BIO

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of contemporary Native American novelists. Born in 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, she grew up mostly in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She worked at various jobs, such as hoeing sugar  beets, farm work, waitressing, short order cooking, lifeguarding, and construction work, before becoming a writer. She attended the Johns Hopkins creative writing program and received fellowships at the McDowell Colony and the Yaddo Colony. After she was named writer-in-residence at Dartmouth, she married professor Michael Dorris and raised several children, some of them adopted. She and Michael became a picture-book husband-and-wife writing team, though they wrote only one truly collaborative novel, THE CROWN OF COLUMBUS (1991).

THE ANTELOPE WIFE was published in 1998, not long after her separation from Michael and his subsequent suicide. Some reviewers believed they saw in THE ANTELOPE WIFE the anguish Erdrich must have felt as her marriage crumbled, but she has stated that she is unconscious of having mirrored any real-life events.

She is the author of four previous bestselling and award-winning novels, including LOVE MEDICINE; THE BEET QUEEN; TRACKS; and THE BINGO PALACE. She also has written two collections of poetry, JACKLIGHT, and BAPTISM OF DESIRE. Her fiction has been honored by the National Book Critics Circle (1984) and The Los Angeles Times (1985), and has been translated into fourteen languages.

Several of her short stories have been selected for O. Henry awards and for inclusion in the annual BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORY anthologies. THE BLUE JAY'S DANCE, a memoir of motherhood, was her first nonfiction work, and her children's book, GRANDMOTHER'S PIGEON, has been published by Hyperion Press. She lives in Minnesota with her children, who help her run a small independent bookstore called THE BIRCHBARK.

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Louise Erdrich on THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE

Louise Erdrich is the noted author of LOVE MEDICINE, THE ANTELOPE WIFE and other books for adults, as well as her picture book for children, GRANDMOTHER'S PIGEON. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa and often writes about elements of her Native American heritage in her books. In THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE, her first novel for children, Erdrich introduces Omakayas, a thoughtful, spunky eight-year-old Ojibwa girl who lives with her family on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Omakayas' adventures will not only entertain young readers, but also inform them of the experiences and devastating hardships of Native Americans facing the encroachment of white settlers during pioneer days. Here Erdrich answers some questions about her latest project.

Q: On your acknowledgments page you mention some family research you did which turned up Native American ancestors who lived during the same time as Omakayas. Can you explain how that grew into your inspiration for writing this book?

A: I actually mentioned that my mother and sister did research that led our family back to Madeline Island. Standing on the shores of Lake Superior, I have wondered whether my ancestors stood in the same place, saw the same scene, heard the same sounds --- the high-pitched cry of the flicker or the white throated sparrow's song. It was natural to want to write about the past, for me, and it came from the heart.

Q: What other kinds of research did you undertake to make this book historically accurate? What was the most striking thing you discovered about this period in American history?

A: I read the letters of travelers in the region, generously provided by the Madeline Island Historical Society. I spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island. I spent time there with my children and watched their reactions to the place --- trees, woods, stones, crayfish, bears and deer.

Q: Omakayas is a memorable character, both introspective and pro-active, a bit of a spitfire. Is she based on any person or a composite of persons you have known?

A: Omakayas is as wholly invented as any character is; that is to say she is composed of my own childhood feelings and reactions to experience. She is like my little sisters, a little like my daughters, a little like my mom, most of all she becomes herself by the end of the book.

Q: Do some of Omakayas' experiences specifically parallel those of your ancestors?

A: The smallpox occuring during the winter of 1847 was an actual event taken from historical records. I have no idea how my ancestors fared during that terrible time. As the books move closer to the present I will be able to include true family anecdotes. For this book, I relied on a great deal of historical reading, especially of primary sources --- letters and journals of the time. The food, however, is based on real food and dishes prepared by Ojibwa people then and now. My near favorite character, Old Tallow, is based on a real woman who lived much as she did, a powerful Ojibwa hunter with a pack of dogs.

Q: Thanks to some classic titles like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, many young readers are familiar with white settlers who traveled West during the 1800s. But Omakayas' story will be new to them. Did you read the Little House books as a girl? Do you consider THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE a kind of answer to them?

A: I read the Little House books as a child and so have my children. I love their humor and warmth, but am disturbed by Ma's racism. Given their widespread use in the schools, I do not think it would be wrong to annotate some of her more insulting remarks. Perhaps their publisher will do that in time. I didn't write this book as an answer but hope it will be perceived as an enlargement of the view encompassed in Laura's world.

Q: This book also brings to mind some works by Scott O'Dell, for example SING DOWN THE MOON and ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. Do you think there are any similarities?

A: Although I wasn't influenced by Scott O'Dell, I read and loved JULIE OF THE WOLVES and read the book aloud to my daughters. I was very much taken with Julie's resourceful use of native technology.

Q: You also did the illustrations for THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE. What was that like and why was it important for you to do?

A: I wanted very much to try and capture the Omakayas I saw in my mind's eye while writing the book. She looks like an amalgam of my daughters. I have always wanted to illustrate a book --- this exact book especially because I described so many objects of my own --- the makazins, the makuks, and so on. When the book was nearly written with the crow included, we [my daughters and I] were given an actual baby crow to raise! We did so, successfully, and set the crow free. She returned for several months and at those times I had a wonderful chance to sketch as she sat on my chair.

Q: Will there be more books about Omakayas? If so, when can we look for them?

A: I am going to keep writing about Omakayas and her family. I hope to finish a book every two to three years.

(c) Copyright 1999, Hyperion Books for Children.