Author Sherman Alexie faced discrimination when he attended a school off the Spokane Reservation in Washington.

Alexie, who is Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, was mocked as the only Indian student at the school. "I was so scared of them," he said at a lecture at Cornell University in New York, The Cornell Daily Sun reported.

Alexie eventually learned the non-Indian students were just as afraid of him. "They literally thought I was going to pull out a bone arrow and shoot them," he said.

The experience formed the basis of "The Partially True Story of the True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," Alexie's award-winning first young adult novel.

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Native American Writer Details Personal Struggle (The Cornell Daily Sun 3/9)

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