2012/12/01 by Christian Knoeller · 1 citation
Health Professions · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Indigenous Studies and Ecology #American Environmental and Regional History #Archaeology and Natural History
paper · doi:10.1093/isle/iss111
openalex publication_date 2012/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
In Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, critically acclaimed and widely read Native American novelist Louise Erdrich describes a canoe trip on the boundary waters of southern Ontario, Canada, known as Lake of the Woods. Erdrich's account—memoir in the form of literary travelogue—is essentially autobiographical (McNab). It might equally be termed “ecocultural narrative.”1 The work depicts the trip as a kind of pilgrimage, venerating the natural world, Ojibwe culture, and indigenous language. She sets out for an isolated library of Native American historical and cultural documents improbably housed in a remote wilderness setting, where teachers and serious students of Ojibwemowin gather to practice the language. She visits there with members of the Ojibwe Language Society, a group that meets weekly at Lac Court Oreilles. Traveling with her infant daughter and the girl's father, Tobasonakwut, she describes the experience in terms of cultural, linguistic, and, importantly, natural history, learning words in Ojibwemowin to name a landscape long the tribe's ancestral homeland. Erdrich clearly cherishes her personal connection to indigenous history and recognizes the relationship to nature reflected by Ojibwe language. In fact, by focusing on indigenous language, Books and Islands investigates the relationship of Ojibwemowin to the environment in the place where the language historically evolved. Erdrich believes that speaking Ojibwemowin provides a vital link to her indigenous heritage—essential to understanding her own place in the world. Ultimately, the quest proves to be both a personal and an intellectual one addressing cultural identity and its relation to the landscape.