Mainstream America's perception of Native Americans is far from the reality of the true culture of the Native American community. Most Americans would stereotype Native people as a serious and humorless 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 disproved the perception of Native American people through their writing. Alexie and Erdrich religiously use humor in their writing as a method of addressing traditional culture in order to survive and to raise awareness of the conditions in which Native Americans live. Alexie exposes contemporary issues that Native Americans face both nationally and internationally. 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 the characters to deal with the problems they face with alcoholism . is one of the most widespread issues within Native American communities. In the short story “Every Little Hurricane,” the main character, Victor, deals with alcohol-related problems in his family's life. Alexie uses humor in the story when dealing with alcohol to cope with family problems, such as when “Victor dreamed of whiskey, vodka, tequila, those fluids that swallowed 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 that will happen in their life, when Victor dreams of alcohol as if it is a positive thing in his life...half of paper ......the story provides an entertaining story but still demonstrates one of the most relevant issues within the Native community, alcoholism. While Native Americans certainly faced difficult situations such as struggles with the U.S. government, alcoholism, and maintaining tradition In many ways, Sherman Alexie and Louise Erdrich demonstrate that there was a lighter side to tribal communities. These authors reveal how Native people faced difficult times with humor and held their heads high instead of giving up hope. Native Americans saw humor as a way to deal with difficulties in their lives and found laughter in their place in mainstream U.S. culture. More importantly, humor brought strength and resilience to Native Americans, allowing them to withstand hardships to adapt to the rapidly changing traditional society around them..