"The Night Beans Talked to Old Bear"

I actually really enjoyed this piece. The language was light and had a good flow of storyline, and as I read, I was able to pick out deeper analogies and metaphors. I thought it was really interesting that the main character was named "Bear" and sort of slipped in and out of human and animal- like states. I noticed a lot of mention of the "standard american diet" we have discussed before with products such as spam and cheese on white bread, canned vegetables, whipped cream etc. This may have something to do with the government subsidized diet that native americans are used to on the reservation. Bear seemed to be developing a more sophisticated pallet and was somewhat nostalgic for the recipes of the past such as his mother's fresh bread. I thought that maybe because he was so hungry and dreaming of so much food he may have been experiencing a time of food shortage. He seems almost delirious at one point dreaming about the government using beans in times of war. There was a certain amount of violence associated with this picture of food that was a bit confusing to me. There were many mentions of stereotypical native american practices that stood out to me such as abuse of women and heavy drinking.