Racial Nations of Communion

"In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of the fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson 5-6). This presented concept of nationalism and its members mirrors the impact of national heroes, legends, and public enemies on their distant audiences in both the present and the future. Although those inspired by these public figures cannot personally see, hear, or touch them, these people still maintain a belief that they are kindred spirits with these heroes and that they are related in some non-physical way. In Part One of Silko's novel Almanac of the Dead, the character Sterling often looks "public enemies" such as John Dillinger and Geronimo for motivation and inspiration due to their Native American heritages and their rebellious, clever, and brave stories. He looks to figures like these for guidance because he believes he has similar morals to these legendary criminals that he has never and will never personally encounter. When reflecting on his past at the beginning of his new job with Lecha, Seese, Ferro, and others, Sterling remembers, "Sometimes the Police Gazette ran specials on famous crimes of yesteryear. These had been his favorites. He had been most excited the time they had the special on Geronimo. Geronimo was included with John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd and Billy the Kid. Sterling had often heard Aunt Marie and her sisters talk about the old days, and Geronimo's last raids, when even a platoon of Laguna "regulars" had helped patrol New Mexico territory for Apache renegades. Somehow Sterling had never quite imagined old Geronimo in the same class with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Geronimo had turned to crime only as a last resort, after Mexican army troops had slaughtered his wife and three children on U.S. territory in southern Arizona. Despite the border violations by the Mexican army and the murder of Apache women and children who had been under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of War, no U.S. action had ever been taken against the Mexican army. Geronimo had been forced to seek justice on his own" (Silko 39). Throughout this passage and other moments in the novel, Sterling discusses Geronimo as though he personally understands each of Geronimo's choices and therefore does not blame Geronimo for his criminal actions. A main trait of Geronimo and some of the other public enemies he admires is that they are, like him, of Native American descent. When Sterling first introduces his infatuation with these criminal legends, he lists his assumptions about their racial descents, concluding that each of them are either Native American or closely related to Native Americans. Through this determination, Sterling is able to relate to these figures not only on a racial level, but on a rebellious level, due to their emigration from Native American reservations, as well. He cannot "meet them, or even hear of them, yet in [his mind] lives the image of their communion" (Anderson 6).