The Wolf at Twilight

A note is left on a car windshield, an old dog dies, and Kent Nerburn finds himself back on the Lakota reservation where he traveled more than a decade before with a tribal elder named Dan. The touching, funny, and haunting journey that ensues goes deep into reservation boarding-school mysteries, the dark confines of sweat lodges, and isolated Native homesteads far back in the Dakota hills in search of ghosts that have haunted Dan since childhood.

In this fictionalized account of actual events, Nerburn brings the land of the northern High Plains alive and reveals the Native American way of teaching and learning with a depth that few outsiders have ever captured.

Genre

Native American Literature

My Thoughts

Kent Nerburn is not Native American and as such he is cognizant that he has limitations when sharing the story of a tribal elder named Dan. He does the work, though, and because of his relationship with Dan and his respect for the Native community, he is able to share this story with wisdom and empathy.

Nerburn’s access to this history is one of the main strengths of this book. From the 1870s through the 1940s (and beyond) Native American children were separated from their families and sent to federally funded boarding schools whose mission it was to strip them of the Indian language, spirituality, and culture. Both the Canadian government and the United States under the leadership of Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, have opened investigations related to these schools. Former students are increasingly telling of their experiences of malnourishment, overwork, and brutality at the hands of the government and church, and the study of these schools has become one of the most active areas of American Indian historical study. In Wolf at Twilight, the memories and experiences of Dan and his family give the reader a glimpse of this history and its impact on individuals.

It would be tempting for Nerburn to report this information from the detached and authoritative role of the observer. Nerburn is just as comfortable, though, writing about his own connection to the fraught relations between White America and Native America as he is Dan’s. It is his connection with the people and places in his book that gives his writing credibility. Wolf at Twilight is a great read for anyone who wants to learn more of our national history -- all of our history. I gave this book 5 stars.