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Checkers (Gladys) Warm Water
A heavily mythologized woman who lives on Wellpinit Mountain, watching over the Spokane tribe. According to tribal lore, she has the power to walk on water and read dreams, and can speak to animals. She is also an incredible musician, and, according to Alexie’s telling of history, she has taught many of the greatest artists of the last century, including Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Coyote Springs spends one week with Big Mom before they fly to New York to audition for Cavalry Records, learning chords that she has adapted from the screams of dying horses during the Indian Wars. She is the champion fry bread cook on the reservation and a symbol of traditional Indian mysticism, mixed at every step with pragmatism and humor.
Big Mom Quotes in Reservation Blues
The Reservation Blues quotes below are all either spoken by Big Mom or refer to Big Mom. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
The colt shivered as the officer put his pistol between its eyes and pulled the trigger. That colt fell to the grass of the clearing, to the sidewalk outside a reservation tavern, to the cold, hard coroner’s table in a Veterans Hospital.
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Chapter 7 Quotes
“Michael,” Big Mom said, “you run around playing like you’re a warrior. You’re the first to tell an Indian he’s not being Indian enough. How do you know what that means? You need to take care of your people. Smashing your guitar over the head of a white man is just violence. And the white man has always been better at violence anyway. They’ll always be better than you at violence.”
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Get the entire Reservation Blues LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Big Mom Character Timeline in Reservation Blues
The timeline below shows where the character Big Mom appears in Reservation Blues. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Thomas tells Johnson that Big Mom , who lives on top of the beautiful and mystical Wellpinit Mountain, may be the...
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In the memory of Big Mom , 134 years earlier, the Indian horses scream. She thinks at first that they are...
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...and that a woman can be heard crying there. Victor, Junior, and Thomas once saw Big Mom walk across the water, singing all the way, but Victor and Junior pretend they didn’t...
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Chapter 2
Thomas thinks of fry bread, a traditional Spokane food. Big Mom has won the fry bread-cooking contest for the past 37 years, descending from her mountain...
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Chapter 6
...starts this chapter is about an independent Indian woman, and the story picks up on Big Mom ’s front porch with Robert Johnson. Johnson remembers his time with the guitar, how he...
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...stock of beer for Junior and Victor. The next day, Thomas receives a letter from Big Mom , telling him that without her help, they will have no chance of landing a...
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Chapter 7
This chapter begins with a song about Big Mom . Coyote Springs is headed up Wellpinit mountain toward her house with all of their...
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Rumors about Big Mom include that she taught Elvis Presley—and many other famous musicians—everything they know, and that you...
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“Ya-hey,” says the towering figure of Big Mom when they reach her blue house. She tells Thomas that Robert Johnson is gone looking...
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In Checkers’ journal, she writes that it felt like Big Mom could read inside her head. They all sang together in the steam, and came out...
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Victor doesn’t understand how Big Mom can help them play, since she’s “just some old Indian woman.” At that moment, from...
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Big Mom listens to the band’s last rehearsal. Their whole set is original now, and she pronounces...
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In a letter, Junior thanks Big Mom for the drumsticks, and tries to apologize for Victor. He explains that Victor has always...
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Big Mom watches them walk down the mountain, not sure what will happen next. She had told...
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Chapter 9
...powdered milk for breakfast, hating it. The day before this decision, Robert Johnson sits on Big Mom ’s porch and watches the reservation. The two discuss the tragedy of White Hawk, who...
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...than anybody ever. Now, watching Victor’s dreams, Johnson feels guilty about passing on the guitar. Big Mom keeps carving the wood, which turns into a harmonica.
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...rises and comforts him as he weeps, remembering the horses screaming in the field while Big Mom watched.
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Chapter 10
The dogs howl, and Big Mom hears them as she cries on her porch. Another of her students has died, and...
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They bury Junior in the Spokane Tribal cemetery, near his mother and father. Big Mom and Father Arnold take turns leading the service, while Checkers, Chess, Victor, and Thomas watch....
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...for Spokane, and that she found a job as a phone operator. At this moment, Big Mom enters with Father Arnold, who wants to speak to Checkers.
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Big Mom lights sage, and Chess, Checkers, and Thomas get ready to pray, for everybody, as Big...
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...away, and Thomas feels a tightness in his chest. Down the road, they come across Big Mom , who hitches a ride to a community feast at the Longhouse and then convinces...
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The group sits waiting for food for a long time, until Big Mom walks into the kitchen and discovers there is not enough fry bread. She tells the...
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...that the people might need his music. As Chess, Checkers, and Thomas start to leave, Big Mom takes up a collection for them from the tribe. Some, like David WalksAlong, donate out...
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...to touch them, hot and wet. In a dream, the three of them sit with Big Mom at the powwow while she teaches the Spokane Indians a new song, the shadow horses’...
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