AS THESE EPIGRAPHS INDICATE, this study took into consideration not only the delight and magic that humor in contemporary Native writing sparks, but also its powerfully performative potential. Rather than only providing light-hearted entertainment or diversion (which of course it also does), humor in contemporary Native writing constitutes a strategic textual device: It promotes intercultural understanding — if often through humorous criticism — and participates in the positioning of the Native subject and Native communities in an intra- and intercultural context. Humor thus deals with serious issues, performs serious work, and should therefore be taken seriously. It is not irreconcilable with the traumatic aspects of Native history and the lasting consequences of colonization for Native existence. On the contrary, as this study has shown, humor serves simultaneously as an instrument for criticism, a cultural mediator, and a coping strategy, by providing an approach for addressing these issues in a manner that elicits both reconsideration and healing.