For Native American Heritage Month, my reading theme centered on books by or about Indigenous people. My favorite book in November was The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. I really enjoy Erdrich’s work, so I knew going in I would probably also really like this book, and spoiler alert, I did.
The Night Watchman is set in the 1950s and is based on Erdrich’s grandfather, who was tribal chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and on his work, along with other tribal members, to resist the Indian termination policy that aimed to end tribal recognition and legally (not just culturally) assimilate Indigenous people into American society. The main thrust of the novel is Thomas Wazhashk, the titular night watchman, and his fight to save his tribe from termination. He gathers and leads a delegation to Washington, DC to testify to Congress against the termination bill.
The novel frequently switches between various characters’ perspectives to follow other plotlines. Pixie Paranteau financially supports her family, deals with an itinerant, alcoholic father, and searches for her older sister, who disappeared after moving to Minneapolis. Boxer Wood Mountain trains with math teacher Barnes to go up against the local Great White Hope. Two Mormon brother missionaries try desperately to convert the Chippewa, believing their skin to be curse-darkened and only lightened by conversion.
The Night Watchman is another Erdrich triumph, award-winning and highly reviewed. Personally, I also find that novels give me a deeper understanding of topics and concepts, so while I had a passing familiarity with termination and assimilation efforts, The Night Watchman brought the threat as well as the response to life. I recommend the book especially to non-Native people, who will benefit from reading about Indigenous issues from an Indigenous perspective.
November’s reads and ratings (out of five stars)
Theme reads
- Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hämäläinen: four stars
- The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones: four stars
- There, There, Tommy Orange: five stars
- The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich: five stars
- Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich: three stars
- Where the Dead Sit Talking, Brandon Hobson: three stars
- Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, Lili’uokalani: three and a half stars
- Notable Native People, Adrienne Keene: five stars
Others
- Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury: three stars
- That Way Madness Lies, ed. Dahlia Adler: five stars
- Beyond the Wand, Tom Felton: five stars
- If You Could See the Sun, Ann Liang: four stars
- You, Me, and Our Heartstrings, Melissa See: three stars
- Factfulness, Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Rönnlund: five stars
- The Whispering Dark, Kelly Andrew: five stars
- The Reading List, Sara Nisha Adams: four stars
- The Husbands, Chandler Baker: four stars
- Heart of the Sun Warrior, Sue Lynn Tan: four stars
- Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry: five stars
Moriah Sharpe 