There was one significant push that led to Alexie's career, this was the influence of Alex Kuo.
Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese American background was Alexie's mentor when he was enrolled in a creative writing course at Washington State University. Alexie was at low point of his life at this time and Kuo gave the motivation to get right back up.
During the duration of the course, Kuo gave Alexie a anthology entitled, "Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back" by Joseph Bruchac. This is the book that changed Alexie's life.
The book was mostly inspired by the readings of works from many other Native American writers.
With this whole new respect for Native American literature, Alexie was inspired to start his first collection of stories.
Though Alex Kuo influenced Alexie the most he was still influenced by other Native American author. Such as, Simon Ortiz, Leslie Marmon Silko, Adrian C. Louis, and Luci Tapahonso.