This Father's Day

memories

My late mother, Lillian, and my late father, Sherman Alexie, Sr., as young adults

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My cousin, Margo Hill, published this remembrance of Expo 1974 in the Spokesman-Review today.

She mentions the vital role that my maternal grandmother, Etta Adams, played in the Indian exhibit at Expo as well as the role of my mother, Lillian.

Here is Etta Adams, also known as Big Mom.

Margo also mentions the role of my father, Sherman, Sr., at Expo 74. My father stopped dancing in early adulthood but he sometimes lent his powwow regalia to family members so they could dance.

My father’s bustle hangs on the wall of my home office. I also have his regalia.

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Dear Father,

In five years, I'll be the same
age as you when you died.
By choice and circumstance,
you often wrecked your life

so it wasn't a surprise
that you died so young.
I've mostly made better
choices so I'll probably live

for two or three decades more.
I'm now the keeper of your beads
and bustle—your powwow
regalia. I've never danced

but, year after year, the drums
grow louder and louder.
I might become one of those
elderly Indian dancers—a tall

brown man with a bad back
and aching knees and feet.
I might braid my hair into gray
waterways. Maybe I'll dance slow

circles in honor of you. If so,
my dear father, then I'll be so old
that I'll be dancing only a step
or two behind your ghost.