Louise Erdrich’s The Porcupine Year as a Multicultural Teaching Tool
Essay
Children learn about Ojibwe culture in Louise Erdrich’s The Porcupine Year, her third installment of the Birchbark House series. Her own history relates to this series as she is also a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and has a bookstore called Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. Erdrich writes prolific poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s novels. Her dynamic characters challenge the negative stereotypes and generalizations of Indigenous people perpetuated in society.
The Porcupine Year continues in 1852 with heroine Omakayas, whose family has been displaced by the U.S. government. They journey by canoe, on Lake Superior, to northern Minnesota to find a new home. Erdrich combats the negative stereotypes and erasure of Ojibwe culture through characters who demonstrate safe self-discovery due to three key qualities: self-confrontation, identity fluidity, and the guidance of elders. Through character development, subjects that address relocation, discrimination, social injustice, intersectionality, and historical accuracy are done in an age appropriate matter for children to engage with.