Coming to life: Native American cultural renewal and emerging identity in Michigan Ojibwe narratives and in Erdrich's 'The Antelope Wife'

Traditionally modeled cultural practices and creative expressions are coming to life again among Native American people. In the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and elsewhere in the Native American world, new economic power (resulting from tribally run casinos) engenders recognition, respect, and some political power, allowing people to overcome centuries of oppression and attempted assimilation to reclaim their Native American identity and heritage. This cultural renaissance stimulates purpose, pride, vision, and creative expression. During fieldwork in the U.P., I collected narratives from Nishnaabe people (Ojibwe or Chippewa) that reflect and encourage the processes of cultural resurgence. The discourse and practices of Ojibwe cultural renewal also find voice as the central themes and images of Louise Erdrich's novel, The Antelope Wife. Erdrich's novel offers mythic reassurance that Native Americans today can make sense of apparent contradictory impulses and patterns (from being part of two cultures at once), and imagine their identity to live rich, full, happy lives, connected to the past while shaping the future. In both communities (the U.P. and Erdrich's fictional Minnesota Ojibwe community), Nishnaabe people negotiate identity and cultural forces in today's world. My analysis and presentation of narratives draws upon methods and insights of performance theory, which attends to systems of interrelationships between various cultural events and individual experiences, considering context as key. The voices, concerns, expressions, and life experiences of culture members help to build a contextual portrait of the community that in turn serves to deepen understanding of the narratives. Culture, tradition, narrative, worldview, and identity emerge as fluid and dynamic processes.