Heroes in Body Bags: Renegotiating Heroism in Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning

Abstract

This paper discusses how Maggie Hoskie, the Indigenous “hero ” of Rebecca Roanhorse’s The Sixth World series , renegotiates what it means to be a hero in the “post - Native Apocalypse ” (Dillon 10). Trail of Lightning , as a work that explore s Indigenous futurisms and ecofeminisms , demand s a renegotiation of Western hero ideal s , highlighting how Maggie’s most heroic qualities arise from her challenge of stereotypical Western heroism in the wake of ecological disaster.