"Postcards to Columbus" is a poem written by Sherman Alexie. Alexie is well known for his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which later was adapted into the film, Smoke Signals. In "Postcards to Columbus , like in many of his other works, Alexie uses his words to capture the sentiment relatable to many modern day Native Americans, himself of the Coeur d'Alene people.. Taking the idea of being able to travel back in time and tell Columbus what he thinks of him, Alexie plays with the idea of sending him a postcard to accomplish the task. What would be said in the postcard? If this poem is any indication, it would need to be a very large postcard. The same way the colonizers gave false hopes wrapped in friendly gestures, Alexie's postcard would return the favor. Alexie starts the poem with a line that lays out what is ahead for the next 24 lines; "Beginning at the front door of the White House, travel west for 500 years.  As readers we become aware of the idea that this poem is going to take us through time and with Washington, D.C. being the symbol that it is, this journey will hold political and historical significance. This is a strong start by Alexie as he is not only referencing the White House that is on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington D.C., but what seems to have stretched from coast to coast. In that sense, the journey would actually begin on the east coast where the colonizers first landed. Travelling west for 500 years is a double reference. First, he brings the horrifying image of the Trail of Tears, where Natives were forced into reservations west of the Mississippi River during the Indian Removal Act of 1830. During this "relocation , many starved and others contracted diseases while being forced from lands that they had inhabited for much longer than the new tenants. This poem was written in 1993 and 500 years before that would have been close to 1492, the same time that Columbus was reported to have "sailed the ocean blue . The idea that one would be writing a post card to someone also indicates that they are not in the same place, which is what Alexie addresses next. "Christopher Columbus, where have you been? Lost between Laramie and San Francisco or in the reservation HUD house, building a better mouse trap?  Columbus claimed to have discovered this land, brought in waves of people to take over, and didn't even stay to see the fruits of his "discovery . Having left as he did, he would have no idea as to how things turned out for anyone, especially the Native Americans, so Alexie must write this postcard to inform him. Laramie may not