The Downfall of Native American Culture within Louise Erdrich’s The Round House

Authors

Kendall Victoria Mead, University of the PacificFollow

Lead Author Major

English

Lead Author Status

Junior

Format

Oral Presentation

Faculty Mentor Name

Cynthia Dobbs

Faculty Mentor Department

English

Abstract/Artist Statement

Abstract: My talk today will demonstrate how author Louise Erdrich’s novel The Round House offers a critique of the United States Federal Government's influence on Native American land and a representation of gender equality within the Ojibwe tribe. Erdrich addresses the hostile laws the Federal Government upholds on reservation land that make the act of Native Americans having criminals convicted almost impossible. I argue that Louise Erdrich’s novel The Round House spotlights this issue and opens a door to discussion that centers around the hardships the Native American families go through because they can’t receive equal representation under the law, and how this lack of equal representation in turn threatens the progressive gender equality Native Americans possess and their culture as a whole.

Keywords: Native Americans, United States Federal Government, gender equality, equal representation, law, culture

Location

DeRosa University Center, Room 211

Start Date

28-4-2018 10:00 AM

End Date

28-4-2018 10:20 AM