American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Anyone familiar with the literature of the Vietnam War should be aware that it depicts the racial tensions that were felt so intensely overseas and at home during that era, but that the literature also frequently goes to great lengths to depict the dissolution of racial tensions in the face of a more immediate threat: the North Vietnamese enemy. One of the methods of overcoming the racial (and other) differences that potentially divided the soldiers has dire consequences, both in reality and in literature: Male soldiers can erase their differences by identifying with each other against the difference of women. The literature creates a connection among men by excluding women but also by denigrating and often demonizing them. Red Earth, a novella written by a Dakota/Salish veteran of the Vietnam War, Philip Red Eagle, manages to resolve its racial and gender tensions in a different way, however. In part by relying on Sioux notions of the feminine rather than on those produced by the dominant patriarchy of the United States, Red Eagle is able to avoid such misogyny and offer constructions of masculinity more healthy than those found in much of the literature.