By Louise Erdrich

Louise Erdrich was born in 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota and grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota where her parents worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She received her M.A. from John Hopkins University in 1979.

Erdrich's fiction and poetry draw on her Chippewa heritage and examine complex familial and sexual relationships among full and mixed blood Native Americans as they struggle with questions of identity in a changing society.

She is a novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist and a critic.

(Photo : Facts on File, American Historical Images on File: The Native American Experience )

•Fleur Pillager

•Nanapush

•Pauline Puyat

•Eli Kashpaw

•Margaret Kashpaw

•Lulu Nanapush

•Nector Kashpaw

•Father Damien

•Bernadette Morrissey

•Clarence Morrissey

•Sophie Morrissey (Lazarre)

•Napolean Morrissey

•Boy Lazare

•Moses Pillager

Discussion Questions:1. While Native Americans participate in their own undoing in Tracks, whites are theoriginating cause. What acts by whites, either by contact or law, seem most destructivein the imagined world of this novel and how so?

2. Fleur Pillager does not have a voice in the narration of this novel, but she iscertainly important to the tribe, in part through fear, in part through admiration.

a. What do members of the tribe fear and admire about Fleur?

b. How does her character seem to represent the tribe?

3. Nanapush's narrative is primarily oral; it is told to Lulu. How is this “storytelling” significant? How does this compare to Pauline’s accounts?

4. What is the effect of Pauline's Christianity on her? What do you make of her overall mentality.

5. What does land seem to mean to the different Native Americans in this book?

6. Erdrich dramatizes many Native Americans aiding in their own destruction inTracks. Why does she focus more on them than the originating white cause?

Discussion Questions continued:7. Why do you think Nanapush and Pauline give their perspectives and not anotherimportant character like Fleur?

8. Why do you think Pauline is attracted to the job of preparing the dead?

9. Discuss Fleur and Pauline's actions after their pregnancies. Did the pregnancies'outcomes affect their actions?

10. Discuss how the lake is important in Fleur and Pauline's lives. How does it affect thecourse of their lives?

11. How do the loss of their families affect Nanapush, Pauline, and Fleur?

12. Look for the title word "tracks" throughout the book. How do "tracks" relate to thecharacters associated with the use of the word?

13. Explain the various ways the white men's interference breaks up relationships betweenthe characters.

Uploaded Documents:

First – Helpful PDF which lists and defines Native American words referenced in Tracks.

Second – Article on the Pollution of the Environment in Tracks.

*If everyone could try and read the article, I would like to open up further discussion on these concepts Wednesday. I will post more discussion questions regarding the article early Tuesday.

Works Cited:

Biedler, Peter. ""In the Old Laguage": A Glossary of Ojibwe Words,Phrases, and Sentences in Louise Erdrich’s Novels." American Indian Culture and Research Journal 27.3 (2003): 53-70. Web.

Erdrich, Louise. Tracks: A Novel. New York: Henry Holt, 1988. Print.

Gale, Jennifer. "A Review of ‘Tracks’ by Louise Erdrich." BookRags. BookRags, Spring 2002. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

Rosenberg, Ruth. "Louise Erdrich." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 152, American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series, edited by James R. Giles and Wanda H. Giles. A Bruccoli Layman Book, Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1995, pp. 42-50.

Shilaja, C. L. "Pollution of Environment in the Novels of Louise Erdrich’s Tracksand the Plague of Doves." International Conference on Social Science and Humanity 5 (2011): n. pag. Print.