How was the story of "This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona" altered for the movie, Smoke Signals (1998)?

Some might say the story was "expanded," yet "altered" is
a more appropriate word since there are some overt alterations to the narrative as told
by Alexie in the short story. For one thing, Thomas says his father was killed in World
War II and his mother died giving birth to him--both very tragic events to surround a
boy's introduction into the world (and significantly symbolic of the singular importance
of Thomas's story telling, i.e., prophesying).

readability="13">

My father, he died on Okinawa in World War II,
died fighting for this country, which had tried to kill him for years. My mother, she
died giving birth to me, died while I was still inside her. ... I have only my stories
.... I learned a thousand stories before I took my first thousand steps. They are all I
have.

In the film
interpretation, Thomas's parents die together in a fire in their house while he alone is
rescued. There is something of the same symbolism relating to his isolation and stories
but nothing of the association of stories to the isolation from the white man's world
that they originate within.

In addition, the film portrays
Thomas as a high school nerd (implying high intelligence highly developed) when in the
short story Thomas speaks a decidedly non-Standard idiolect of
English:

readability="7">

"Don't worry about the money," Thomas said. "It
don't make any difference anyhow ... I know you ain't going to treat me any better than
you did before."

I suppose in
the film director Chris Eyre and screenplay writer Sherman Alexie were attempting to
connect stories, which are prophesies, with higher mental attributes. However in the
short story, Thomas's unimpressive intellectual accomplishments are part of the idea of
the primacy of his stories:

readability="7">

We are all given one thing by which our lives are
measured, one determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the
world.