Sherman Alexie

Prefers the term "Indian," to "Native American"

[when asked if he thought that his portraying Indians as likely to have alcohol problems in his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian played into stereotypes about Indians] Stereotypes? It's not a stereotype. Stereotype implies that it's not real, and it's absolutely real. On my reservation, in my family, alcoholism was epidemic. When you're talking about aunts, uncles, cousins; there are three of us, currently, who don't drink actively, out of hundreds of people. So anybody who thinks it's a stereotype, alcoholism among Native Americans, is a romantic fool.