The Body Subject to the Laws

Louise Erdrich’ s Metaphorical Incarnation of Federal Indian Law in "The Round House"

Abstract

Author Louise Erdrich, a member of the Chippewa tribe in North Dakota, addresses historical and current social justice issues facing Native Americans in many of her critically acclaimed novels. The Round House is no exception. Erdrich begins her novel by describing a violent attack against the young protagonist's mother, an attack made possible by the systemic racism and lack of tribal sovereignty that underpins federal Indian law and policy. Erdrich transmutes the evil couched within those laws into one deplorable incident. The effects that unfold from that incident expose how—not only historically but also even today—lack of sovereignty results in communal trauma for Native Americans. In a series of deft metaphors, Erdrich repeatedly invokes the theme of haunting, rot, and infection to call out the body of laws that constitute contemporary federal Indian policy.