What You Pawn I Will Redeem

Native American history in the United States is not simply one of racial marginalization or oppression, but also one of mass death and cultural erasure. Jackson describes it as one of genocide, which is a view many experts today would agree with; although introduced diseases like smallpox undoubtedly played a role in the decline of indigenous populations following European colonization, a number of concrete steps were also taken to kill or displace native peoples as well as to stamp out their cultural identities and practices.

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is in some sense an allegory for this process of erasure. Most of the indigenous characters who appear in the story ultimately vanish without a trace: Rose of Sharon leaves while Jackson is sleeping, Junior wanders off while Jackson is buying lottery tickets, and the Aleuts disappear into the ocean. Furthermore, the story’s plot centers on an object—the ceremonial regalia—that symbolizes the disappearance of Native American lands, cultures, and peoples. Significantly, this item was stolen from Jackson’s grandmother in an act he implies was also a kind of murder: “I wondered if my grandmother’s cancer started when someone stole her powwow regalia.