Native American oral storytelling tradition? Reclamation of voice by a systematically silenced subset of Americans? 10-foot tall demonic wintry cannibal half-beasts? Yep, you will find all of this and more in Louise Erdrich's poem, "Windigo," a modern literary retelling of a traditional Chippewa Indian story.

Giant half-beasts aside, Louise Erdrich is a towering figure in modern Native American literature. Born in 1954, Erdrich is a member of the Chippewa, or Ojibwe, tribe, a subset of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. and Canada. She's authored over twenty works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. This particular poem was published in her 1984 poetry compilation, Jacklight, and stands out in our eyes for several reasons:

1. It's totally terrifying. Seriously, Hollywood horror movie producers should take notes.
2. It's extremely evocative. Erdrich throws us into a mysterious universe so hauntingly beautiful that at times it feels like it is about to devour you whole. Sorry, bad pun. Just read the poem and you'll see what we mean. 
3. It is part of a renaissance in contemporary Native American literature. Erdrich's distinctive writing style, grounded as much in Native American oral storytelling tradition as it is in modern poetry and literature, serves as a reminder that Native American culture is still very much present and even thriving in today's world. Erdrich reminds us that Native American literature has a place in American culture today, and that it can also resonate with native and non-native readers alike. We all have much to learn from this tradition of Native American storytelling.

In his boldly titled book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, historian and scholar James Loewen makes the fittingly bold claim that Native Americans are, in fact, "the most lied about subset of the American population" (99). What exactly does he mean by that? Wait—and why are our teachers lying to us?

Well, they aren't exactly doing it on purpose. Just open your U.S. history textbook to the section on Native Americans. You might see a blurb about the first Thanksgiving. There's probably a passage about Custer's Last Stand. Maybe the book discusses the treaties broken between the government and Native American tribes.

What our history textbooks usually fail to explain, however, is the extent to which European American society has attempted to stamp out Native American culture, all in the name of Manifest Destiny. The oppression of our indigenous communities didn't end in 1890 at the Wounded Knee massacre. It is still going on. Sure, the U.S. government isn't in the business anymore of blatantly destroying indigenous culture, the way it did through civilizing projects like the Carlisle Indian School—whose mission was to "kill the Indian, to save the man"—and the forced relocation of entire tribes as a result of the President Andrew Jackson-endorsed Indian Removal Act. All the same, the repercussions of these practices are still felt today. Indigenous populations currently suffer from poverty and illness at staggering rates, much higher than the national average. On reservations, these issues are especially severe (Source). Clearly reflected in these unsettling levels of poverty, addiction, dropouts, and suicides is a complicated and troubling history that our history books just don't show.

It's hard to point to a more ignored example in our society today than the genocide—both cultural and literal—of indigenous Americans. Disregarding these truths, no matter how uncomfortable they may be, is a disservice—above all else, to ourselves. As citizens of the world, we must be students of history, able to think critically about our society, in order to learn and grow from our past. It is our obligation to know where we came from, the difficult truths included. (We recommend paying a visit to the Shmoop guide to Native American history for a deeper analysis of this deeply neglected conversation.)

Our history books, as well as the media, treat indigenous Americans and Native American culture like relics of the past, passive victims of Manifest Destiny. This conception silences the Native American community today. Enter Louise Erdrich. Alongside fellow native writers like Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie, and Paula Gunn Allen, Erdrich is proof that Native American culture is alive and thriving. In reading a poem like "Windigo," we can access these stories and begin to better understand these voices and traditions. Oh yeah, and did we mention this poem is about wintry demon cannibals? That's pretty awesome, too.