At 19, Patrice (whose friends call her Pixie) is the sole support of her household, her mother and younger brother. She works at a jewel bearing plant on the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota, where her keen eyesight and dexterous fingers are good at the delicate work. Patrice’s story is told in The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich [published 2020].
Louise Erdrich
Patrice’s older sister Vera left to go to Minneapolis and get married, but her family has not heard from her in months, which makes them worry. Their father is a troublesome alcoholic who only comes by the house now and then to beg for money. Her mother is a keeper of the old ways of their Chippewa tribe. The family is also Catholic, but Patrice is much more attuned to her mother’s habits. Both she and her mother feel that Vera is in trouble.
Patrice decides to go to Minneapolis to look for her sister. Taking as much time away from work as she dares, she meets her friend Wood Mountain on the train. He is going to a boxing match. He advises her to look for “the scum,” in the city. Patrice has no trouble finding them! A beautiful Native American girl, they are apparently looking for her!
Though reluctant, Patrice bravely contracts with Jack to be an entertainer in a bar if he will take her to the addresses she has where Vera might be. She does shows in a Babe, the Blue Ox, costume for two nights, but waitresses warn her the costume is poisonous. She is also sobered by what she sees at the addresses she has, evidence of sex slavery. Vera is nowhere to be found, but her baby is.
Wood Mountain comes to Minneapolis, helping Patrice escape. They also take Vera’s baby, who responds strongly to Wood Mountain. He names the little boy after his father. Arriving home, Patrice’s mother takes in the baby as if it were her own.
Patrice has traumatic dreams from what she saw in the city. She tells Thomas, the tribal leader, but none of them wants to deal with police. Patrice, who was once homecoming queen of her class, and also valedictorian, is loved by Barnes, the blonde high school math teacher. She does not encourage him. She is also a little wary of Wood Mountain, though less resistant.
In the winter, Patrice chops wood, runs her trap lines. One day she falls into a snow hole. It is warm there and she falls asleep, but knows it is the entrance to the home of a hibernating bear. The experience feels wonderful to her. Coming home one night, she and her brother see a sleeping form in an abandoned cabin near their house. They get older men to investigate. It is the frozen body of Patrice’s dead father.
The funeral ceremonies bring many people to Patrice’s house, including Millie Cloud, a Chippewa scholar studying at the university and taking notes on tribal lore. Fires are lit to thaw the ground enough for the burial. Patrice’s mother cooks.
Thomas, the tribal leader, is enmeshed in the threat by a U.S. senator to make laws which will terminate the Turtle Mountain tribal reservation, re-locate the members and take their lands. He writes letters every night to whoever he can think of to gain their support. To get the money to send a delegation to Washington, D.C., the tribe stages a boxing match. Wood Mountain defeats his rival in the main contest, but it is bloody and he gives up fighting.
On March 2, 1954, Patrice is part of the delegation to Washington. She goes to help Millie Cloud, who is terrified of testifying, and also to give testimony on her work at the jewel bearing plant. Patrice is not scared. “I do things perfectly when enraged,” she tells herself.
On the way home, Thomas has a stroke at the train station in Minneapolis. Patrice sits with him in the hospital, invoking the songs her mother sings to her. She also stays with Millie Cloud at her apartment, asking her what she would have to do to become a lawyer. But what should she do about Wood Mountain? They have had sex. He does not want to go anywhere, wants only to stay in their home area.
Patrice and her mother have always thought Vera would come home. Vera has been ravaged, addicted, but people help her, take care of her. When Patrice gets back from Washington, Vera is home. Wood Mountain has made the cradle board for the baby, Vera’s son. Patrice sees that Wood Mountain is falling in love with Vera. “I love both of you,” he tells Patrice, but Patrice accepts it. “You love Vera,” she says.
The Turtle Mountain reservation is not terminated. Wood Mountain gets a job driving a school bus, so he and Vera can marry and fix up the unoccupied cabin to live in. Millie will pay Patrice’s mother as an informant for her anthropological work, which lifts the responsibility from Patrice. She can find a way to go to school! The end of the story finds Patrice and her mother drinking birch water syrup in the spring.
Within the context of the possible, and without shirking any of her family responsibilities, we are sure that Patrice will make a life for herself. I have no doubt but that Louise Erdrich endowed Patrice with her own feisty spirit. The oldest of seven, Erdrich is an accomplished author and owns a bookstore in Minneapolis, Birchbark Books, which has been thriving since 2001.
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