Rain Is Not My Indian Name

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2001. RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 006029504

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Rain is has just turned 14 and has already faced several tragedies. Her mother died after being struck by lightning not long ago and on her birthday she is told her best friend Galen has been killed in a car/pedestrian accident. Rain’s father is in the military and is stationed overseas leaving Rain and her older brother Fynn to live with their grandfather. Fynn’s girlfriend, Natalie has moved in rather quickly only to find out that she is pregnant. After Galen’s death, Rain goes into seclusion for almost six months, not taking phone calls or attending Galen’s funeral. Rain decides to come out of seclusion when a local paper has asked her to photograph the Indian Camp that her aunt has put together in their community. When Rain accepts the job, she quickly realizes that there is racism and bigotry that accompanies the camp. When Rain steps up to join the fight she begins to honor her heritage and accept Galen’s death.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Rain Is Not My Indian Name is a heart wrenching story about a thirteen year old girl who must come to grips with her heritage and the tragic deaths of her mom and best friend, Galen. The setting for this story is in a small town in Hannesburg, Kansas. It is a community where inaccurate rumors are spread about Rain and Galen’s last night together. Smith gives enough details that make Hannesburg a town that is believable to readers. Cynthia Leitich Smith writes this story by drawing on her own experiences as a mixed blood Muscogee Creek Member, therefore bringing authenticity into the passages. Smith addresses the stereotypical labels placed on American Indians when Rain talks about how her school teaches about Native Americans around “Turkey Day by the cardboard cutouts of Pilgrims and the pumpkins and the squash taped to the windows at McDonalds. And the so-called Indians look like the bogeyman on the prairie, windblown cover boys selling paperback romances, or baby-faced refugees from the world of Precious Moments.”(13)Smith makes references to physical attributes such as Rain’s wheat colored hair and hazel eyes to Fynn’s darker complexion. Smith also includes a variety of Native American events, symbols, and customs such as the powwow that Rain and Galen attend back in June in Oklahoma City, the Indian taco they ate and the picture Rain describes while watching a girl dance, “a girl turning with a rose-quilted shawl. I shot her two ways, first to capture one footstep, one flying rose, and the slower to preserve the blur of her dance, the rhythm of the drums.”(6)
Another culture marker that brings Rains’ culture to the forefront is when she pulls out her mother’s “traditional tear dress.” Rain acknowledges that the dress, “looked wrong somehow, more like a museum piece than part of living.”(21)
Smith has written this story in a way that helps readers to connect to the Native American culture and open their eyes to the prejudices that they face like Rain did on a daily basis.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Publisher’s Weekly: “Even so, readers will feel the affection of Rain's loose-knit family and admire the way that they, like the author with the audience, allow Rain to draw her own conclusions about who she is and what her heritage means to her.”

School Library Journal: “It's Rain's story and she cannot be reduced to simple labels. A wonderful novel of a present-day teen and her "patchwork tribe."-

Kirkus Review: “Tender, funny, and full of sharp wordplay, Smith's first novel deals with a whole host of interconnecting issues, but the center is Rain herself.”
5. CONNECTION
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. INDIAN SHOES. ISBN 9780060295318
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. JINGEL DANCER. ISBN 9780688162412