THE LAND, COMMUNITY, AND STORYTELLING: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S TRACKS

Abstract

Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s novel Tracks (1988) focuses on the history of a Native American tribe at the beginning of the twentieth century as many people in the community are about to lose their tribal lands due to the laws of the federal government. Since the land is what ties these people to their past, community, and culture, it becomes significant to tell the story of how these lands were lost in hope of preserving the past, and surviving culturally as well as physically. The novel is narrated alternately by two first person narrators: the tribal elder Nanapush who is attached to the old Indian ways and a mixed-heritage young woman Pauline, who is on the way of denying her Native identity and complying with the dominant white culture. In order to show how Louise Erdrich creates a collective memory and social identity for Native Americans through this novel, this article firstly examines the theories of collective memory and illustrates the exclusion of Native American point of view from the official history and thus their need to preserve their own sense of past and history. Secondly, through examples from the novel, it is explained how three elements brought together in the novel -the land, community, and storytelling- are vital to gaining a collective memory and social identity for Native Americans.