| Edition |
First Harper Perennial edition. |
| Description |
451 pages ; 21 cm + 1 notebook ((unpaged) ; 28 cm.) in canvas bag. |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Note |
Each Book Group Kit, contained in a canvas bag, includes 12 copies of the book and one copy of a notebook containing book reviews, discussion questions, author information, a bibliography of the titles in the Book Group Kit collection, bibliographies of books and websites on book groups and enhancements (articles, maps or pictures) to help understand the book. |
| Summary |
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel-bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new "emancipation" bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn't about freedom: Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a "termination" that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans "for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run"? Since graduating from high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that pays barely enough to support her mother and younger brother. Patrice's alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children, and to bully Patrice for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn't been in touch in months and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence and endangers her life. Thomas and Patrice live in a reservation community. We also come to know young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother, Juggie Blue, and Patrice's best friend, Valentine, as well as Hay Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.-- Back cover. |
| Subject |
Indians of North America -- North Dakota -- Fiction.
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Ojibwa Indians -- Fiction.
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Indians of North America -- Government relations -- Fiction.
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Indian termination policy -- Fiction.
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Dysfunctional families -- Fiction.
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Missing persons -- Fiction.
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Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota -- Officials and employees -- Fiction.
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Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation (N.D.) -- Fiction.
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| ISBN |
9780062671196 paperback |
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