’s co-worker) and challenges her to a game of one-on-one. The elk rationalizes it as not just killing them all but destroying everything they hold important. It’s crucial that the elk do this to Denorah because why should Gabe get to have a child in this world when her’s was taken from her illegally and before the calf’s life could begin. 

After a lengthy and intense basketball sequence Denorah eventually bests the elk who turns out to be a sore loser so Denorah has to flee through the snow. The chase is long and Denorah almost dies or gives up several times. During this part they stumble across an old train box car which the elk is afraid of and actually freezes upon seeing. I thought this was another interesting way to show generational trauma and fear, the elk remembers a herd generations ago being trapped by trains and gunned down and this causes her to freeze (much like deer do in car headlights). 

Eventually Denorah stumbles upon the original site of the thanksgiving classic, it’s littered with the bones of the dozens of elk her father and his friends wrongfully killed a decade before. The elk follows her and is about to finish her off when she spots her old body and within that body the bones of her unborn calf. She takes the bones with her into the wild, they both revert to their animal forms and can finally rest in peace. 

I think this is some real “sins of the father” stuff. Deborah is meant to pay the price for what her father has done and she can’t escape the generational guilt passed down to her. Throughout the final sequence she has to grapple with her heritage and how she’s being raised off of the reservation. She has to come to terms with what her father did and ultimately close that loop of guilt and trauma. 

What Did You Think?

That’s the basic overview of the story and what I thought. I know there is so much more to unpack and I glossed over so many details but I wanted to use a wide brush stroke to just get some ideas out there and some discussion going. Let me know if you’ve read this and what you thought! Are my interpretations the same as yours or did you have some other perspectives and ideas?