Louise Erdrich writes on Native American themes, and is of Ojibwe descent. She is one of my favourite novelists. She combines the nitty gritty of daily life on the reservation, with a closeness to her characters, endless original storylines, magical events and an exploration of some of the bigger themes around being native. Very few novelists have this range of gifts. And she keeps producing a new novel every year or two, often being convinced in the interim that she will never write again.
The bigger theme in the Night Watchman (which won this year's Pulitzer Prize) is the 'termination' of many of the tribes that was taking place in the 50s and 60s, and the successful attempt by her grandfather Patrick Gourneau to petition Congress to put an end to one such attempt at 'termination': it would have taken away all their special rights and protections, and resulted in them losing their land and ending up scattered in the cities. To illustrate what was at stake, Erdrich describes particularly vividly the lives and stories of 2 families on the reservation who, for all their poverty, are very close knit in a way that we whiteys can hardly conceive of: rather, it resonates deeply as something we have lost.
The policy of piecemeal 'termination' (which suited financial interests) decimated 113 tribes. In 1970 Richard Nixon called for an end to it (I like it when right-wingers do liberal things, it messes with our heads 😅). As Erdrich says, "Five years later, a new era of self-determination for Native people began. Indian rights conflicts made their way through the court system, building Native sovereignty, case upon hard-won case."
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