The Only Good Indians

This 2020 novel by Native American author Stephen Graham Jones mixes literary explorations of indigenous peoples' identity with slasher-film tropes, making it his first novel with mainstream success. Did Jones change something about his writing to get there, or did the literary world catch up to him? We discuss how history, symbols, and context fit into his project while asking, "Why did the literary establishment like this so much?"

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The Only Good Indians

Sources:

• https://blackfeetnation.com/

• https://blog.nativehope.org/native-american-animals-the-elk-a-protector-and-relative

• https://academic.oup.com/isle/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/isle/isad056/7255951?redirectedFrom=fulltext

• https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/stephen-graham-jones-the-only-good-indians-interview/

• https://ew.com/books/2019/08/08/only-good-indians-preview/

• https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896840079/in-his-new-book-stephen-graham-jones-explores-the-idea-of-good-indians

• https://www.npr.org/2020/07/16/891433693/grief-and-guilt-spawn-horrors-in-the-only-good-indians

• https://www.jstor.org/stable/541345

• https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/266/900

• https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-07-15/the-only-good-indians-by-stephen-graham-jones-review

• https://blog.nativehope.org/native-american-animals-the-elk-a-protector-and-relative

• https://filmobsessive.com/film/film-news/film-interviews/interview-stephen-graham-jones-a-discussion-on-lost-highway-and-mapping-the-interior/

• ERIC GARY ANDERSON, et al. “Demon Theory for