Crystallization in The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

One of the craft aspects I enjoyed the most while reading The Only Good Indians is what Benjamin Percy refers to as crystallization. It comprises the cyclical repetition of an image or an event in a way that it later becomes a symbol in the story reminding the reader of whatever meaning the writer has tethered to it. Creating a sense of dread, tension, and anticipation.

The Only Good Indians is a multiple POV book that centers on a group of four young Native American men (Cassidy, Gabe, Lewis, Ricky) from the Blackfeet reservation. These young men drive to a restricted area of the reservation in which only elders are allowed to hunt. The men find a clearing in which there is a herd of at least forty elk—a rare occurrence according to the book—and in the heat of the moment, they shoot the entire herd.

Lewis, notices one of the elk is not dead, and in his attempt to kill it, he blows off its legs. Then, he shoots it again, but instead of dying, its spine detaches from its body while remaining alive. The agony continues until the elk dies, and Lewis promises he will not let any parts of the elk go to waste. He skins the elk and discovers it is pregnant, which makes him suspect that is the reason it has grasped onto life with such force. Lewis feels instant guilt and the men are soon expelled from the reservation for violating the rules.

The elk comes back to avenge her unborn calf in the form of The Elk Head Woman. Each murder committed by the Elk Woman is reminiscent of the hunting event.

At first, the Elk Woman sets up Ricky to be murdered by white men at the bar, but before he is killed, he is shown a pack of elk that want him dead. By this time, we suspect the Elk Head Woman will try to kill the rest of the men.

The next section belongs to Lewis. It is much longer, since the Elk Woman perceives him as the main culprit of the event. What Elk Woman wants the most is to make Lewis suffer, first by killing his loved ones and then him.

One day, Lewis comes home with his coworkers to show off his dog, only to find out his dog is hung by its chain but has not yet died. Then, the dog is stomped by hooves at night, but Lewis finds out he is still breathing. And even after Lewis buries the dog in his backyard, he then discovers the cadaver is no longer buried there. Afterward, Lewis concludes that Shaney is the Elk Woman. At this point, the crystallization technique comes into effect for readers. Before Lewis does anything we already know what to expect. Lewis will try to murder Shaney but only after great suffering will she finally die.

We read this next scene while holding our breath and shaking our heads. We want to scream, “No Lewis, do not do this.”

Lewis invites Shaney to see his motorcycle, which is missing its front wheel. Shaney’s hair gets stuck in the front wheel mechanism and the device scalps her, but she is still alive. “Shaney’s throat is still sucking air in, her eyes locked on Lewis.”

The situations repeat itself when Lewis murders his wife, Peta, and when Cassidy and Gabe are murdered by the Elk Woman. We think the person is dead, and then, in a horrifying moment, we realize they are alive because they are still breathing, suffering through the entire thing.

When we reach Denorah’s chapter, Gabe’s daughter, we are breathless. She is a young girl who is succeeding at basketball, and we want her to survive. The Elk Woman promises Gabe before murdering him that she will not touch Denorah, his calf.

But then they play basketball, and as readers we expect Elk Woman to break that promise by brutally murdering Denorah due to the cyclical repetition of events. While they play basketball on scene, we are already visualizing Denorah sputtering blood and sucking on air. We get past the basketball scene and discover Denorah is spared, but only after she fights for her life.