Michael Anthony Dorris (January 30, 1945 – April 10, 1997) was an American
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
and
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
who was the first Chair of the Native American Studies program at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
. His works include the novel '' A Yellow Raft in Blue Water'' (1987) and the memoir ''The Broken Cord'' (1989).
''The Broken Cord'', which won the 1989
National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction
The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, established in 1976,fetal alcohol syndrome, and the widespread damage among children born with this problem. The work helped provoke Congress to approve legislation to warn of the dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
He was married to author
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...
, and the two had a family of six children. They collaborated in some of their writing. They separated in 1995. He committed suicide in 1997 while police were investigating allegations that he had abused his daughters.
Biography
Michael Dorris was born in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
to Mary Besy (née Burkhardt) and Jim Dorris. (The senior Dorris was later reported as
mixed race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
, with a Native American father.) His father died before Dorris was born (reportedly by suicide during
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
). Dorris was raised as an only child by his mother, who became a secretary for the Democratic Party. Two maternal relatives reportedly also helped raise him, either two aunts, or an aunt and his maternal grandmother. In his youth, he spent summers with his father's relatives on reservations in
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
and
Washington state
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
. The ''Washington Post'' reported that he was raised in part by a stepfather.
In an article published in ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
'' two months after Dorris' death, a reporter quoted the Modoc tribal historian as saying, "Dorris was probably the descendant of a white man named Dorris whom records show befriended the Modocs on the West Coast just before and after the
Modoc War
The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign (also known as the Lava Beds War), was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon from 1872 to 1873. Eadweard M ...
of 1873. Even so, there is no record of a Dorris having been enrolled as an Indian citizen on the Klamath rolls." The ''Washington Post'' reported: "Dorris' father's mother, who was white, became pregnant by her Indian boyfriend, but, the times being what they were, she could not marry him. She later married a white man named Dorris."
Dorris received his BA (cum laude) in English and Classics from
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
in 1967 and a
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in anthropology in 1971, after beginning studies for a theater degree. He did his field work in Alaska, studying the effects of offshore drilling on the
Native Alaskan
Native may refer to:
People
* Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth
* Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory
** Native Americans (disambiguation)
In arts and entert ...
communities. At a time of rising Native American activism, in 1972, Dorris helped form
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
's Native American Studies department, and served as its first chair.
In 1971, he became one of the first unmarried men in the United States to adopt a child. His adopted son, a 3-year-old
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
boy named Reynold Abel, was eventually diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. Dorris' struggle to understand and care for his son became the subject of his 1987 memoir ''The Broken Cord'' (in which he uses the pseudonym "Adam" for his son). Dorris adopted two more Native American children, Jeffrey Sava in 1974 and Madeline Hannah in 1976, both of whom also likely suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
He wrote the text to accompany the photographs of Joseph C. Farber in the book ''Native Americans: Five Hundred Years After'' (1975). He was named a
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...
in 1977 for his work in Anthropology & Cultural Studies. In 1980, he took his three adopted children with him from Cornish, New Hampshire to New Zealand, where he had arranged a year's sabbatical.
After returning to the United States in 1981, he married
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...
, a writer of
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...
,
German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
, and Métis descent. They had met 10 years earlier while he was teaching at Dartmouth and she was a student. During his sabbatical in New Zealand, Dorris and Erdrich had begun corresponding regularly by mail. After their marriage, she adopted his three children. They had three daughters together: Persia Andromeda, Pallas Antigone, and Aza Marion.
Dorris and Erdrich contributed to each other's writing and together wrote romance fiction under the pseudonym Milou North to supplement their income. Many of the latter pieces were published in the British magazine ''
Woman
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
''.
Erdrich dedicated her novels '' The Beet Queen'' (1986),'' Tracks'' (1988), and '' The Bingo Palace'' to Dorris. The family lived in Cornish, New Hampshire.
While teaching at Dartmouth, Dorris frequently mentored other students. He was part of the successful effort to eliminate the college's Indian mascot. In 1985, after the couple had received major grants, the family moved for a year to
Northfield, Minnesota
Northfield is a city in Dakota and Rice counties in the State of Minnesota. It is mostly in Rice County, with a small portion in Dakota County. The population was 20,790 at the 2020 census.
History
Northfield was platted in 1856 by John W ...
.
Beginning in 1986, Dorris' son Sava was sent to boarding school and military school. Madaline began attending boarding school when she was 12. After the success of ''The Broken Cord'' in 1989, and an advance of $1.5 million for the outline of '' Crown of Columbus'', Dorris quit teaching at Dartmouth to become a full-time writer. In 1991, his oldest son Reynold Abel was hit by a car and killed. Dorris, Erdrich, and their three daughters moved to
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell (, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in, and the county seat of, Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. In Montana's northwest region ...
, allegedly because of death threats Sava had made towards them. They later returned to New Hampshire in 1993. They finally moved to the Piper Mansion in Minneapolis.
Sava sent a letter to the couple in 1994 threatening to "destroy their lives" and demanding money. Dorris and Erdrich took Sava to court for attempted felony theft. The first jury deadlocked, and the next year Sava was acquitted of the charges.
The couple separated in 1995. Dorris went for treatment of alcohol abuse at Hazelden. Dorris and Erdrich divorced in 1996. Dorris considered himself "addicted to" Erdrich and fell into a depression.
Madeline and two of Dorris' biological daughters made allegations of abuse against him. In March 1997, Dorris made a suicide attempt. On April 10, 1997, he used a combination of suffocation, drugs, and alcohol to end his life in the Brick Tower Motor Inn in Concord, New Hampshire. In conversations with friends, Dorris maintained his innocence and his lack of faith that the legal system would exonerate him without his "demolishing" his wife and children in a "vicious" court trial. With his death, the criminal investigations into the sexual abuse allegations were closed.
Reception
Dorris was the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books in the genres of fiction, memoirs and essays, and non-fiction.
His '' Yellow Raft in Blue Water'' (1987) has been named among the "finest literary debuts of the late 20th century." It tells the story of three generations of women, in a non-linear fashion, from multiple perspectives, a technique that Dorris would frequently use in his later writings as well.
His memoir ''The Broken Cord'' is credited with bringing "international attention to the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome" ("FAS"). The book won a number of awards, including the
Christopher Award
The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organization ...
and the
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". It is credited with inspiring Congressional legislation on FAS. It was adapted as a made-for TV film, with
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy L. Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama '' L.A. Law'', NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama ''NYPD Blue'', Matt Santos ...
playing Dorris. In an essay originally published in the ''WicaSa Review'', Elizabeth Cook-Lynn criticizes Dorris and Erdrich (who had written the Foreword), claiming that they were calling for the jailing of alcoholic Native mothers during their pregnancies to forestall fetal alcohol syndrome.
When he and Erdrich co-wrote ''The Crown of Columbus'' (the only fiction they officially share credit for, although they frequently stated that they collaborated on other works), each individually wrote a preliminary draft of each section. Within the novel, various characters are writing collaborators. The work has been characterized as an autobiographical representation of the creative "pleasure and problems" that Dorris and Erdrich shared.
In ''Cloud Chamber'' (1997), Dorris continued the story of the families introduced in ''Yellow Raft in Blue Water'', telling "the hard story of hard people living difficult lives with much courage". It was described as written in "evocative prose".''Publishers Weekly
Dorris published three works for young adults during his lifetime; ''The Window'' was published posthumously. These novels also explore his themes of identity and
sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among siblings, whether blood-related or not.
Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced ...
.
Works
* ''Native Americans Five Hundred Years After'' (with photographer Joseph Farber, 1975)
* ''A Guide to Research on North American Indians'' (with Mary Byler and Arlene Hirschfelder, 1983)
* '' A Yellow Raft in Blue Water'' (1987)
* ''The Broken Cord: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Loss of the Future'' (1989)
* ''The Crown of Columbus'' (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)
* ''Route Two and Back'' (with Louise Erdrich, 1991)
* ''Morning Girl'' (1992)
* ''Working Men'' (1993)
* ''Rooms in the House of Stone'' (1993)
* ''Paper Trail'' (essays, 1994)
* ''Guests'' (1995)
* ''Sees Behind Trees'' (1996)
* ''Cloud Chamber'' (1997)
* ''The Window'' (1997)
* ''The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading'', edited (1997)
See also
*
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
This is a list of notable writers who are Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
This list includes authors who are Alaskan Native, American Indian, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, ...
*
Native American Renaissance The Native American Renaissance is a term originally coined by critic Kenneth Lincoln in the 1983 book ''Native American Renaissance'' to categorise the significant increase in production of literary works by Native Americans in the United States in ...