It is 1953 in rural North Dakota. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member and deeply troubled by the US Government's proposed new "Emancipation Bill". Far from offering the Chippewa more freedom, it is a betrayal - threatening the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity.
Pixie -"Patrice" - Paranteau works at the same factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to save if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister, Vera. In The Night Watchman, multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress.
She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.
