Tracks

Tracks

• Genre: Fiction; historical
• Originally Published: 1998
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 11-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length:  9 chapters; approx. 226 pages
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: This book is the third in Erdrich’s tetralogy about Indigenous Ojibwe people in North Dakota and the conflicts and challenges they experience; the other books in the series are Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace. Set from 1912 to 1924, Tracks features two narrators (a tribal elder named Nanapush, and an orphan, Pauline) who tell the story of struggle and land loss for the Chippewa people in fictional Argus, North Dakota.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Genocide; epidemic; rape and violence; Indigenous residential school setting; racism and discrimination; sexism; religious fanaticism; self-flagellation; sex; abortion

Louise Erdrich, Author

• Bio: Born in 1954 in Minnesota; raised in North Dakota, where both parents taught at an Indian Affairs Boarding School; attended Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University; features many issues involving Indigenous communities and their struggles in her works, though some works represent other cultures and genres; won the National Book Award 2012 for The Round House, the US Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2015, and a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for The Night Watchman; has also published poetry, short fiction, and children’s fiction (notably, The Birchbark House)
• Other Works: Love Medicine (1984); The Beet Queen (1986); The Bingo Palace (1994); The Blue Jay’s Dance: A Birth Year (nonfiction; 1995); The Birchbark House (1999); The Sentence (2021)
• Awards: National Book Critics Circle for Fiction (1984, 2017); Guggenheim Fellowship for the Creative Arts (1985); American Book Award (1985); World Fantasy Award, Novel (1999); Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2009); PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement (2014)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Traditional Chippewa/Ojibwe Beliefs Versus Christianity
• Survival
• The Spirit World Influences the Living World

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the cultural and historical contexts that influence the novel’s plot and character development.
• Study paired texts and other brief resources to make connections to the text’s themes of Traditional Chippewa/Ojibwe Beliefs Versus Christianity and Survival.
• Respond to Nanapush’s desire for forgiveness with a personal letter that parallels tone and intent.
• Analyze and evaluate plot, setting, character, and theme to draw conclusions in structured essay responses and make inferences regarding culture, gender, and exploitation.