The Night Watchman: A Novel

A fascinating, fictionalized nonfiction weave of stories surrounding a Chippewa community in North Dakota and the U.S. Government’s attempts to dispossess them. Filled with delicious characters and events - mystical, terrible, and heroic. Masterfully crafted storytelling.

In the 1950s, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa live on a small reservation in North Dakota. Thomas Wazhashk, who lives there, is a busy man. He’s the titular night watchman, guarding a factory near the reservation to support his family, materially not well-off but full of love. He’s also the chair of the tribe’s advisory committtee to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is supposed to earn a salary but the tribe is so poor he can’t bring himself to take it. But it’s in that capacity that he learns that a Mormon U.S. Senator is proposing a new bill to terminate the tribe’s federal recognition. This is pitched as “freedom” for the tribe from government supervision, but it’s all too obvious that it’s meant to actually free the government from its treaty responsibilities to the tribe. He begins to organize a trip to DC to fight this threat to his home and his people. Meanwhile, his niece, Patrice Parenteau, is a worker at the same factory and on a mission of her own. Her older sister Vera left for the Twin Cities with her boyfriend, but hasn’t been in touch in several months. Patrice, whose quest to shed her childhood nickname of “Pixie” seems doomed to failure, is determined to locate her sister and manages to scrape together the time off and the money to make the trip to try to find her. Her brief experience in the Cities is odd beyond anything she might have imagined. These are the two main plot threads, but there are plenty more side stories. Thomas may or may not be haunted by the ghost of a friend who died of tuberculosis at boarding school. A pair of Mormon missionaries come to the reservation to try to to save souls and things do not quite go according to plan. A young Indian boxer nurtures a crush on Pixie. His older, white boxing coach who works as a teacher on the reservation also nurtures a crush on Pixie, but she does not have any interest in his courtship. An Indian grad student endures real poverty as she tries to complete her studies, and finds to her surprise that her research might actually have some useful purpose. It’s an ambitious novel with a wide scope. As I’ve come to expect from Louise Erdrich, her character work is compelling. Thomas, Patrice, their friends and families feel like actual people and I was emotionally invested in what became of them. There are very heavy themes at play here: the effects of alcoholism on Indian families, sexual abuse of Native American women, the hideous legacy of Indian boarding schools, the injustices perpetuated against Native Americans by the United States government, the prejudices against Native Americans held by white people, economic instability in Indian communities, and more. But Erdrich’s strength as a storyteller, her inventiveness and use of humor, keep it from feeling like the tragedy porn or trite “inspirational” pablum (particularly the story of Thomas, based on Erdrich’s own grandfather) that the material could have in less assured hands. What kept it from being truly great, for me, was the dual narrative structure. There are certainly shared themes and parallels between the parts of the work that deal with Thomas and those that deal with Patrice (and obviously they share a time and a place), but the storylines felt too disconnected to me to really make them feel like they should be told alongside each other in the way they were. That being said, this is still a very good book and one I’d enthusiastically recommend!

Historical fiction from the point of view of a minority: this is a Pulitzer-winning, best-selling novel by a big-house publisher, by an acclaimed author, and "The Night Watchman" lives up to the acclaim.Erdrich captures sensory details, family history, tribal traditions, politics, friends, neighbors, relatives, hardships, deprivations, resourcefulness, despair, and more. It's endless, the list of all that Erdrich does right as a writer.Having survived a few years of fiction workshopping, I can attest that a lot of critics would complain about too many characters, POV (Point of View ) "violations," omniscient narration, some trivial syntax issues (involving commas + and in a series, but I may be the last editor on the planet who cares), perhaps excessive use of sentence frags (at some point, incomplete sentences became trendy and acceptable), but the vast majority of readers do not care how well a novel is written. Do we like the characters? Do we care about them?Thomas is 100% lovable. Patrice ("not Pixie!") is harder to love, but she earns our respect, she who can chop wood and verbally eviscerate men. Wood Mountain, the young boxer, is endearing. Every character is well drawn, authentic, and memorable. The two Mormon missionaries are intriguing, and the real-life Senator Arthur V. Watkins is a despicable, nasty man. We can rejoice that he failed in his mission to de-tribalize the tribes.Reading this story, one wonders how it is that Native Americans continue to get the short end of the stick and the least amount of media attention. E.g., the hashtag "Native Lives Matter" came before the #BLM hashtag, and two women actually protested in public that Natives had started usurping "their" hashtag. No, ladies, they had the hashtag first, but you never bothered to learn that, or learn why they saw a need to say their lives matter.The sex trafficking, the men who pay money to watch women perform (mermaid or blue ox costume in a tank of water, it's too ridiculous to fathom), the poverty, the drug addicts in the city, the exploitation: Erdrich covers just about every issue of the day.This is a heartbreaking read, but engaging, and ultimately uplifting. This is one of the few novels that make my #MustRead list, one I'd buy for friends and beg them to read.

We owe so much to the Indian tribes who took care of the land and kept their oral history alive. Such a shame how they were treated. We could learn a lot from them about how to forgive the injustices they received.

This book was a good time-passer. The writing itself was pleasant, and I thought it was a great topic for a historical novel, weaving in many real people and events.I thought the arc of the plot was a little lacking. The first chunk was just people going to work, chopping wood, taking naps... yawn. Did no one tell Erdrich about the merits of an "in media res" beginning? We could have started with Pixie's great adventure to Minneapolis, and filled in background details along the way. That would have been much more engaging.Even once the plot did get going, there were long lulls. When Pixie went to Minneapolis, I had a feeling the book was "really going to take off," but then... not really. After a few days she went home and there was more chopping wood and taking naps.Furthermore, I thought there were a few too many subplots, and some of them weren't necessary. What really was the point of including the romantic trials of the boxing coach? What is the meaning of all the supernatural events? These things seem to be just thrown in there, without making a greater point or having much of a resolution.

The history of termination is rarely taught. I knew nothing of the topic. We have a generalized assumption that treaties were not honored but the various ways they were abrogated is a disturbing and horrific part of American history. This historical fiction by Louise Erdrich is valuable introduction and a compelling format that reaches a broader audience than a text book. I really liked the historical aspects. She weaves that story with the painful daily lives of Native Americans that are callously used and marginalized. She brings out their dignity and humanity and how they find joy and humor in the corners of impoverished lives. It's pretty engrossing but hard read. I only take a star off because she introduces so many characters and story tangents that while they tie together are very hard to follow and absorb. But I'll keep reading all her works.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich is a captivating novel by Louise Erdrich, based on her grandfather Patrick Gourneau’s successful fight to ward off efforts to “emancipate” the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.At the heart of the story is Thomas Wazhashk, humble night watchman in a jewel bearing plant. Thomas unearths the real intent of federal legislation that would disenfranchise the Turtle Mountain Chippewa from their land and way of life.Another major character is Patrice ‘Pixie’ Paranteau, a young woman just coming of age who works in the same plant as her uncle Thomas and who is the object of the affections of local high school math teacher and coach ‘Hay Stack’ Barnes.It is not Hay Stack who draws Patrice’s affections, though, but Wood Mountain, Hay Stack’s prize protégé and boxer. Barnes persuades Wood Mountain to take part in a grueling fight with the gate receipts going toward paying for a Turtle Mountain delegation who travel to Washington, D.C., to fight the termination bill written by Senator Arthur W. Watkins.Patrice is also driven to learn what happened to her sister Vera who disappeared in Minneapolis, leaving her baby with friends. Through the course of learning what happened to her sister, Patrice experiences life as a ‘waterjack’ in a seedy nightclub. By her own fierce vigilance she fights off the same forces that sent her sister into the arms of human traffickers.Millie Cloud, a graduate sociology student, a secondary character, also plays an important role in the novel. Millie’s research of the Turtle Mountain people is key in the delegation’s presentation to Washington lawmakers. All but completely absorbed into white culture, Millie rediscovers her Chippewa roots and, like her fellow warriors, fights for the rights of her people.Patrice joins the delegation to Washington, only to return to discover that Wood Mountain has found someone else to take her place – someone else very important to her.Erdrich accomplishes many things in this novel. She weaves seemingly disparate strands into a tightly woven rope at the end. She also shows how common people can accomplish great things when they work together. And, perhaps even greater, she shows the resilience of the Chippewa people and their refusal to be daunted.This is a wonderfully inspiring novel by a master storyteller who will draw you in and not let you go until the very end.

Sometimes the selection of a Pulitzer Prize Winner is inexplicable. Not this time. Louise Erdlich is such a talented writer that you know that any book of hers will be written extraordinarily well. In this book, she also is telling an important story. To our shame, it is not a story that is well-known. To its power, the story is based upon the quest by the author’s grandfather to prevent a great injustice. While working as a night watchman, he runs a campaign to stop the federal government from terminating his tribe. He writes letters, he runs meetings, he researches his adversaries, he educates his people, he coordinates a team, he raises money to cover the expenses of a trip to Washington DC to testify to Congress about the bill, and he works to continue his already arduous life. Not surprisingly, he does not sleep much. There is a historical feel since the story is set in the 1950’s, but you can also feel that the story began hundreds of years earlier and that it continues to today. And his story is not the only one that is told. The author also follows the lives of other characters on the reservation. The story begins slowly and unfolds in layers. At first the number of characters can seem excessive, but the story is so intimate that you grow to care about each of them. I will not summarize more of the story or give you more details because it all should unfold as intended. But I will recommend, without reservation, that you read this book.

This book was so wonderful and sad and exciting and frightening I couldn’t put it down. I bought this in hard copy to keep in my library for my grandchildren to read one day.

El libro llegó en perfectas condiciones y, por lo que llevo leído promete ser muy interesante. La edición estadounidense en pasta dura es estupenda.

Loved the book, and recommend it highly, but I detest Amazon's practice of adding non-title information to their book titles. "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 2021" is not part of the title, and I do not like it being part of the title in my Library. As a librarian this practice offends me.

A wonderful book , each story a cameo which all together gives us a comprehensive picture of life on Turtle mountain, an idea of Native American life on the reservation and a feeling for their resilience and connection to the landscape and nature all around them. They have not only a connection to nature but also to each other. This mental connection reminded me of the aborigines in Australia. They are still in touch with each other and to themselves. We probably had the same centuries ago but sadly we seem to have lost it. The book ties in with the America of today. America seems intent on destroying itself exploiting the land and its resources. This is a book well worth reading on so many counts.

This is Louise Erdrichs best novel and a very important story about the injustice and discrimination faced by Native Americans in Montana during the 1950s in America. It is based on fact and an attempt by a Mormon US Senator to pass a bill in the 1950s to disenfranchise Native Americans and take their land on reservations in Montana. Great characters good story and an important subject matter that demonstrates the struggles Native Americans have had to endure to hang onto their culture, traditions and land in the US in the post war period. Based on the life of her Grandfather who engaged in this struggle to protect Native American rights and treaties and to keep hold of their land. Easy to read but beautifully written with fully developed and interesting characters. I loved this novel. It was enjoyable , illuminating, educational and very different.