Lines, Lineage, and Belonging in Louise Erdrich’s Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country and Lisa Bird-Wilson’s Probably Ruby

Abstract

This paper delves into the connective power of lines and their contributions toward lineages and belonging. Like Pottawatomi author Robin Kimmerer’s 2013 monograph Braiding Sweetgrass, whose anecdotes about braids and baskets acknowledge the importance of fragmented strands and their return journeys to wholeness, I interpret the diverse representations of lines in Louise Erdrich’s (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country and Lisa Bird-Wilson’s (Métis and nēhiyaw) Probably Ruby as evidence of interaction—of generative processes that link rather than divide. As Erdrich herself explains, abstract and physical images of lines “express relationships” and hold “power and communication” (45). This essay demonstrates how Bird-Wilson and Erdrich’s texts encourage us to interpret lines in a more expansive way, as something connective rather than divisive, in a non-linear, non-dominating, and, occasionally, in a fragmented form.