Samuel, the father of Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a basketball star in his high school days was awarded the Washington State High School Player of the year in 1956" (97). Thomas describes his father as "such a good basketball player that all the Spokane's wanted him to be more. But [his] father lived up to those expectations"" (97-98). Although he was Native American, Samuel was able to dominate in a white dominated sport at that time. However, "After his basketball days were over, he didn't have much else " (98). Samuel was able to do whatever he wanted on the court during his playing days. But no matter how much he strived to be the best, he simply had nothing else after high school. He may have the impression of being best basketball player in the state, but he simply did not have prospects of playing at the next level because attending a college or university was an opportunity presented primarily to white people. .
Although there was the case of Junior who had the opportunity to attend college, he was still "the only Indian " at his college and that was many years after Samuel graduated high school (234). No matter how outstanding of a player he was, the opportunity to play basketball at the college level and beyond was not available to him simply because he was not white. Living on the reservation, most people grow up in poverty and depend on commodity food and government aid; however, there are many slot machines, which encourages the Indians to gamble, which only contributes to the ongoing cycle of poverty. .
Although the American government is supposedly helping the Native Americans, they are only causing more problems in the community. By gambling, Victor "won a few thousand dollars, only to buy "a closet full of silk shirts and polyester pants be like the celebrities and stars at that time" (12). However, because he longs to have the appearance of the famous people in American white culture, he spends all his money away "and had never had any money since then to buy anything new" (12).