Tracks 417survival from disease. It ends with her daughter
Lulu’s unyielding resistance to the cultural oppres-
sion of Indian boarding schools that would strip
Native Americans of their language and traditions.
Nanapush remembers how Lulu showed the signs
of the harsh discipline as she returned from board-
ing school. At same time, her fierceness, inherited
from her mother, was still apparent: Her “grin was
bold as [her] mother’s.” Seeing this symbol of sur-
vival, Nanapush speaks for the Ojibwe and uses the
symbolism of timber exploitation to affirm tribal
tradition’s resolution to persevere: “We gave against
your rush like creaking oaks, held on, braced our-
selves together in the fierce dry wind.” Despite the
challenges both individuals and a people face, Tracks
affirms the possibility of survival—in fact, the novel
argues for its inevitability.
David Allred
traditiOn in Tracks
The fictional North Dakota reservation Louise
Erdrich has created in her novels is a place where
Ojibwe religion, customs, and practices hold great
significance. References to Ojibwe mythological
figures as well as healing and hunting practices are
extensive and appear alongside the Catholicism
and other traditions of Euro-American settlers.
Although the authenticity of the traditions Erdrich
depicts have a complicated relationship to actual
traditions of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people, these
traditions—within the context of the book—form
the plot’s emotional core, enliven the text and pro-
vide readers clues to understanding characters.
Tracks is filled with examples of Ojibwe tradi-
tions contributing to its plot and character devel-
opment. For example, the area surrounding Lake
Matchimanito is sacred to Fleur’s family, and,
indicative of this significance, Fleur has Eli place
the body of her deceased infant not in the ground
but in a tree, according to Ojibwe custom. Thereaf-
ter, “Fleur heard her vanished child in every breath
of wind, every tick of dried leaves, every scratch
of blowing snow.” The child is symbolic of Fleur’s
familial and traditional connection to the land and
trees, and this fact clarifies why Fleur does all in her
power to save them from being taken by tax collec-
tors and timber companies, including sabotaging the
trees so they fall on the timber company’s workers.
In this case, a character’s traditions are the motiva-
tion for her actions as the plot unfolds.
The two narrators can also be understood in
reference to tradition as both are associated with
mythological figures in Ojibwe worldviews. Over
the course of the novel, Pauline takes on the quali-
ties of the windigo, a mythical figure associated with
winter, ice, hunger (even cannibalism), and skel-
etons. In one of her narrated chapters, she reveals
these characteristics: “All winter, my blood never
thawed. My stomach never filled. My hands were
chafed raw. And yet I grew strong.” Later, she calls
herself “a coarse hulk of bones.” When she witnesses
an assault on Fleur and when she acts as an under-
taker, she is also empty and voyeuristic, symbolically
filling herself with the experiences of others—a sort
of experiential cannibalism.
Nanapush also can be understood in reference to
Ojibwe mythology. Both his name and actions are
reminiscent of Nanabozho, the heroic and articulate
Ojibwe trickster figure who is hopelessly controlled
by his appetites at the same time as he preserves
cultural knowledge and possessions. The similarities
become apparent with Nanapush’s explanation of his
name: “It’s got to do with trickery and living in the
bush.... It’s got to do with something a girl can’t
resist. The first Nanapush stole fire. [I] steal hearts.”
Elsewhere, Nanapush employs his vast traditional
knowledge to cure and to ensure successful hunting,
and he directs his entire narration to Fleur’s daugh-
ter in the hope she will understand her mother’s
actions in terms of Ojibwe culture. Like other trick-
sters, however, Nanapush also cannot resist sex, food,
and verbal play. This final attribute is evident as he
mocks Pauline’s brutal and remarkably creative self-
mortification. Thus, in the case of both Pauline and
Nanapush, knowing the novel’s basis in tradition
adds to one’s understanding of the characters.
However, it is incorrect to assume that all the
traditions in the novel are Ojibwe. The customs and
beliefs of Tracks’s characters are evolving, and they
reflect the cultural complexity resulting from Euro-
American migration into the Great Lakes region.
For characters like Pauline and Margaret, Catholic
traditions have as at least as much relevance as
Ojibwe traditions, and the two exist side by side.