Sherman Alexie: Hello, my name is Sherman Alexie, which is a great name for an author, it's very distinctive but I'm not the only Sherman Alexie. My late father was Sherman Alexie so that makes me Sherman Alexie, Jr. So there were two of us running around the planet. Now, it's an odd name for a Native-American I suppose, and people are always wondering where my Indian name is. This is my Indian name. Sherman came from my dad, of course, but I come from a long line of men who were named very ornately and eccentrically. I have a grandfather named Adolph, another one named Alfons. I have a great-great grandfather named Aristotle. So the long tradition of giving Indian names, very ornate names like Crazy Horse or Sitting Bull, very poetic, extended into colonial names as well, so we took the oddest, excentric names, hence Sherman. Alexie comes from my Russian ancestors. I am not a pure blood, none of us are pure blood. So I do have a white grandfather in the back. I am a little bit Russian, a little bit French and British as well. So, my name is a potent colonial cocktail, Sherman Alexie.