MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with Ojibwe writer Jim Northrup. For almost 22 years, Northrup has entertained and chastened readers of his syndicated “Fond Du Lacs Follies” newspaper column. He's covered everything from the rise of casinos and treaty rights, to his love of tapping trees for syrup, and harvesting wild rice…and he always included lots of jokes.
EUAN KERR: Jim Northrup sits at his kitchen table, whittling with a large clasp knife.
JIM NORTHRUP: I'm carving sugarbush taps in Ojibwe negwaakwaan.
EUAN KERR: He uses maple branches, about an inch and a half in diameter, cut to about four inches long. He'll pound each one into a hole drilled in a maple tree.
JIM NORTHRUP: We tap about 200 taps a year.
SPEAKER 2: That's a lot of work.
JIM NORTHRUP: Not really. A lot of time spent sitting around the fire.
EUAN KERR: Boiling the sap and telling stories, something that's important to Jim Northrup. It's a way to explore his love of language.
JIM NORTHRUP: I grew up speaking Ojibwe, until I was age 6. And then I went to a federal boarding school called Pipestone in Southern Minnesota. And then, as I like to say, I had Ojibwe pounded out and English pounded in. And it must have been a pretty good pounding because I make my living at it today, stringing words together, standing em up and saying, wait right here, I'll be right back. I'll go get another word and send it up next to you. And that's the process sometimes.
EUAN KERR: Over the years, Jim Northrup has stood many words up next to each other. Anishinaabe Syndicated, A View from the Rez is a distillation of his "Fond Du Lac Follies" columns from 1989 to 2001. Northrup will read from the book tomorrow evening at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. They were turbulent years, and Northrup doesn't pull his punches.
JIM NORTHRUP: I guess it's a result of being in the military and seeing some pretty terrible things in Vietnam. There's no more shading the truth, just got to tell it like it is.
EUAN KERR: He admits he came back damaged from Vietnam.
JIM NORTHRUP: I've had PTSD before it had a name. Then at first, when I heard about it, I thought it meant party til someone dies.
EUAN KERR: Writing has helped. He uses an unbroadcastable term to describe how performing a one-man show based on his life helped clean out his brain. Veterans issues come up a lot in the "Fond Du Lac Follies" as do his concerns about tribal management and reservation politics. He says despite his bluntness, he's received few complaints about his column. Although there was that one joke.
JIM NORTHRUP: Why do Indian men make better lovers? A lot of them don't have to get up and go to work in the morning. I got a little heat over that one. I got a letter and a petition from some of my fellow Fond Du Lac-ers, apparently the ones with jobs, because they thought I was contributing to a negative stereotype.
EUAN KERR: Northrup dealt with it this way. He promised in his column never to write another joke like that. He did, however, repeat the joke. And he did it in three separate columns. He wrote at length about the treaty rights process in the early '90s. He was one of the tribal members who went out spearing as angry crowds gathered on the boat landings.
JIM NORTHRUP: It's kind of hairy to ride along in a canoe, being the only source of light on the lake and hearing gunshots.
EUAN KERR: Northrup no longer spears. He says since the Supreme Court upheld the 1852 treaty, guaranteeing Ojibwe hunting and fishing rights, they can spearfish freely. He says without having to go creeping around in the woods, it's just not as much fun. In conversation, as in his writing, Jim Northrup often starts in one direction and ends up arriving someplace else. The journey is as interesting as the destination. Looking out his window, he points to the houses where several of his siblings and children live. He likes that. He happily lives in the digital world, while doing things like tapping maple trees.
JIM NORTHRUP: The seasons dictate my activities. So I don't have to make too many long-term plans, the seasons do it for me. What I like about this life is once I asked my boss if I could have two weeks off to go to Norway. And I said yes.
EUAN KERR: In a few weeks, Northrop will travel the state to talk about his book. But in the meantime, there are trees waiting to be tapped. Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio News on the Fond Du Lac reservation.
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