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But Pixie suspects that relocation isn't what it seems-particularly when her sister falls out of touch. Her older sister, Vera, moved to Minneapolis with her husband with assistance from the Placement and Relocation Office, which was supposed to provide job training and housing funds. The Turtle Mountain Band is a clear underdog in this fight, but the diligence and decency embodied by Thomas prove to be potent weapons.Īs Thomas mobilizes a delegation to travel to Washington and argue against the bill, Pixie sets off on a quest of her own. for the intensification of an orderly program of facilitating the relocation and placement of such Indians in a self-supporting economy … and for the termination of Federal services furnished to such Indians because of their status as Indians." The bill's supporters attempt to paint this termination of land rights as a benevolent act of respect for American Indian autonomy, but Thomas and his neighbors recognize that their lives and livelihoods are at stake.

A proposed congres­sional act would lead to the "termination of Federal supervision over the trust and restricted property of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas. The urgency of the situation is difficult to perceive at first because it's shrouded in the banal language of bureaucracy. The Night Watchman follows Thomas and Pixie over the course of a tumultuous year.ĭuring the long, slow nights at the plant, Thomas keeps himself busy with paperwork he leads the tribal council, and he has come to realize that his community is under dire threat. (Erdrich's characters point out that when the North Dakota reservation was created, the white settlers took the best land for themselves and left the scraps to the tribal nation, which holds the land in common.) Most of the plant employees are women-they scored higher on manual dexterity tests-including Thomas' niece, a bright, driven young woman with beguiling eyes whom everyone calls Pixie, even though she would prefer to be called Patrice. The year is 1953, and the plant has brought a new kind of employment to the Turtle Mountain reservation, where many people still work as farmers and poverty is a persistent issue.