Connections

I think one of the biggest connections was with the stereotypes.  Especially that Indians were alcoholics and were poor.  This is true for both of these stories.  For Junior (Arnold Spirit), his family was poor, his whole reservation was poor.  In Smoke Signals, Thomas even says that they don't need money on the reservation.  This is because every one is so poor that it doesn't matter anyways.  They are capable of getting by with what little they have.
Another connection was with alcoholism.  Both Junior, and Victor's fathers were alcoholics.  A lot of their family members were too.  People in both the book and the movie have died by alcohol.  In the book, Eugene was killed by a drunk driver.  In Smoke Signals, Thomas' parents were killed by a house fire, that was started by a Victor's father, who was drunk. 


Another connection is basketball.  I believe that both Victor and Junior had something to prove when they played.  When Junior played, he had to prove that he was doing something with his life.  That he wanted to better himself, and gain hope for himself.  He was fighting for his future, so he could get out of the useless, alcoholic, Indian stereotype.  He had to beat that stereotype, so maybe people could believe that Indians do have a future if they put an effort towards it.  For Victor, basketball was a little different.  He was trying to make his father proud of him.  He wanted his father's love and attention.  Victor wanted his father to believe in him.  But also, Victor and his father were competing against 2 white guys.  So they were also fighting for themselves, and for their culture.  They wanted to show to those guys that they weren't hopeless or failures.  They wanted to show that they could do something right, and that they could be as good as the whites are.  Victor and his father wanted to beat the white people at their own game.  Basketball was a sense of pride and identity for both Junior and Victor.