At the Intersections of Empire: Ceremony, Transnationalism, and American Indian–Filipino Exchange

[...]I suggest that Silko uses the memories of her Native World War II veterans, Tayo, Harley, Leroy, Pinkie, and Emo, as a means of complicating previous narratives of war, colonial difference, national boundaries, and battle lines. Because of the historical realities of the Bataan Death March, readers can imagine that Native American soldiers would undoubtedly have had some exchange with the Filipino servicemen with whom they fought, despite the fact that we never see Filipino characters within the text itself.1 By situating Tayo at the intersections of multiple empires- both US and Japanese-in the midst of occupied territory in the Philippines, I suggest that his experience of settler colonialism in the United States and witnessing of colonialism in the Philippines lead to a flagrant rejection of colonial rule in all of its forms. In a reversal of the memoirs' narratives, the most violent characters we meet in Silko's novel are Tayo's fellow Laguna Pueblo veterans, Emo, Pinky, and Leroy. [...]I use Lovato's and Dyess's accounts of warfare as a way to unpack Silko's more complicated representation of the Japanese, a point that becomes even more important given the wide popular appeal of both Dyess's and Wolfe's texts at their time of publication. Interestingly, Lovato's references to Native Americans are frequently used to metaphorically position both the Japanese and the Filipinos as "Indian" simultaneously. [...]Lovato builds problematic connections between the Japanese, representing an imperial power, and Native Americans and Filipinos, two groups that have been subjugated by American colonial and settler colonial rule. [...]Silko adds another layer to the transnational scope of the novel and places Tayo at yet another imperial intersection in the space of the reservation.