by Louise Erdrich

I was introduced to this book through the Sierra Club’s internal book club! The book club is exposing me to a much wider swath of literature than I would otherwise seek out on my own. I had to miss the book discussion of this book, but I had a great time reading it.

This book is about a Native American tribe in the 1950’s working to fight the U.S. Government, which is trying to pass a bill that would dissolve their tribe & tribal rights. The tribe is poor, and one of the most striking dynamics of this book is to see the nearly unlimited power and resources of the government match up against the nearly nonexistent power and resources of the tribe.

Concentration of cultural capital plays a role as well. The author does a great job of illustrating moments of Native American wisdom, intuition, and connection with the earth without romanticizing what it’s like to live on an Indian reservation in modern U.S.

It’s a world that is totally foreign to me, but the author also weaves in love stories and community drama that helped build deeper empathy between this reader and the characters.

And it is based on a true story!

One of my favorite quotes: “Things started going wrong, as far as Zhaanat was concerned, when places everywhere were named for — political figures, priests, explorers, — and not for the real things that happened in these places — the dreaming, the eating the death, the appearance of animals. This confusion […] between the timelessness of the earth and the short span here of mortals was typical of their ignorance.”