http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=67201

Erdrich sisters: They're authors, Indians and 'real people living in a
complex world'

By Jana Hollingsworth, Duluth News Tribune
Published Thursday, February 14, 2008

DULUTH -- Lise Erdrich has written an entire novel on Post-It notes.

The North Dakota author said she once worked at a 3M factory, and wrote
during 12-hour shifts sitting next to "the plastic machine."

"I was really angry I was stuck in this plastic factory," she said. "The
novel is called 'Stick It'; it's a flash novel."

Lise Erdrich and her sister, Heid Erdrich, are authors of fiction and
poetry, known for their humor as well as their prose. They are the sisters
of Louise Erdrich, author of "Love Medicine," "The Antelope Wife" and
others.

Heid and Lise were scheduled to speak this week at the University of
Minnesota Duluth as part of the university's "American Indians in
Minnesota: Personal Histories" series. The event, held as part of the
University of Minnesota's celebration of the state's sesquicentennial, is
meant to honor Minnesota's American Indian heritage.

Lise, 49, and Heid, 44, are members of the Turtle Mountain Band of
Chippewa, but they didn't grow up on the north-central North Dakota
reservation.

Lise, an author of children's books and a collection of short fiction,
"Night Train," was born in Minnesota but grew up in Wahpeton. She was a
2007 Bush Foundation Artist Fellow.

Heid, an award-winning writer of poetry, including the upcoming collection
"National Monument," taught English at the University of St. Thomas in St.
Paul for several years and lives in Minneapolis. She also owns Ancient
Traders Gallery in Minneapolis.

"They bring a family history, but also a larger picture of the history of
Anishinaabe women in this region," said Linda Grover, an American Indian
studies professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. "We have students
up here . . . who aspire to follow in the footsteps of the Erdrich
sisters."

Heid, who graduated from Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University,
said she and her siblings grew up in a tradition where reading and writing
were highly valued by their parents and grandparents.

"By the time I went to school for writing, my older sister Louise was
already succeeding, so nobody said, 'That's crazy; don't do that,' " she
said.

Lise graduated from the University of North Dakota and Minnesota State
University, Mankato, and is a chemical-dependency counselor.

Both women write because they believe in some ways it's biological, and to
relieve stored-up verbal energy.

"I've got to have an outlet," Heid said.

The sisters balk at the notion they are representative of the American
Indian voice.

"Not that I would ever say I'm not Indian . . . I would say 'OK, I
represent the American
Indian-off-reservation-mixed-blood-half-German-grew-up-in-North-Dakota-got-
educated-elsewhere-Indian voice,' " Heid said. "I don't mind being
categorized as an Ojibwe writer. What I don't like is when . . . people
come and expect us to be in cultural dress or tell traditional stories.
We're real people today living in a complex world."

Readers may identify with their work because it's rooted in reality rather
than dramatics.

"Not that our stories don't have drama, but we can deal with some of the
stuff that's more common that people find amusing," Heid said.

The Erdriches' parents worked in American Indian boarding schools
institutions often said to have stripped American Indians of their language
and culture, forcing assimilation. Lise, who also has worked at a boarding
school, doesn't see it so simply.

"Sometimes the boarding school is identified as the boogeyman about
language," she said. "It's too simple to say boarding schools did this or
that. No doubt there were all sorts of horrific abuse. The sad fact is that
[language loss] also came from parents and grandparents themselves."

They didn't want their children to go through the same problems they did
dealing with a native language as a first language, she said, and to "fight
to stay alive in the world."

Heid said each boarding school was different, and she has met people with
good memories and some who had horrible stories to share. Putting American
Indians and their experiences in one box is common, she said, but it
shouldn't be.

"A lot of times, especially in literature, native people aren't allowed to
have complex pictures," she said. "But in literature, that's a place where
people can show all experiences and . . . nuances."

Even the most well-meaning people want to reduce anything American Indian
into their idea of what "authentic" is, Lise said.

"By those standards, I'm very reluctant to even be called an Indian
writer."

While grudgingly accepting of their crowned roles in the American Indian
writing community, the sisters are still seen as authoritative voices.

Grover said one University of Minnesota Duluth student told her she'd never
met an American Indian until meeting her, and writers like the Erdrich
sisters are representative of native people and Indian Country to her,
Grover said.

"They are like a conduit;" she said, "a link between worlds."

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