The Night Watchman is a novel by Louise Erdrich published in 2020. This novel is close to Erdrich’s own life because it is based on her grandfather’s struggle against termination polices. Patrick Gourneau, Erdrich’s grandfather, was a Turtle Mountain reservation Chippewa Indian who was born on the reservation. When Arthur V. Watkins, a U.S. senator, proposed a bill that would terminate all treaty-based relationships and services between Indigenous peoples and the U.S. federal government, Gourneau organized a fight against the policies.
Thomas Wazhushk, one of the protagonists, is the night watchman at a jewel bearing factory and the tribal council leader. When he finds out about the...
