Apple: Skin to the Core

This section summarizes “Naming Ceremony,” “My Grandmothers Gain Nicknames by Relative Proximity,” “Little Umma Reads the Ethnographer’s Rorschach Cards,” and “Big Umma Delivers a Quick Lesson in History and Survival.”

A “Naming Ceremony” is a ceremony that some Indigenous people go through. During it, they are given a name that “the Creator will know [them] by, for the rest of [their] life” (40). In counterpoint to this ritual, a strong culture of nicknames persists on the reservation. Gansworth has a few nicknames: “Batman,” due to his love of the superhero, “Pixie Dust,” which an older brother randomly gave him after they watched an episode of a television show. Gansworth didn’t mind Batman much, but Pixie Dust had connotations that he didn’t like. No matter how painful a nickname given by a family member can be, it is preparation for the nicknames given to Indigenous people by white Americans who look down on them. Gansworth wonders where cruel nicknames like “apple” came from.

In “My Grandmothers Gain Nicknames by Relative Proximity,” Gansworth discusses his grandmothers’ experiences at residential schools. Neither of them passed on the Tuscarora language to their children, all of whom attended local schools. When they became grandmothers, they eschewed the Tuscarora term “Gooo-soood,” instead opting to be called “Big Umma” (Gansworth’s maternal grandmother) and “Little Umma” (his paternal grandmother). Gansworth’s paternal grandfather died young, never meeting his grandchildren.

In “Little Umma Reads the Ethnographer’s Rorschach Cards,” Little Umma agreed to speak to the ethnographer, while Big Umma refused. Both women had converted to Christianity during their residential schooling, eschewing Indigenous traditions. The ethnographer gave his subjects Rorschach tests to see whether their answers would differ from those of white people. He later regretted performing this test, worrying that others would use the results to argue that Indigenous people are less intelligent than white people.

In “Big Umma Delivers a Quick Lesson in History and Survival,” Gansworth recalls asking his mother why she didn’t do beadwork like other women in their community. She said that Big Umma forbade her from learning “backwards skills.”

This section summarizes “The Red Album,” “A Note to Those Who Know My Family,” “How Dog Street Gets Its Name,” “Early and Late,” “The Spoiled Bat,” “I Believe I Find Evidence That I Am Not an Alien,” “Official and Unofficial Covers,” “My Siblings Try to Find Evidence That I Am Not an Alien,” and “What They Leave Us, When They Leave Us.”

Part Two begins with “The Red Album,” which quotes the Beatles song “Blackbird.”

Gansworth’s “A Note to Those Who Know My Family” warns readers that if they’re looking for “Eee-ogg,” or gossip, they’re looking in the wrong place. He uses a family photo album that he calls The Red Album to put his story together.

In “How Dog Street Gets Its Name,” Gansworth describes the street he grew up on. Although formally named Mount Hope, the street’s nickname was Dog Street because of the many stray dogs that roamed the area.

Gansworth depicts his birth (in 1965) in “Early and Late.” He was five years younger than his next-closest sibling and one of seven children. Gansworth’s mother kept working as a cleaner until late in her pregnancy. Big Umma died when Gansworth was a baby. His older sister, who was 14, took on much of the responsibility of helping raise him while their mother worked. The family struggled financially, relying on hand-me-downs. Gansworth had no photo of himself as a baby with his mother.

In “The Spoiled Bat,” Gansworth describes how, when he was still a baby, his oldest brother was drafted into the army to fight in Vietnam. As a toddler, Gansworth became obsessed with Batman. When his brother returned from Vietnam, he spent his army pay on a toy Batmobile for Gansworth to ride around in. It was an extravagant expense.

“I Believe I Find Evidence That I Am Not an Alien” explores Gansworth’s feelings of alienation in his family. He didn’t like sports like others in his family did, preferring comic books. He includes a photo that shows him wearing a Lone Ranger mask, part of a costume his aunt made him before she and her husband moved to Las Vegas.

“Official and Unofficial Covers” describes one of Gansworth’s sisters studying hard. Gansworth compares her to the backup singers of white artists, hoping for a chance to someday be in the spotlight instead.

In “My Siblings Try to Find Evidence That I Am Not an Alien,” Gansworth relates how his brother got a good job after finishing high school and bought the family a TV with his wages. They argued over what to watch: Most family members preferred sports, but Gansworth hid the remote so that he could watch Lost in Space or Batman. His brother outwitted him by using a pair of pliers to change the channel without the remote.

Gansworth considers the difficulties of growing up much younger than his siblings in “What They Leave Us, When They Leave Us.” He inherited many things from his siblings: posters, photo albums, and records. When he was 10, his oldest brother moved out and left him all his Beatles albums.

This section summarizes “Metropolitan Stadium, August 21, 1965,” “From Iron Man to Skywalker: 1. Half This Blood, Half That,” “Hunger Test 1.,” “Eel,” “Tonto’s Dog Street Cousins,” “Jaboozie Gives Me Two Lessons in Tradition,” and “From Iron Man to Skywalker: 2. Tanned Hide.”

In “Metropolitan Stadium, August 21, 1965,” Gansworth remembers his mother taking some of his siblings to a Beatles concert in Buffalo, New York. They didn’t have tickets but listened to the concert from outside. As an adult, Gansworth discovered that the Beatles never played in Buffalo, so his memory can’t be real. His siblings may have made up the story to escape from reality.

“From Iron Man to Skywalker: 1. Half This Blood, Half That” is about Gansworth’s father, an ironworker, returning home for a rare visit on his mother’s 80th birthday. Gansworth was seven. He tried to get his father’s attention, but his father ignored him and soon left.

“Hunger Test 1.” describes the challenge Gansworth’s family faced at the end of the month when food was short and money had run out. It lists some of the meal options they had, including not eating at all.

“Eel” depicts how, in kindergarten, Gansworth was asked to draw his clan. He was an Onondaga “Eel” but he didn’t know what an eel is. The other families in his community are Tuscarora, and the last Tuscarora Eel “died / a generation ago” (87). Gansworth’s mother explained that the clan system was used to keep track of families and to ensure that people didn’t marry their blood relatives.

In “Tonto’s Dog Street Cousins,” Gansworth describes the character Tonto, from the TV show The Lone Ranger. Tonto is the Lone Ranger’s companion and was played by Jay Silverheels, a Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) man who was raised an hour from where Gansworth lived. His cousins lived a few doors down from Gansworth. Although The Lone Ranger was no longer made when Gansworth was a child, he watched reruns. He wondered if Jay Silverheels was lonely in the world of Hollywood, with no one to talk to who could speak his language.

In “Jaboozie Gives Me Two Lessons in Tradition,” Gansworth recalls when he was no longer a child but not yet a teen. His friend Jaboozie was two years older than him. She taught him how to do beadwork and how to make cornhusk dolls. Gansworth worried that if he took his doll home, his mother would throw it away. Jaboozie told him that that was the beauty of the dolls: They’re made of scraps, so he could always make more.

“From Iron Man to Skywalker: 2. Tanned Hide” describes another visit from Gansworth’s father. Gansworth was nine. Like the last time, his father didn’t notice him; instead, he asked his four-year-old niece for a kiss.