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Ava Lalor
Critical Reading Response 3
Dr. Auge
Literary Criticism
October 25, 2016
Nativism in Love Medicine

Is it possible to reclaim a culture after years lost in oppression? In her collection of related short

stories, Louise Erdrich unveils her opinion on how to resist Euro-American colonial oppression of

indigenous groups such as her ancestry Ojibwa tribe. In her novel, Erdrichs readers encounter how

Ojibwa nationalism can act as ideological or cultural resistance to such oppression. While she attempts

to advocate for a hybrid culture, Erdrich uses the positive or negative qualities of characters to show her

opinion on how to best reclaim their heritage. In Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich challenges the

oppressive impositions of Euro-American education and religion. Using the struggles of characters to

reclaim their indigenous heritage through family, nature and gender roles to describe the contaminating

qualities of Euro-American ideals, Erdrich endorses Ojibwa nativism despite the modern culture.

Many stories within Love Medicine show the oppression of Euro-Americans through the

education system and religious influences, which are interconnected, convincing Native Americans that

they are ignorant and damned. Through colonialism, Native Americans were forced to assimilate into

the Euro-American culture. Schools were set up by religious institutions and run by mostly Catholic

missionaries. Pitying the savage, uncivil, uneducated natives, colonists thought they were helping them.

However, the Native Americans had no choice but to comply with the modern society that was

infiltrating their land. Throughout the stories, Erdrich shows how the success of colonial education and

religion were not positive, despite blindly good intentions. In Saint Marie, Marie Kashpaw describes

herself saying, I was ignorant. I was near age fourteen. The length of the sky is just about the size of my

ignorance. Pure and wide. And it was just thatthe pure and wideness of my ignorancethat got me up
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the hill to Sacred Heart Convent and brought me back down alive (Erdrich 43-44). While every

fourteen-year-old is ignorant due to limited experiences, this ignorance was engrained in her through

the influence of the religious sisters who taught the kids at the reservation school. Not only were they

deemed lesser intellectuals, they were also expected to not be able to receive salvation through their

traditional Ojibwa religion. Threatened to be damned from a young age, Marie decides to go up to the

convent and prove the nuns wrong by becoming a saint they would worship to (Erdrich 43). However,

what she is truly ignorant of is how many religious sisters lack sincere spirituality, such as Leopolda. Yet,

Marie and other natives were constantly taught that they were lesser beings, forcing them to assimilate

into a culture that supposedly provided hope for their intellectual, societal, and spiritual salvation.

In Flesh and Blood, Marie even boasts about her childrens education. She says, My children

were well behaved, and they were educated too (Erdrich 144). Her childrens education was an aspect

of pride in her life, making her feel accomplished in the white world view. In this story, the child that

readers learn most about is Zelda, the sweet daughter who doesnt resemble Marie much at all. In fact,

Zelda is the type of girl the sisters hoped Marie would become, the native all Euro-Americans wanted

them to become. However, while Zelda fits the model, she has no direction in life and no motivation to

do anything (Erdrich 144). This shows that the Native Americans who assimilate into Euro-American

culture lose the direction their culture gives them. It strips them of more than just identity; it strips them

of passion for life as they are constantly trying to fit a mold they cannot fill. Boarding schools were

another manner in which Native Americans were taught. Erdrich proposes an interesting comparison

between Nector Kashpaw and Eli Kashpaw. While Nector was solicited by the government to attend the

boarding school, their mother Rushes Bear kept her other son Eli at home. In The Worlds Greatest

Fisherman, it says, Nector came home from boarding school knowing white reading and writing, while

Eli knew the woods. Now, these many years later, hard to tell why or how, my great-uncle Eli was still

sharp, while Grandpas mind had left us, gone wary and wild (Erdrich 19). Just like with Zelda, the Euro-
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American ideals stemming from education limited Nectors capacity while the wildness of knowledge

that Eli possessed was more natural. In this way, Erdrich even proposes that Euro-American education

may be toxic instead of enlivening when it strips away the Ojibwa identity.

Yet, Native Americans are not without hope as they can regain this culture through

reconnection to traditional values such as family and gender roles as well as nature. First, family is one

of the largest themes in Love Medicine. In Ojibwa culture, family is more flexible in comparison to Euro-

American units. The community as a whole is a family with closer connections within it. Throughout the

novel, it is evident that family connections are strained. One reason for this is the influence from the

nuclear family structure imposed by the colonial culture. While trying to assimilate to the culture of their

oppressors, the strictness of the family structure may have been imposed on Native American groups.

The chaos caused to the native community through this shift in family structure and values can be seen

in Love Medicine where the families are struggling to find the balance between the traditional flexibility

and the modern nuclear format. Between intermarriages and affairs that split the families further apart,

Erdrich suggests a solution: revert to tradition. For example, in Flesh and Blood, Nectors infidelity to

his wife Marie makes her feel that her world is falling apart. Yet, at the end of the story, she accepts his

action and decides to move on with her life, centering her future on her children and not the absence of

her husband; basically, she decides to be flexible and accept what life gives her. Marie also rejects the

patriarchal hierarchy of colonizers by becoming the head of her family, defying modern gender roles, a

system that was not as strict within the Ojibwa community as they all worked together.

Erdrich suggests a second way to reclaim their Ojibwa culture, and that is a reconnection to

nature. For Native Americans, nature was not manipulated into resources. Instead, they respected the

use derived from nature but never took more than they needed. There was a respect for nature that

Euro-American ideals of success and progress stripped away from the Americas. In the book, Erdrich

uses the character of Eli to portray the peace that comes with a connection to nature. Living in the
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woods, he is arguably the most temperate character in the story and the one that brings peace to Marie

and Junes lives. Therefore, by reclaiming the connection to nature, Ojibwa and other native tribes can

regain the connection to their heritage and national identity. Another wild character that maintains and

owns her native identity is Lulu Lamartine. While many other characters have a negative view on Lulu,

her wildness is her inability to limit her passion for life, and she never apologizes for this characteristic.

She explains:

No one ever understood my wild and secret waysI was in love with the whole world and all

that lived in its rainy arms. Sometimes Id look out on my yard and the green leaves would be

glowing. Id see the oil slick on the wing of a grackle. Id hear the wind rushing, rolling, like the

far-off sound of waterfalls. Then Id open my mouth wide, my ears wide, my heart, and Id let

everything inside. (Erdrich 272).

Lulus appreciation for nature is viewed negatively because she does not restrain her love. Yet, her

ability to make love to the world is one that challenges the core of Euro-American ideas that the world is

for use and not awe and reverence. This passion for nature, appreciating its rawness, helps her to

maintain her natural native identity amidst her trials, one that she does not stray from throughout the

novel.

Throughout the story, Erdrich struggles with whether Native Americans can form a hybrid

culture between their unique identity that encompasses both the modern culture and traditional Ojibwa

elements. However, some of the most important characterssuch as Marie, Nector and Eliundeniably

support the idea of nativism presented by Edward Said in his Themes of Resistance Culture, which

advocates for a pure Native American identity untainted by Euro-American colonization. While Erdrich

does not endorse blinded nativism, where Native Americans forget the effect of colonization, she does

endorse a reversal to traditional values. This essentialist notion of cultural identity examines what is
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means to be indigenous to the extent that it is not modern. While many of the characters struggle to

balance both the modern society and their traditional Ojibwa pasts, ultimately they are asked to choose;

Erdrich chooses nativism.

Throughout Love Medicine, Marie Lazarre Kashpaw is arguably the most prominent character

that tries to assimilate the Euro-American society but finally rejects the modern colonial ideals when

they fail her. Perhaps the most important character, her struggle with her modern and native identities

is the most powerful. As a young girl, Marie was victim to the oppression of the Euro-American

educative and religious impositions on her mixed heritage. In the story Saint Marie, Marie rejects the

overly-pious lifestyle presented by the nuns as the way to salvation and worldly success. Yet, she starts

as that girl who thought the black hem of her garment would help [her] rise. Veils of love which was

only hate petrified by longingthat was [her] (Erdrich 45). At first, she admired her teacher Sister

Leopolda, but soon Marie realized that the sister only wanted to use her to elevate her own saintliness.

However, through physical torture and emotional agony, Marie fails to defeat Leopolda at her own

game. In fact, Leopolda turns her physical abuse of Marie into a miracle that makes Marie the saint in

the eyes of the other nuns and elevates Leopolda since she noticed the potential in Marie. Realizing the

faux-spirituality that Leopolda contains, Marie rejects this holy lifestyle, realizing everything is dust

when she says, My skin was dust. Dust my lips. Dust the dirty spoons on the ends of my feet. Rise up! I

thought. Rise up and walk! There is no limit to this dust! (Erdrich 60). From this, Marie realizes that

everything of the world will melt away, and the superficial religious actions of the Euro-Americans like

Leopolda will not save them. They too will turn into dust. So, Marie decides to rise up and walk away

from the convent, deciding to live her life successfully in other ways. By walking away from the

oppressors, Marie accepts part of her native identity. However, she does not fully accept this Ojibwa

identity until further along in her story.

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After rejecting the religious impositions of society, Marie reconnects to her natural heritage

through the influence of family. When June is first adopted into their family, Marie wants to tame the

wildness out of the child based on the Euro-American ideals imposed on her as a young girl. Yet, June

resists this oppression and finds comfort in the companionship of Eli in the woods. Marie is then

confronted with her mother-in-law, Rushes Bear, who epitomizes the wild native and stands up to

Maries modern ways. Through Rushes Bear and her progressing pregnancy, Marie slowly accepts her

own wildness. This is seen through her use of the Ojibwa word Nimama (Erdrich 99) and her refusal to

go to the hospital. She finally finds acceptance in the wildness of childbirth, recognizing that neither

Rushes Bear nor the native midwife judges her appearance. Here, Marie realizes that she has been

blinded to her true culture while trying to assimilate to the modern Euro-American culture that she was

educated in. When this culture fails her, she resorts to her heritage. This is seen positively by readers

because of the idea of acceptance within her own culture. Yet, this idea is best understood through her

rejection of modernity in the story Flesh and Blood. After realizing that the material successes of

family, status and possessions are not stagnant, Marie understands that a deeper identity is needed,

one that will not disappear with her worldly successes. Instead of valuing family as a trophy, she reverts

back to the Ojibwa family values, accepting its flexibility. Furthermore, she accepts herself as an

individual that is not contained by the expectations of the Euro-American culture. While she does not

directly see her change as nativism, she rejects the modern cultural effects on her life, restoring

relationships with her family and nature, bringing her closer to her heritage. In Love Medicine, Maries

native identity follows her throughout her life and is seen years later when she suggests using an Ojibwa

love medicine. By desiring to renew Nectors love for her, Marie resorts to the old ways, encouraging

Lipsha Morrissey to use his natural talent and make a love medicine for them. Overall, her love for and

experiences with her family draws Marie closer to her native identity.
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The second character that reflects the need for nativism is Nector through his negative modern

lifestyle. In The Beads, he is represented as the stereotypical Native American: lazy, drunk, and

unfaithful. However, these are only a result of the looseness of modern Euro-American morals. Before

colonization, drinking and alcohol was not present in Native American culture. Yet, once it became

accessible through colonization and natives were shoved to the lowest class in society, alcohol became a

coping mechanism for many Native Americans. In a way, he assimilated into the culture Euro-Americans

created for him. In this specific story, his mother even argues impregnating his wife Marie was the only

thing he was good for (Erdrich 99). Even when he tries to be a good husband and encourages Marie to

go to the hospital to give birth, he is rejected because he has lost connection to his Ojibwa heritage

through his floundering in modern society. Sadly, Nectors family, the Kashpaws, was respected as the

last hereditary leaders of this tribe (Erdrich 118), yet Nectors actions disown this heritage. In Plunge

of the Brave, readers see Nector succumb to the worldly traps, compromising his native values and

even his own dignity. When he is asked to strip for a painting during his flirtation with Hollywood, it is

modern money that temps him to forget his dignity (Erdrich 119-120). Even when he returns to his

community, the effect of Euro-American ideals had contaminated his mind until he was too far away to

return. Nector turns into a trophy for his wife as proof of all of her modern successes, but he cant live

up to this high expectation. Overall, Nector is the result of the modern society and the harm it can do to

a person.

On the other end of the spectrum, Eli gives hope to the nativist argument as he is the opposite

of Nector, accepting natures role in native life. In all aspects, Eli is the embodiment of the true Ojibwa

man, living out in the woods and maintaining their culture. While Marie tries to tame June, she is unable

to desire to tame Elis wildness because it fits so naturally. Even though He was a nothing-and-nowhere

person, not a husband match for any woman [Marie] had to like him (Erdrich 90). One reason for this

is his ability to live temperately. With Nector always drunk or having an affair with Lulu Lamartine, Eli is
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a refreshing contrast. Marie explains that Eli drank but he never lost his head (Erdrich 91), a feat that

Nector was incapable of. In fact, one could argue that Eli could have been an example of hybridity

because of his temperance for modern culture. However, this aspect is so minor that he must be seen as

a fully indigenous character living alongside the modern world. In fact, not only does he live out the

natural and Ojibwa lifestyle, he encourages others such as June and Marie to accept their wildness. This

is shown through Junes decision to live with Eli and continue to be taught Wild unholy songs and

other Ojibwa traditions (Erdrich 91). Marie even finds herself attracted to Eli despite the contrast he

brings to her civilized and tame life. It is only later that she would be able to recognize her longing to

accept the wildness within herself as well. Overall, Eli embodies all the positive characteristics of the

Ojibwa nationalist, showing that nativism is the only way for Native Americans to truly accept their

culture.

While many people want to move past the oppression of Euro-Americans on Native American

peoples, such action is not easy. With little support for Ojibwa or Native American nationalism, it is

difficult if not impossible to do so while also maintaining a part of modern culture. Through Maries

rejection of modern culture, Nectors failed assimilation into Euro-American ideas, and Elis acceptance

of his Ojibwa culture, Erdrich proposes one path: nativism. It is too difficult to try and form a hybrid

culture between both modern and traditional; the modern only distracts and contorts the traditional

views and values. Instead, natives should reject modern culture with its religion and education and

revert back to their values of family, gender roles, and nature. If this occurs, they will have successfully

fought against the years of oppression endured.

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Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. Harper Perennial, New York, 2009.