Native American Literature
Discussion Questions for The Last Frontier

Howard Fast's The Last Frontier looks at a reservation tribe that revolts because of mistreatment by reservation agents who shortchange them on rations and who ignore them as human. The novel, written in the 1940s, is wholly sympathetic to the small band of Indians who elect to flee horrifying conditions to return north to their original homeland or, if pressed, go into Canada where they believe they might be free from bondage. During the course of their flight, some 10,000 federal troops take up the hunt for them.

The audience for this novel is a European-oriented one. Fast attempts to portray the Indians as the heroes, the downtrodden, the oppressed. Still, readers see through the eyes of a white culture rather than a red one. First, as an avenue for discussion, and, later, as a writing project, students can examine the motive(s) behind Fast's writing of this story (beyond its literary and artistic merits). Some discussion and pre-writing questions for them to raise initially:

• Does Fast continue his interest in the socialistic point of view so often seen in his other novels?
• Does Fast seem to want to take to task (a bit like earlier muckrakers) white authority?
• Does Fast perhaps merely want to right a wrong by taking a historical incident and dramatizing it for whites to see the harm done to the original Americans?
• How might the white story teller differ from a red story teller?
• What other motive or combination of motives might be entertained after reading the novel and then discussing it with other critical readers?

Sources/References:
• Fast, Howard. Being Red: A Memoir. Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
• Fast, Howard. Freedom Road (American History Through Literature). M.E. Sharpe, 1995.
• Fast, Howard. The Last Frontier. M.E. Sharpe, 1997.
• MacDonald, Andrew. Howard Fast: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers). Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996.