The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

This book is a slight shift for the author--it has all the hallmarks of her other books, focusing on the lives of Dakota and Chippewa people, the lives that they lead, the combination of poverty and culture that guide thier current and future lives. In addition to that, there is a historical lesson involved, one that Erdrich's grandfather was invovled in. One review I read likened it to the modernization of Jim Crow--a more effective and malignant James Crow who operates now as well. The book is set in the "termination" era of US relations to the native nations of North America. This period does not possess the visceral dynamics of the Trail of Tears marches (1830–1838) or Sitting Bull versus Custer (1876), events of violence, open enmity, and plainly physical destruction. In comparison, the Termination era is characterized by discrimination via documents: the stuffy, dry legalese of House Concurrent Resolutions. Stultifying and dreadfully boring as they may be, the intended effects of such documents were just as devastating, if not more so, than the spectacular bloody wars and forced relocations of earlier eras. House Concurrent Resolution 108, passed in 1953, did not declare that indigenous peoples would be subject to state-sponsored violence nor that they would be forcibly relocated. In terms of pure presentation, the bill intends no harm whatsoever for native nations. What the bill does is effectively declare that Indians are not to be considered Indians anymore. According to HCR 108, Indians will be “freed” from their marginal status and made “full” citizens, “entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States,” so as “to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship.” In short, it afforded them nothing they did not already have, and took away their land. Again. The results of such supposed liberation were devastating. As Erdrich writes in her afterword to the novel: “In all, 113 tribal nations suffered the disaster of termination; 1.4 million acres of tribal land was lost. Wealth flowed to private corporations, while many people in terminated tribes died early, in poverty. Not one tribe profited.” If you don't read any other of her books, this is a good place to start.