Elizabeth Chute

I love this book. I moved to Northern Montana 30 years ago from Long Island, NY with 2 sons. Newly in a second marriage and frustrated with many parts of LI culture, my husband was offered a job at the college, so we jumped. My husband and i had been here before but the kids were shocked, in a happy sense. They loved the small town culture and the fishing, hunting, and people here. So I could read this book through their eyes as well. It’s a wonderful book about how racism changes through generations. Grandpa kind of thinks of them as something else that’s there to exploit. He jokes about how one of his sons ran around the reserve raping and exploiting Native Americans. The other son is the boy’s father. The boy is just awakening to the existence of prejudice and trying to understand how people he loves and admires could have good and evil characteristics. He absolutely loves the young Sioux woman who lives with his family and takes care of them. When she suddenly dies, he fears she was murdered by someone else he loves. No one is sure what to do. In another generation, nothing, but in 1948? I believe books that let everyone have a voice and opinion is the best way to overcome these problems in our American culture. It’s not “woke,” it’s real. Native Americans are still finding their way into the present Montana culture just like Black people. Too many people would rather not deal with it.