Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™

Rebecca Roanhorse’s Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is told entirely in the second person. It places you inside the headset of Jesse Turnblatt, a Native man who sells packaged “authentic” experiences to Tourists in virtual reality—until one customer starts taking more than he paid for. Jesse knows exactly what his customers want: the Indian of the movies—buckskin, spirit animals, and vision quests. The Tourists come seeking transformation, and it’s as easy as choosing from a menu. But what begins with naming generators and rehearsed broken English quickly turns into something far more unsettling. Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is a story about identity, appropriation, and who gets to tell whose story.

Rebecca Roanhorse’s Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is told entirely in the second person. It places you inside the headset of Jesse Turnblatt, a Native man who sells packaged “authentic” experiences to Tourists in virtual reality—until one customer starts taking more than he paid for. Jesse knows exactly what his customers want: the Indian of the movies—buckskin, spirit animals, and vision quests. The Tourists come seeking transformation, and it’s as easy as choosing from a menu. But what begins with naming generators and rehearsed broken English quickly turns into something far more unsettling. Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is a story about identity, appropriation, and who gets to tell whose story.

Rebecca Roanhorse’s Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is told entirely in the second person. It places you inside the headset of Jesse Turnblatt, a Native man who sells packaged “authentic” experiences to Tourists in virtual reality—until one customer starts taking more than he paid for. Jesse knows exactly what his customers want: the Indian of the movies—buckskin, spirit animals, and vision quests. The Tourists come seeking transformation, and it’s as easy as choosing from a menu. But what begins with naming generators and rehearsed broken English quickly turns into something far more unsettling. Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ is a story about identity, appropriation, and who gets to tell whose story.