The Use Of Cultural Efforts In Louise Erdrich's The Round House

“1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime” (Erdrich 319). Since the westward expansion of European settlers into the Native American lands, the U.S. government has been colonizing and conquering native lands. With this invasion comes drastic effects such as violence, disease, dwindling resources, and sexual assault. Native American women experience some of the highest percentages of sexual assault in the U.S, while virtually none of the perpetrators are prosecuted. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, is a story about the Coutts family and their journey through a horrific rape. Geraldine Coutts is brutally raped at the beginning of the novel, when she spirals so far that she refuses to talk about the incident, eat, drink, or interact

After learning all of this, Joe decides to take matters into his own hands, and shoots Lark on the golf course. According to the Critical Survey of American Literature, Louise Erdrich was very committed to both her writing and humanitarian goals, incorporating real causes and real research into her cultural books. Many books incorporate humanitarian causes within it, allowing it to serve as a cultural artifact to the time and place of the text, which allows readers to unravel the social meanings, power structures, and deeper meanings of the human experience. In The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, Joe’s decision to kill Lark after his blatant disrespect of the Ojibewe culture by raping Geraldine in the Round House subverts the prevailing power of the United States government, challenging the morality of Joe’s actions to ensure justice in a place where injustice dominates. Erdrich begins by arguing the symbolism of the Round House as a form of rebellion and stubbornness against the U.S. government’s attempts to extinguish the Ojibewe culture (Bender and

Finally, Erdrich argues the necessity of Joe’s actions as a result of the failure of the U.S. and tribal governments to fulfill their duties (Deer). During one scene between Bazil and Joe, Bazil uses a moldy casserole to explain the various rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that have built up how tribal judges are allowed to rule on different cases. One important case, as Bazil says, is “Oliphant v. Suquamish”. . Took from us the right to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes on our land” (Erdrich 229). Knowing this case explains why Lark is allowed to roam free after raping Geraldine. Even after she identified Lark as her attacker, the state police will not prosecute him because they do not know the location of the crime. The tribal police are not allowed to prosecute Lark because he is not of Native American descent, so there seems to be no legal solution. Additionally, for the cases that go to the federal government, only a small fraction are chosen due to time and other factors. Julie Tharp elaborates on the role the federal government plays in these types of cases, explaining that “In the instance of sexual violence, they have chosen to ignore most of it” (Tharp