Finished: The Night Watchman (Erdrich) This year's Pulitzer Prize winner, and a beautiful book about the Turtle Mountain community of the Chippewa Tribe in North Dakota in the year 1953. They live on the land that the government promised them when Native Americans were forced to live on reservations, and live on very little of the money they were promised by the government. Most are in poverty, but they still find a way to live and still steal your heart reading about their daily lives and spirituality. The story is based on letters written and left behind by the author's Chippewa grandfather. The night watchman in this story is Thomas, a middle-aged man who is one of the few with a steady paying job at the jewel factory, where most of the workers are female Chippewa, hired due to their superior dexterity over men. They work making tiny holes in tiny jewels all day long, for not even a dollar an hour. When Thomas, who is the spokesperson for the community, is made aware of a bill that is going to be voted on in the senate pertaining to the Turtle Creek community, he rallies the troops to go to Washington D.C. and try and stop the bill. The bill is all about the government doing the Chippewa a "favor" and breaking ties with them so they can stand on their own two feet. However, what it truly is is an attempt to terminate the deal that was struck with their Chippewa ancestors so the government can have the land. Along with Thomas and his family, the story follows Patrice (Pixie) a nineteen year old young woman who works diligently at the jewel factory. She's pretty and smart and brings in the money for her mother, Zhaanat and her brother, Pokey. We follow her as she takes a week off to go to Minneapolis to try and find her older sister, Vera, who went there with the man she was going to marry. Vera's story turns out to be a sad one of the horrible exploitation of women from reservations who travel to the big city. Patrice almost falls into the same trap, but Wood Mountain, the young Chippewa boxer who is in love with her from afar, comes to find her and insists that they go home. They don't find Vera, but they do find her baby, who Wood Mountain immediately makes a bond with! They take him home and it eases Zaahnet's heart just a bit. Vera is alive, and we get snippets of her story, and thankfully she does end up back at home to be reunited with her baby at the end of the story. Many of the characters have visions of their ancestors or have near out of body experiences in nature which is fascinating. From Thomas, to Patrice, to Wood Mountain, to Vera, to Zhannat, to Juggie, to Valentine, to Doris, to Roderick, to Biboon, to Millile and more, there are just so many characters who make a huge impression as you read their bits, and I think they'll stay with me awhile. :-)