Walking the Rez Road

July 15, 2013
Luke Warmwater has returned to the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation after serving a tour in the Vietnam War. He tries to make sense of his troubling experiences and move on with his life, while surrounded by the troubles of the reservation. This 20th anniversary edition puts Northrup's award winning collection of short stories and poems back in print, with the addition of a selection of his newspaper columns, poems in the Ojibwe language, and his play Shinnob Jep. In a style austere, direct, and unapologetic, Northrup reveals his own personal trials and the struggles of his community in fictional sketches and poetic anecdotes. Entrenched poverty and alcohol abuse are treated with unadorned and unflinching directness, just the same as the descriptions of the treasured tradition of the wild rice harvest, or conflicts with the tribal leadership. While often humorous, the wryness is born out of a permeating sense of sadness, futility, and grieving that seems to extend back through generations. As relevant as it was 20 years ago, this collection continues to provide an unromanticized, insider's view of a culture struggling to maintain, and even recover, its identity, heritage, and language in a rapidly changing and often openly hostile world.