"What You Pawn, I Will Redeem" Summary

Jackson, the narrator, is a Spokane Indian who lives on the streets of Seattle. He hangs out with his friends Rose of Sharon and Junior. One day after panhandling enough money to buy a bottle of wine, they head toward the liquor store and stop briefly at a pawn shop window. Jackson swears that the powwow dance regalia in the window belonged to his grandmother before it was stolen fifty years previously. He goes inside with his friends to see if he can positively identify the regalia and learn its sales price. Jackson knows that each Indian family has its own secret way of marking regalia. He knows that if there is a yellow bead somewhere on the regalia, it was his grandmother's.

The pawnbroker tells Jackson and his friends the...