The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

 

The year is 1953, the place North Dakota.  Thomas Wazhask is worried.  A senator in Washington has introduced a bill that would terminate the Chippewa tribe and the support they receive from the government.  Thomas knows that even if they call it emancipation, it is a ploy to take away what land the tribe members still have.  The tribe is poor and when support is taken away, will soon have to sell what little they have which is the land.  The tribe members will be taken to cities and tribe unity, culture and traditions will be destroyed.

Thomas is the night watchman at a factory that he and others managed to get located near the reservation.  Most of the workers are women as they tested higher on the manual dexterity tests.  Patrice is one of those workers.  She has recently graduated from high school and she is the only person working in her house.  Her wages support her mother, brother, grandmother and sometimes her drunken father.  She wants more out of life but isn't sure how to go about it.  Her sister, Vera, went to the city and the family hasn't heard from her and is worried.  Patrice goes to try to find her but finds the same trickery and attempts to prostitute her that Indian women often find.  She is helped by Wood Mountain, a young man who boxes and thinks he is maybe ready to settle down.

This book is based on the life of Erdrich's own grandfather and his fight against the termination of his tribe.  He was successful.  This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021 and is another in the bountiful array of works that Louise Erdrich has written that give others a view into the lives of Native Americans and the issues that they face.  It is stirring, heartrending and comedic at times.  Readers will learn about the Native American history and some of the issues they fight to this day.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.