BLOOD AND WATER, SURVIVANCE AND KINSHIP: HOW ANISHINAABE CULTURE IN TRACKS REVEALS THE POWER OF CHOSEN FAMILY

Abstract

Because family is so immediate to us, it has enormous capability to be the source of struggle in our lives– and when family fails, the consequences can be cataclysmic. Louise Erdrich’s 1988 novel Tracks demonstrates the ways Anishinaabe kinship structures become threatened by settler-colonial violence. I analyze historical 20th-century Anishinaabe values and practices and connect them to character relationships in the novel. I also discuss how Erdrich’s novel can be seen as a response to then-President Reagan’s callback to family values which was modeled on the short-lived but powerfully nostalgic family values of the 1950s. Tracks can be viewed as a forceful intervention full of acceptance, belonging, and sovereignty that stands in stark contrast to the sought-after family values that are rigid, private, and individualistic. I encapsulate these kinds of settler-colonial family structures with the phrase “blood runs thicker than water.” This paper also focuses on how characters use Native practices like story-telling to stay resilient, connected, and tradition-based. Stories preserve memory, reflect on events, and instill wisdom. Stories by the very people who directly experience the impacts of myths perpetuated by colonialism can combat them, tell them, and create their own stories that are more reflective of Native peoples realities. Because they are so integral to culture and because of the colonial violence actively working against Native Americans, having stories and people to share them with is a direct form of survivance and a crucial part of kinship.