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Checkers (Gladys) Warm Water
A heavily mythologized woman who lives on Wellpinit Mountain, watching over the Spokane tribe. According to tribal lore, she has the power to walk on water and read dreams, and can speak to animals. She is also an incredible musician, and, according to Alexie’s telling of history, she has taught many of the greatest artists of the last century, including Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Coyote Springs spends one week with Big Mom before they fly to New York to audition for Cavalry Records, learning chords that she has adapted from the screams of dying horses during the Indian Wars. She is the champion fry bread cook on the reservation and a symbol of traditional Indian mysticism, mixed at every step with pragmatism and humor.
Big Mom Quotes in Reservation Blues
The Reservation Blues quotes below are all either spoken by Big Mom or refer to Big Mom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The colt shivered as the officer put his pistol between its eyes and pulled the trigger. That colt fell to the grass of the clearing, to the sidewalk outside a reservation tavern, to the cold, hard coroner’s table in a Veterans Hospital.
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Chapter 7
Quotes
“Michael,” Big Mom said, “you run around playing like you’re a warrior. You’re the first to tell an Indian he’s not being Indian enough. How do you know what that means? You need to take care of your people. Smashing your guitar over the head of a white man is just violence. And the white man has always been better at violence anyway. They’ll always be better than you at violence.”
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Get the entire Reservation Blues LitChart as a printable PDF.
Big Mom Quotes in Reservation Blues
The Reservation Blues quotes below are all either spoken by Big Mom or refer to Big Mom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The colt shivered as the officer put his pistol between its eyes and pulled the trigger. That colt fell to the grass of the clearing, to the sidewalk outside a reservation tavern, to the cold, hard coroner’s table in a Veterans Hospital.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
“Michael,” Big Mom said, “you run around playing like you’re a warrior. You’re the first to tell an Indian he’s not being Indian enough. How do you know what that means? You need to take care of your people. Smashing your guitar over the head of a white man is just violence. And the white man has always been better at violence anyway. They’ll always be better than you at violence.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
