Historical Fiction · WarmA night watchman fights a 1953 bill that would end his tribe's legal status
The Night Watchman
A night watchman fights a law that would end his tribe's legal status
North Dakota, 1953: Thomas Wazhashk, a night watchman and Chippewa tribal council leader, fights a federal bill that would end his tribe's legal status. At the same time, a young woman named Patrice sets out for Minneapolis to look for her missing sister.
More about this book
Who
Thomas Wazhashk, an Ojibwe councilor who works as the night watchman at a jewel bearing plant, and his niece Patrice Paranteau, a nineteen-year-old former valedictorian who works at the plant, supports her mother and brother, and saves money to find her older sister Vera, who vanished after moving to Minneapolis. In 1953 Thomas learns of a termination bill, drafted by Arthur Watkins, that is heading to Congress.
World
The Turtle Mountain Reservation in the 1950s. It is Erdrich's first novel set there.
What makes it different
Thomas is based on Erdrich's own grandfather, whose letters document his fight against termination legislation. The plant is modeled on a real factory on the reservation that employed mostly women, and Watkins's words in the congressional scenes follow real transcripts. The narration is in the third person and moves among many characters, with some chapters from the point of view of animals.
Feel
Political drama mixed with daily life on the reservation, family hardship, boxing and romance. It won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.