Word: chippewa
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...READER WHO HAS NOT followed the doings of Louise Erdrich's bewitched North Dakota Chippewas since her first novel, Love Medicine (missing The Beet Queen and Tracks for no good reason), finds in the fourth telling of the story that not much has changed. That's good; most of the same powerful characters are still around causing trouble, some as hovering spirits, some as living beings. A few years have passed, and in The Bingo Palace (HarperCollins; 274 pages; $23) we are close to present time, but reservation life is still a shabby, cross-cultural muddle. And Erdrich, herself part...
...first activity on that list is drinking beer. Wisconsin is the home of Miller's humungous Milwaukee brewery, which gives tours five days a week. Other small breweries are scattered across the state, Including Leinenkugel in Chippewa Falls (now regrettably owned by Miller), Huber's in Monroe and Capital brewery in Madison...
...also means fighting for rights that are blithely violated by neighboring communities. In last year's most celebrated confrontation, Mohawks faced down Quebec police and army troops 18 miles west of Montreal in a battle to prevent weekend golfers from putting into their ancestral graves. At the same time, Chippewa Indians, in northern Wisconsin, fought what has become an annual battle on the shores of Lake Minocqua. Their adversaries, local fishermen armed with rocks and insults, fear that the Indians' spearfishing will deplete the supply of walleyed pike and drive away sport fishermen. Though the Chippewa have voluntarily limited...
Spearfishing was part of the Chippewa way of life long before white settlers arrived in Wisconsin. The Indians claim that the protests are motivated by racism. Says Tom Maulson, an activist with the Lac du Flambeau band: "No respect is given to Indian people. They have to stand up for their rights...
After five years of confrontation that resulted in fistfights and hundreds of arrests, a compromise may be in sight. The Chippewa have lowered their spearing quotas, and the state is making plans for attracting more tourism to the region. But there is still a danger that hotheads will explode during the three-week spearfishing season. "There's fear among people who don't know one another and are suspicious that the other is getting something they aren't," says Robert Tully, a "peaceful witness" who came to Lake Nokomis to observe and document events. "These are all people who love...