In the Night of Memory
A Novel
by Linda LeGarde Grover
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Pub Date Apr 02 2019 | Archive Date Apr 26 2019
University of Minnesota Press | Univ Of Minnesota Press
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Description
Winner: Northeastern Minnesota Book Award - Fiction
Upper Peninsula Publishers & Authors Association U.P. Notable Book Award
Two lost sisters find family, and themselves, among the voices of an Ojibwe reservation
When Loretta surrenders her young girls to the county and then disappears, she becomes one more missing Native woman in Indian Country’s long devastating history of loss. But she is also a daughter of the Mozhay Point Reservation in northern Minnesota and the mother of Azure and Rain, ages 3 and 4, and her absence haunts all the lives she has touched—and all the stories they tell in this novel. In the Night of Memory returns to the fictional reservation of Linda LeGarde Grover’s previous award-winning books, introducing readers to a new generation of the Gallette family as Azure and Rain make their way home.
After a string of foster placements, from cold to kind to cruel, the girls find their way back to their extended Mozhay family, and a new set of challenges, and stories, unfolds. Deftly, Grover conjures a chorus of women’s voices (sensible, sensitive Azure’s first among them) to fill in the sorrows and joys, the loves and the losses that have brought the girls and their people to this moment. Though reconciliation is possible, some ruptures simply cannot be repaired; they can only be lived through, or lived with. In the Night of Memory creates a nuanced, moving, often humorous picture of two Ojibwe girls becoming women in light of this lesson learned in the long, sharply etched shadow of Native American history.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781517906504 |
| PRICE | $22.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 224 |
Featured Reviews
Fran E, Reviewer
In the 1890's, the Mozlay Point Indian Reservation Lands were divided into allotted acreage near Duluth, Minnesota. Displaced Indians were promised a settlement along the Miskwaa River. The Miskwaa residents were a forgotten people, "falling into the cracks", ignored by the federal government. The winters were bitterly cold. Life was a hardscrabble existence. The people needed to trap, harvest and might participate in the illegal liquor trade just to prevent starvation.
Loretta Gallette was born in a tar papered dwelling along the Miskwaa River. As a youngster, Loretta was constantly uprooted living with whomever could take her at the time. She might have been sent to Indian Boarding School where children were "schooled, ate, slept, punished, locked up, beaten and abused". In her late teens, she "adopted out" a son and presently lived with her two small daughters, Rainfall Dawn and Azure Sky, 4 years and 3 years, respectively. That is, until she was forced to surrender the girls to St. Louis County Foster Care.
Azure and Rain cherished memories of their mother, Loretta. They seemed to recall sitting on the back porch fire escape, wrapped in a blanket, viewing the Northern Lights. They visualized Loretta swaying and dancing toe-to-heel in the traditional style of Ojibwe women. Azure and Rain were now entered in the foster care system. What would their experiences be? Would their mother remember them? Look for them?
In 1978, the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed. Appeals to the Mozhay Point Business Committee were made requesting the return of Loretta Gallette's children to a family member. Many children like Loretta remained lost. Hopefully, Rain and Azure could become acquainted and reside with their family and tribe.
"In the Night of Memory" by Linda LeGarde Grover is a novel exploring the plight of displaced children and adults living on the fringes of society, the effect of Indian Boarding Schools and the impact of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Native American heritage might be embraced the Indian way by children returned to their families.
Thank you University of Minnesota Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "In the Night of Memory".
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