Coming-of-age among contemporary American Indians as portrayed in adolescent fiction.

This paper examines the dominant themes evident in contemporary novels involving American Indian adolescents. Nine novels written between 1971 and 1986 are reviewed. In contrast to earlier novels, those reviewed here reflect greater realism toward and less stereotyping of American Indians. Several themes in the novels are reflective of problems and issues confronting adolescents from a variety of backgrounds. The more salient themes, however, are specific to American Indian culture, including the prejudice and discrimination experienced by American Indians, the hopelessness and helplessness of an American minority group, racially mixed marriages of parents, alienation from non-Indian peers, Indian and Anglo friendships, the search for a sense of self, recapturing Indian traditions, and Indian spirituality.