Louise Erdrich is a Native American author best known for her novel Tracks. She was born in 1954 in Minnesota and grew up in North Dakota. Her fiction examines complex relationships among Native Americans as they struggle with identity in a changing society. Tracks follows the interconnected lives of several Ojibwe characters in the early 20th century, including Nanapush and Pauline Puyat, as their tribe's lands are threatened by encroaching white settlers. The narrative explores themes of loss of culture and tradition, as well as the characters' differing responses to cultural and religious changes over time.

1. By Louise Erdrich
TRACKS

2. AUTHOR – 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 )

3. MAJOR CHARACTERS & PLOT SUMMARY
•Fleur Pillager
•Father Damien
•Nanapush
•Bernadette Morrissey
•Pauline Puyat
•Clarence Morrissey
•Eli Kashpaw
•Sophie Morrissey
(Lazarre)
•Margaret Kashpaw
•Lulu Nanapush
•Nector Kashpaw
•Napolean Morrissey
•Boy Lazare
•Moses Pillager

4. Discussion Questions:
1. While Native Americans participate in their own undoing in Tracks, whites are the
originating cause. What acts by whites, either by contact or law, seem most destructive
in 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 is
certainly 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 in
Tracks. Why does she focus more on them than the originating white cause?

5. Discussion Questions continued:
7. Why do you think Nanapush and Pauline give their perspectives and not another
important 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 the
course 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 the
characters associated with the use of the word?
13. Explain the various ways the white men's interference breaks up relationships between
the characters.

6. 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.

7. 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.