Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

July 12, 2025

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis

Suffering from a rare autoimmune disease that will kill him within two years, Abe Jacobs returns to his family home on the reservation where he grew up. Abe dreamed of becoming a poet, but after his work was rejected by a number of publishers, he quit writing. He hasn't lived on the reservation since he left for college 25 years earlier, but now, desperate for a cure or at least something that will send the disease into remission, Abe agrees to allow his great uncle Budge to try to heal him, who teaches him that healing is not possible without hope and knowing yourself. 

There is a lot to unpack here. It's not a light read or a happy book, although many of the characters handle their situations through humor. Themes include family, cultural identity, tradition, mortality, various kinds of loss, and survival. Food plays a large role, in the ceremony of preparation, as an offering or tribute, and the act of gathering for meals. Lovely language and writing. In addition to telling a story, the author also describes trauma inflicted on indigenous peoples: forced sterilization, relocation and segregation, loss of culture, sexual violence. There are graphic descriptions of violence and sex, so more sensitive readers should be warned.

You should be aware of an organization called Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that publicizes the violence committed against Native American women and girls, and tracks their cases. In North America, about 16% of all missing or murdered women and girls are Native American, while they make up only 4% of the population.

A Native American healing ceremony

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

October 22, 2024

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

The mighty red is many things: the river, the local high school football team, history, sugar beets. Crystal works as a trucker, hauling sugar beets from farms to the local processing plant. She named her daughter Kismet, hoping for a better future for her. At least two boys are in love with her, Hugo and Gary, and want to marry her. Kismet, meanwhile, has plans to go to college instead. 

I have an on and off relationship with Erdrich’s writing. I have loved some of her books and a few I really disliked. This one is somewhere in the middle. The first half of the book was really slow - the second half was better. There are many themes:  guilt, shame, resentment, destruction of the land through farming and mining, parental relationships, crimes and passion. I know a lot more now about sugar beet farming than I did a few days ago. Not her best effort. Fans of Erdrich’s writing will still want to read it.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

A sugar beet, one of the villains of the story

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

January 17, 2024

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

While her family is picking berries on a farm, a Native American child goes missing. Her family searches for her desperately without success. In alternate chapters, one of the little girl's brothers and a child named Norma tell the story of a family dealing with incredible loss.

A slow moving character driven story that asks the question, how much are we shaped by our heritage and culture? I found the storyline to be predictable - by the end of the third chapter, I was pretty sure how the story would unwind. Sad, filled with various types of loss. This would be a good book club choice since there are many topics to discuss. Will appeal to readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult or are in the mood for a good cry.

Pickers on a blueberry farm

The Break by Katherena Vermette

October 17, 2023

The Break by Katherena Vermette

In the middle of a snowy night, Stella McGregor witnesses a violent crime in the Break, an open field near her house. Stella is sure that a woman was being attacked by several people and calls the police. Although the police find a large quantity of blood in the snow, they doubt Stella's information, until two victims show up in the emergency room of the local hospital. While the family members want the police to find the perpetrators, they are reluctant to provide any information that might lead back to them.

This was one of my selections for Native American History month, something that I have been meaning to read for a while. Intense but extremely good. Violence against Native American women and girls often goes under-reported and unsolved. My only complaint with the story is that several of Stella's family members are critical of her because she didn't "do" anything to stop the crime or save the victim. Stella is a young mother home alone with two babies in the middle of the night - her husband is at work and there is deep snow outside. What was she supposed to do - leave her two children and run outside in her pajamas to confront the perpetrators? Other than that, it's great writing. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy serious literary fiction like Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted.

The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

March 3, 2022

The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

As a mixed race child from a scandalous union, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in anywhere: her tribe, her hometown or her family. The only bright spots in her life are her BFF and Jamie, the new guy on her brother's hockey team who may be her new boyfriend. After her BFF is murdered, Daunis agrees to help the investigation by going undercover. But there are other forces at work that hit very close to home.

The author exposes some dark secrets about Native American communities: sexual assault, addiction, spousal abuse, violence against women. It is very YA in tone, with a little too much drama. But I learned a lot about Native American folklore and customs.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

August 29, 2019

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

The year is 1932.  The Lincoln Indian Training School in Lincoln, Minnesota, is a school where hundreds of Native American children who had been taken away from their families are sent to forget their Native American languages and customs and learn to be “white.”  Children who spoke their own languages were beaten and put into solitary confinement until they learned to conform.  Thelma Brickman is the school superintendent and runs the school strictly for her own gain, stealing money, food, and gifts intended for the students.  She is cruel to all the children, but especially to the two orphaned O’Banion brothers, the only white children in the school.  After an evil groundskeeper at the school is killed, the brothers are forced to flee down the river, along with two of their friends.

I was hesitant at first to read this at first due to the subject matter (child abuse, cruelty to children, mistreatment of Native Americans), but it is so INCREDIBLY good!  It's almost 500 pages long, and I read it in three days.  I could not put it down since I had to find out what happened to Odie and his friends (one of my bad habits is reading when I should be cleaning or paying attention to the dogs).  The characters are all wonderful, even Faria the rat who lives in the school's solitary confinement cell.  Easily one of the best books that I'll read in 2019, and I cried when it ended partly because the whole story is so beautiful, and partly because it was over.  IMHO, much better than Where the Crawdads Sing.

This Tender Land will be published on September 3, 2019.  Go pre-order it from Amazon or get on the hold list at your local library.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in return for a review.