ABSTRACT
With numerous major awards and honors for her writing, which draws on her Ojibwe heritage, Louise Erdrich is undoubtedly one of the most important writers of American Indian literature today. An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, Karen Louise Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota, and grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota.1 Her mother, Rita Joanne Gourneau Erdrich of Ojibwe and French descent, and her father, Ralph Erdrich of German descent, were both teachers at the Indian school in Wahpeton. Her mother’s father was Patrice Gourneau, a tribal chairman; his role is echoed in Erdrich’s writing by the characters Nanapush, a tribal chairman in the novel Tracks, and Nector Kashpaw, a tribal chairman in the novel Love Medicine.
