Identity as Cheyenne
Throughout the film, the characters must deal with their Native American heritage. The main characters Buddy and Philbert are an interesting pair because although they both identify strongly as Cheyenne, Philbert dreams of becoming a warrior while Buddy worries about life on the Rez. One main encounter the two had was with the clerk at the stereo store. The man working was blatantly racist and assumed that Buddy and Philbert didn't have enough money to buy a nice stereo and offered them the cheapest one available because of their features as Native American. Buddy was instantly insulted and when he insisted on buying the most expensive equipement for sale, the clerk said, "no get 'um special deal on this one chief." Speaking so slowly and as if Buddy didn't know english, Buddy was enraged by the clerk, and rightly so. Even though Philbert reacted differently to the clerk's racist remark than Buddy, their identity as Native American was put in the forefront as negative and neither of them backed down, standing tall and proving that they had enough money to buy the stereo in spite of the fact of their heritage.
Another instance of identity was when Bonnie's children had to make a phone call to find Rabbit. Although it seemed that the children didn't have much knowledge about their heritage, it was interesting that they singled out a Native woman to ask for change to make a phone call. Asking if she was 'indian' and then saying that they were 'indian' too signifies that they identified with being Native themselves. It was also evident that Bonnie's son Sky was interested in his heritage because although he didn't know what tribe he was when the old woman asked, he immediately asked Rabbit. Sky also was greatly interested in the stories Philbert told about the Cheyenne and it was clear that Sky was happy to know he was Cheyenne and eager to learn more about his heritage, but most of all, he was proud. That was one the one constant throughout that made the film positive: pride in identity as Cheyenne.