Thunder Songs: Essays

Thunder Songs: Essays by Sasha LaPointe is a collection of biographical stories on what it means to her to be a proud, queer Indigenous woman.

Drawing on a rich family archive as well as the anthropological work of her late great-grandmother, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe explores themes ranging from Indigenous identity and stereotypes to cultural displacement and environmental degradation to understand what our experiences teach us about the power of community, commitment, and conscientious honesty.

Unapologetically punk, the essays in Thunder Song segue from the miraculous to the mundane, from the spiritual to the physical, as they examine the role of art—in particular music—and community in helping a new generation of Indigenous people claim the strength of their heritage while defining their own path in the contemporary world.

This is an important book for anyone living on stolen lands - which is most of us in the US.

LaPointe, Sasha. (2024). Thunder Songs: Essays. Berkeley: Counterpoint.

The Sentence

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich is about a bookstore being haunted by their most annoying customer. But it is so much more than that.

On All Souls Day, Flora dies. Tookie is convinced that since then she has been haunting the bookstore - traveling the same isles that Flora did most days, her bangles gently jingling. The independent bookstore in Minneapolis is based on the author's own store.

Tookie got the job at the bookstore after spending years in prison. Her love of books grew during her incarceration. A former teacher would drop off books when she could. Not she must solve what Flrora wants. 

Beginning in November 2019, the characters live through our changing world - Covid, police shootings, continued prejudice against Black and brown people. Tookie explores what the living owe to the dead in this moving, loving look at one of the strangest years of our lives.

Erdrich is a wonderful writer. She is the only author I can think of whose work somehow already has the prospective to write about event so recent with such care and insight.

Erdrich, Louise. (2021). The Sentence. New York: Harper. 

The Seed Keeper

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson is the story of one woman's journey from foster care back to her Native American roots. 

Rosalie Iron Wing was twelve when her father died. Instead of looking for relatives, the state removed her from her tribe and placed her with a foster family hours from home. In her case, the foster family was only in it for the money and free labor, not to help a girl who lost her parent.

As Rosalie grows up, she has few encounters with other Lakota. One friend at school reminds her of a home that is fading from memory.

When Rosalie takes a job working in a corn field her senior year - in the hopes of saving money to move away on her eighteenth birthday - she recalls her father teaching her about plants near their cabin. This fertilizes a long dormant seed in her about her family and being Lakota.

I will admit I am biased in favor of any book about plants or animals, but The Seed Keeper is also an important look at the history of how the US and state governments treat Native Americans. 

Read-A-Like for plant lovers / gardeners The Overstory.

Wilson, Diane. (2021). The Seed Keeper. Canada: Milkweed Editions. 

The Night Watchman

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich is a beautiful story of people working together to stop politicians from steamrolling over them. 

Based on family stories of her grandfather, Erdrich tells of the 1953-54 Turtle Mountain tribe of Chippewa campaigning to defeat a bill before congress that would eliminate status of their tribe - dissolving the reservation in order to sell the land.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing factory on the reservation. During his quite nights he also takes care of tribe business and writes letters. 

His niece, Pixie, works at the plant. Women are better at the small, detailed work involved. Pixie would rather be called Patrice. When her sister who has been relocated to the city via a program for Indians goes missing, she tries to find her. 

Wood Mountain, a local boxer, agrees to a rematch to raise funds to send representatives to a hearing in Washington. 

Erdrich's novel is filled with memorable characters. Her writing is poetic and beautiful. After reading this, I will be reading all of her other works!

Erdrich, Louise. (2020). The Night Watchman. New York: Harper Collins.