Indigenous Peoples’ Day Book Review: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

Louise Erdrich’s grandfather Patrick Gourneau served as the tribal chairman for the federally recognized tribe of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians for many years. The character Thomas is based on him. And just like Patrick, Thomas is leading the fight against House Concurrent Resolution 108, which sought to terminate five tribes, including the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. All of the other characters except for Thomas and Senator Arthur V. Watkins are fictional.

Thomas works as the night watchman of the jewel bearings plant near the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Patrice is Thomas’s niece. She also works at the plant and is the first member of her immediate family to have a “real” job. However, working at the jewel bearings plant is barely enough to support her family. Her sister Vera is missing after moving to Minneapolis and Patrice must brave the big city to try and find her. Unfortunately, she can only afford to take a few days off for her journey. Then there is Wood Mountain, an amateur boxer. His coach is Lloyd Barnes, the math teacher. Valentine is Patrice’s best friend and works at the plant with her. There are many other supporting characters too. Unlike some books with a large cast, it was easy to keep track of everyone because they were all so different from one another.

One thing I loved about this book is the many intertwining threads running through it. Some were suspenseful, some were horrifying, some were melancholy and some, like the one with the two Mormon missionaries, were humorous. It was like reading several books all at once in the best possible way. I also loved how Erdrich portrays the sense of community between the characters on the reservation. There is a mystical element that I enjoyed as well.

As a work of historical fiction, The Night Watchman serves to remind us that our country’s attempts to erase Native Americans is not a thing of the distant past. It also highlights the extreme poverty found on reservations, with homes that don’t even have running water or electricity. It’s clear from the author’s note that a lot of research went into The Night Watchman to ensure that is it historically accurate. I think that this book would make an excellent book club selection. Highly recommended.