Antelope Woman

Content Warning: This guide contains discussions of the source text’s depictions of sexual assault, domestic violence, suicide, and substance abuse disorders.

Antelope Woman engages with many key moments in the history of the Ojibwe people in the centuries following the settler-colonial takeover of their ancestral lands, but its depiction of the impact of relocation policies plays the greatest role within the framework of the narrative. Erdrich depicts the way that mass-migration to cities ripped individuals away both from the support of their family networks and from the communities where they grew up surrounded by history, tradition, and cultural knowledge. She does this through discussion of policies such as the Indian Relocation Act, through the symbolism evident in the character of Sweetheart Calico, and through her depiction of the impact of relocation on other members of the Roy and Shawano families.

At various points in the narrative, Erdrich provides background information on the many assimilationist policies the US government enacted in order to encourage Indigenous peoples to move away from their own cultures and immerse themselves in mainstream society. Although she does discuss the Dawes Act (characters