My Name Is Not Easy

The news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination creates turmoil at Sacred Heart. Luke thinks again of Bunna’s death and notes bitterly that no one ever found Bunna’s body. Luke goes to his bed to cry and punch his pillow, upset over Bunna. Father Flanagan finds him and assumes he is crying about John F. Kennedy. Father Flanagan permits Luke to call home.

Luke was also allowed to call home after the plane accident. The details of the crash were still unclear. When his mother picked up the phone, Luke heard his original nickname for the first time in a long time: Amau. His mother screamed for all of Luke’s relatives to come to the phone, and for the first time in a long time, Luke felt warmed by the love of his family. The family thought that Luke was also on the plane and that he had died as well. For the second call, Uncle Joe answers and tells Luke about his new business, a rodeo. Luke tells Uncle Joe that his gun was on the plane with Bunna, and though Joe is distraught to have lost his gun, he assures Luke it is fine. Luke feels certain that the authorities will allow Isaac to return to their family.

Rose and Evelyn cut Donna’s long hair to style her like Jackie Kennedy. Donna is determined to become a new, confident person. At a school dance, Donna dances with Amiq, deeply happy to be in his arms. Amiq takes her outside of the school into the secret hiding spot in the forest. Amiq has Donna lie down so she can see the opening in the trees to the bright, starry sky. Amiq and Donna kiss. Amiq drinks vodka and the more he drinks the more Donna realizes that she is just a version of a person to him. The teachers send Luke to look for Amiq to deliver the news that his father has been missing for days. Amiq dismisses this as another one of his father’s drunken escapades. Amiq does not want to entertain the thought that something worse has happened to his father.

Father Mullen has been training Sonny and Luke in boxing. As Luke listens to Father Mullen’s coaching, he has an out-of-body experience where he remembers living underground as a leader of his tribe. Despite the impossibility of this memory, Luke realizes that the vision depicts the truth and that he is a leader.

Sacred Heart School starts up a student newspaper. Junior shows Father Mullen a story in the Tundra Times about Project Chariot. This is a government plan for testing nuclear weapons on Native American reservation land. Father Mullen is uninterested in the story. He assumes Junior wants to write about his uncle’s paper, not Project Chariot, for the school paper.

Junior, Luke, Sonny, and Amiq read more stories in the Native American papers about civil disobedience and protests in which their communities participate. Amiq encourages Junior to write about Project Chariot for the school paper. When Father Mullen reads Junior’s article about Project Chariot, he tells him it is not right for the Sacred Heart Guardian because their paper should be about the students, not about the content that is more fit for Junior’s uncle’s newspaper. The rest of the school paper team watches Junior fail to stand up for his story. Junior feels their scrutiny. Chickie presents her story on their new school desks.

Later, Amiq encourages Junior to defy Father Mullen. Amiq’s interference annoys Junior, but Junior is thrilled when Amiq calls him a writer. Junior produces a new story – the real story he wants to write about the interconnected family that is the entire Native American community. Junior writes an opinion editorial piece tracing the connections between hunting and being prey. The article is well-written. It discusses the many abuses the Native American community has faced, including Project Chariot. Amiq adds a list of names of missing Native American people, like Isaac, to the story. Amiq thinks of his father, who is still missing.

The Dallas Morning News publishes a letter to the editor called “From the Ice Cellar to the Bomb Shelter: Seeking Missing People” by Aamaugak, a student at Sacred Heart School. Father Mullen is angry about the letter to the editor but does not know who Aamaugak is. Amiq stands and says it was him. Then Junior stands and claims he wrote the piece.

Sacred Heart School expels Amiq. He only made the list of missing and kidnapped persons while Junior wrote the story and Luke submitted it to the Dallas paper. Amiq takes the fall for all of them. Luke is worried about Amiq’s expulsion because with his father still missing, Amiq has no home to return to. He is certain that Amiq will die out in the world on his own.

At night during Amiq’s absence, all the boys are uneasy about their missing friend. Sonny, Amiq’s main rival, goes after Amiq. Luke and Junior follow. They find Amiq drinking in his hiding spot in the forest. Chickie brings them all to a notary so they can all sign documents attesting that they each are part of the publication of the story in the Dallas newspaper. When it is his turn to sign, Luke uses his real name: Aamaugak. Even Michael O’Shay signs the affidavit in solidarity with the rest of the students. Junior gives Father Mullen the affidavits, challenging him to expel all of them.

Father Mullen takes a solitary walk. He comforts himself with thoughts of his mother, even though he has not seen her since he was a baby. Father Flanagan oversees Mass at Sacred Heart on Good Friday, not confident that this is the way to encourage the students to embrace Catholicism. Luke vows never to sit through Mass again once he is free of the boarding school. Sister Mary Kate secretly sneaks a glass of milk and a cookie to Chickie, and Chickie thinks of Bunna, who did not like milk. Donna finds solace and even happiness in the environment of Mass and the school. Amiq studies the Saint Christopher medal Donna gave him. They are all interrupted by a large earthquake that forces an evacuation of Sacred Heart School. One of the nuns, Sister Sarah, dies of a heart attack during the earthquake. Father Mullen dies in a tsunami wave by the beach.

Luke is back at home with his family. Isaac was returned to them after the scandal of the newspaper story. Michael O’Shay’s father helped sort out the legalities and Father Flanagan helped raise the money to ensure Isaac’s return to his family. Luke resumes speaking his native language, even though his accent has changed from years of speaking only English and being surrounded by Latin at Mass. Uncle Joe teaches Luke how to hunt.