Brandon Luedtke

English 101

Dr. Bloomfield

November 1, 2005

Sense of Wealth

The Native Americans, who once inhabited the central plains, lived an externally observant simple life. The Plains Indians did not have possessions of great value such as in the present materialistic society. Some societies attribute wealth to personal possessions, and the lower class families are not supposed to have the luxurious possessions like the upper or middle class. In the short story “1965 Continental,” from The Dance House: Stories from Rosebud , Joseph Marshall III use a 1965 Continental to symbolize Gus Pretty Crow’s true values of simplicity, family, and dignity, which out weighs the material life of the white sheriff.

Gus Pretty Crow, like most everyone in the reservation town of Cold Water, was poor. He and his children lived a simple life, but in a civilized manner, with minimal possessions for subsistence. His 15-year-old Chevrolet truck was along ways from looking like it just rolled of the assembly line. The only people who could afford new vehicles were the druggist, the doctor, and a widow, none of whom were Native Americans. To Gus a new car really did not matter, until an unexpected stranger knocked on his door.

A wealthy, white man stood at the steps, and Gus knew desperation or “trouble was the only thing that would bring a white man to a Native Americans” house (71). Social statues trouble is exactly what the white man brought when he wanted to trade his broken-down, “nearly brand-new 1965 Lincoln Continental” for Gus’s 1950 Chevrolet truck (75). Gus knew a controversy would be started if a Native American “drove down. . .main street” in something he was not suppose to own but traded anyways (73). To Gus it was just a car and not a status symbol, for with his simple outlook on life, he looked at it as a means of transportation.

However, the luxurious car tormented the materialist, white sheriff. To the sheriff “seeing Gus in that Lincoln Continental was like seeing an elephant in a canoe,” and this “went against. . .[his] laws of nature” (74-79). The sheriff was for sure the new car, which was nicer than his, had to be stolen, only because a “dirt-poor Indian [who] could barely afford one tire, let alone the rest of the car” was driving (76). The sheriff harassed Gus whenever the chance arose because an Indian with a new luxury car “didn’t fit in. . .[his] pecking-order world” (76). Gus’s world was different though, he placed more value in his family than in his new car. This wealth the sheriff never understood when he beset Gus’s children.

Gus had great pride in his children, and provided for his family the best he could. Even though his kids wore “rummage clothes,” they “were always clean and well fed” (69). Gus saved up every scrap and penny for his children. When the Fourth of July carnival would come to town, “Gus always stashed away pennies, nickels, and dimes so that he could buy one ride for each of his children”. While the Pretty Crow children waited for a ride, a little girl lost her coin purse near where they were standing. The sheriff seen the poor, Native American children “counting out their coins to the roustabout who ran the Ferris wheel” and arrested them for stealing. The little girl later “found her coin purse with out a penny short,” but to the sheriff the only way for an Indian to have money or a new car was to steal (80). The sheriff, out classed by a “dirt-poor Indian,” was determined to do anything to find out how Gus obtained the new car, though the car was not his main focal point anymore (76).

The sheriff threatened to take away Gus’s children because of their speculated welfare. The sheriff “implied that he was on the verge of arresting Gus. . .for grand theft auto and wanted” Gus’s children to be safe. The county social worker “knew that the sheriff didn’t care a whit for the welfare of any Indian child in the county,” it was all a matter of putting Gus in his rightful place (81). Thus, the Continental symbolizes how the car forced him to stand by his family more than ever, for they meant more to Gus than possessing the car.

When the sheriff’s attacks on the children failed, his tactics lead to emotional degradation, which only increased Gus’s inherent dignity in the face of conflict. Gus did not act flamboyantly or display the Continental as a centerpiece of wealth. To him and his family it was the only mode of transportation. For being poor, Gus was humble, and could “shut out the rest of the world” that despised his car (69). Gus was also an honest man, but “the kind of person to whom unusual things happened,” yet the sheriff did not believe his story (79). The sheriff repeatedly tried to force his assumed truth of theft, so he could have the car reprocessed, and once again be better than Gus.

Gus did not let his emotions take advantage of him when the sheriff would stop him for no plausible cause. He knew emotions would “give the sheriff. . .[more] ammunition” for the situation which was about more than a new car(80). Gus, probed for evidence during countless safety checks, accumulated “a pocketful of traffic citations, mostly warnings” during the sheriff’s investigation (79). Gus simply “endured the harassment with the utmost patience” during the interrogations “that would have done the FBI proud” (79-80). For the sheriff some “things. . .[had] to be a certain way” like the “same reason that Jesus has blue eyes and light brown hair in all them pictures” (78). In the end, the sheriff did not get his way, and was humiliated when his scare tactics did not even faze Gus who valued simplicity, family, and dignity over a new car.

Although Gus lived modestly, he was far ahead of the sheriff with the wealth of a loving family and emotional stability. The sheriff unable to believe the story, or the fact that a “dirt-poor Indian” was above him shows how some societies place material goods before self and family. Society needs to become simplified and without envy towards others possessions.

Word Count

1038