Name/explain three issues/hurdles Junior encounters in his transfer to Reardon. (Jack) (51)

The first issue Junior has had with his transfer to Reardon is the loss of his tribe and particularly his best friend, Rowdy. This was a sore blow to him, as it made him very sad and guilty to fellow tribe members. While losing his tribe might be not very sad, as he was bullied anyways, losing Rowdy would have a great impact on Junior. Rowdy was Junior's only true friend and protected him from the bullying, as well as having lots of fun with Junior. However, the revelation that Junior would go to Reardon shocked Rowdy to the core. This was such a huge impact that Rowdy gave Junior a black eye and a broken nose. Junior was also very sad at the loss of his true friend, and the split was so big that Junior said that "My best friend had become my worst enemy." (Alexie 53) The second issue Junior had with his transfer was his own inconfidence. He felt that he didn't belong and was different from everyone else, as shown by "Reardon, was the opposite of the Rez. It was the opposite of my family. It was the opposite of me. I didn't deserve to be there."  (Alexie 56) This shows that Junior believed that he didn't belong in Reardon because everyone was white, good looking, and athletic. Junior also thought that he was alone because of racial differences, as he was the only Indian kid in the school other than the school mascot. Junior thought that all of these differences would cause him to become an outsider at this school, and he acted very shyly toward other students within the school.

The third issue was that Junior is heavily looked upon as an outsider and even bullied by the tall kids. During the first day of school, the sight of Junior walking into the school as a student caused mingled looks of curiosity and condescendence from the white students. This continued into his home room, where his classmates looked at him with hard stares, "like I was bad weather." (Alexie 59) "The students couldn't believe their eyes" (Alexie 56) at the sight of an Indian child attending the school. The big kids, looking down upon Junior, started bullying him. Because they thought that despite his scrawny appearance, he could be a murderer, they didn't physically assault him. Instead, they called him various insulting names such as "Chief" and "Tonto". This only stopped when the leader called Junior an incredibly racist name, causing Junior to hit his face and draw a lot of blood. These are some major problems Junior faced at Reardon.