The perception of Native Americans in mainstream America is far from the reality of the true culture of the Native American community. Most Americans would stereotype natives as a humorless and serious group of people, due to the traditions of tribal communities and years of mistreatment by the government. However, contemporary Native American authors, such as Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich, have refuted the perception of Native American people through their writings. Alexie and Erdrich religiously use humor in their writing as a method of confronting the dominant culture in order to survive and raise awareness of the conditions in which Native Americans live. Alexie exposes contemporary issues that Native Americans face both on and off the reservation, such as poverty, unemployment, and alcoholism. In Alexie's short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, he uses survival humor in the stories "Every Little Hurricane" "Amusements" as a method for characters to deal with the problems they face with alcoholism. is one of the most prevalent problems within Native American communities. In the short story “Every Little Hurricane,” the main character, Victor, faces alcohol problems in his family's life. Alexie uses humor in the story regarding alcohol to deal with family problems, as when “Victor dreamed of whiskey, vodka, tequila, these liquids swallowing him as easily as he swallowed them” (7 ). The humor behind Victor dreaming of alcohol is that most people dream of a positive future vision of something happening in their life, whereas Victor dreams of alcohol as if it were a positive thing in his life ...... middle of paper ......the story offers a funny story but still demonstrates one of the most relevant issues within the indigenous community, alcoholism. Although Native Americans certainly faced difficult situations such as struggles with the United States government, alcoholism, and maintaining traditions. In some ways, Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich prove that there was a lighter side in tribal communities. These authors reveal how natives faced difficult times with humor and kept their heads held high instead of losing hope. Native Americans viewed humor as a way to cope with difficulties in their lives and found laughter in their position in mainstream American culture. Most importantly, humor brought strength and resilience to Native Americans, allowing them to withstand hardships in order to adapt to the rapidly changing society around them..