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Essay #2
Carol Hamilton and Diana Ma
Beginnings: Shaping Cultures, Stories, and Identities
December 5, 2007
Economic Reservations
“Society is like this card game here, cousin. We got dealt our hand
before we were even born, and as we grow we have to play as best
we can” (Erdrich 357).
According to Allan G. Johnson in Privilege, Power and Difference, the economic ties to
domination and oppression are enormous. Capitalism, the dominant economic system in the last
several hundred years, uses money and labor to make more money. Johnson shows that from the
earliest years of the United States, the emerging capitalist system worked to keep the cost of
labor down, and profits up, by bringing in slaves from Africa. In order to justify slavery, the
capitalists adhered to a system of race defining people brought over from Africa as less than
human. Johnson demonstrates the power of the dominant system of capitalism and racism by
telling us that those businesses that relied on paid white workers complained not because of the
abomination of slavery, but “because their labor costs were so low it was impossible to compete
against them” (Johnson 46). Through his historical discussion of capitalism, Johnson shows how
the dominant white culture used and abused people of other races and cultures to build a great
economic power for themselves. Johnson describes the vast natural resources in North America
that capitalists needed to feed the growing economy and that the only way to get at the resources
was by “taking them away from the Native American tribes who inhabited most of the land”
(Johnson 46). Thus Johnson shows that “capitalism played a major role in the development of
white privilege and still plays a major role in its perpetuation” (Johnson 41).
In Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, the character’s lives are a testimony to Johnson’s
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view of capitalism, racism and domination. There are two main characters, Lulu and Lyman
Lamartine, who are the economic philosophers of the reservation, showing their situation is
directly tied to the root causes described by Johnson in his discussion of capitalism. Erdrich uses
these two characters to show differing approaches to dealing with the economic realities in the
best way they can. Lulu represents the fighters who speak the truth and struggle against the
pressures of the dominant system while Lyman represents those who, while recognizing the
truth, feel they can use the system to their own benefit and the benefit of the community. The
stories of both of these characters demonstrates that in the end, power and privilege will remain
out of reach and that the economic system of capitalism will continue to bring oppression and
poverty to the reservation.
Land, the historical wealth and spiritual bond for Native Americans was used to
economically marginalize the native people and strengthen the capitalists. The record is clear,
that “(w)hites managed to take what they wanted through a combination of conquest, genocide,
and a complex array of treaties that were routinely ignored” (Johnson 46). Lulu knows well the
chronicles of her people and how they were slaughtered and pushed off their land. “How many
times did we move? The Chippewas had started off way on the other side of the five great lakes”
(Erdrich 282), Lulu tells us. She and her people are far away from where their ancestors once
lived making land all the more important to her. “Every foot and inch you’re standing on, even
if it’s on top of the highest skyscraper, belongs to the Indians. That’s the real truth of the matter”
(Erdrich 282). Lyman also talks about how “They (the U.S. government) gave you worthless
land to start with and then they chopped it our from under your feet” (Erdrich 326). Lulu and
Lyman are acutely aware that the government pushed them on to the most worthless land and
then, if there was found to be an economic benefit to that land, they were once again pushed
farther on. This is exactly what Johnson talks about when he describes the insatiable appetite
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capitalists, in the form of the U.S. government, have for resources.
There are very few benefits for Erdrich’s characters to participate in the economic system
that has resulted in the near destruction of their culture. Historically, the United States
government, as promoter and defender of the capitalist system, used its might to divide and
conquer the native people; “Indian against Indian, that’s how the government’s money offer
made us act” (Erdrich 283), Lulu says. The capitalist system is set up to split people, forcing
them to compete for scarce resources, and includes “an effective strategy for dividing different
segments…against one another” (Johnson 48). When presented with the economic benefits of
being counted by the census, Lulu declares, “that every time they counted us they knew the
precise number to get rid of” (Erdrich 282). Her statement is not one of a paranoid conspiracy
theorist, but rather one that comes from a long knowledge of the history of her people and this
country. She knows that the capitalist system is one of “ongoing competition that is full of
anxiety and struggle” (Johnson 44). That anxiety and struggle is set up to divide people from
each other and their community. Any division in the community will further erode their culture,
and leaves them with few reasons to play a part in capitalism.
Thus, being a part of the dominant economic system is not the most important path for
most of the people in Erdrich’s book. They see the balance in relationships and ties to each other
as primary motivators. When Lyman is planning a new factory on the reservation, his mother
comes to him with a list of who to hire. “Hire ten from each column and you’ll be all right”
(Erdrich 308), Lulu says. She knows that a strict capitalist model of choosing the workers that
they could get the most effort out of will not work on the reservation and that the balance of
power in families needs to be maintained. To her that balance is more important than the factory
being an economic success in the capitalist sense. Lulu is going against the system that is set up
to divide people and keeps them powerless. When the tensions in the factory rise to a boiling
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point, Lulu tries to make Lyman understand the priorities for people on the reservation. “‘Open
your eyes, Lyman,’ she cried out. ‘People were desperate for work in the beginning, but now
they’re caught up on their car payments’” (Erdrich 314). Very few in the community have any
pretense of being successful in the dominant economic system. They feel fortunate enough to be
able to pay off some debts. The best they can hope for is to preserve the balance of power in
relationships and to maintain a minimal level of economic comfort.
Despite the setbacks, Lyman believes that it is possible to use the capitalist system to
succeed and to exact some economic justice.
He feels that it is possible to use the capitalist’s
rules and their methods to make a comfortable life and be successful. Lyman summarizes his
philosophy as, “here’s the way it is with us Indians—Uncle Sam taketh away and Uncle Sam
giveth” (Erdrich 299). It is as Johnson describes, “the central place of economics in social life
gives individuals and systems powerful reasons to go along with the dominant economic system”
(Johnson 42). Always the thinker, Lyman feels that, just as easy as it is for the economics to go
against him, so he can turn it to his favor. To him “[M]oney was the key to assimilating”
(Erdrich 327). Even after the destruction of the factory, Lyman dreams of what could be.
“He’d start his own training program, get his staff right out of high school, teach
Chippewas the right ways, the proper ways, the polite ways, to take money from retired
white people who had farmed Indian hunting grounds, worked Indian jobs, lifted high
while their neighbors lived low, looked down or never noticed who was starving, who
was lost” (Erdrich 327).
Lyman is more pragmatic about the economic realities for his people and is always looking for
ways to take advantage of the system to get ahead.
In Lulu and Lyman, Erdrich shows the tensions between camps living in the economic
reality of the reservation. While Lulu fights assimilation in the dominant economic system of
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capitalism, Lyman drives toward assimilation in his quest for what is commonly known as the
“American dream”. It is in reality a capitalist’s dream, and the failure of the factory is one
example that shows that “most people…have relatively little power to improve their class
position” (Johnson 44). The dominant economic system of capitalism has all but destroyed the
lives and culture of the people in Erdrich’s book, often turning them against each other in the
search for any scraps they can get. Capitalism is set up to keep the people of the reservation
dependent on the handouts while maintaining the cycle of oppression and poverty. Both Lyman
and Lulu do the best they can with what they’ve been given – they are fighters and will continue
fighting in their own way.
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Works Cited
Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. New York: HarperCollins, 2005
Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power and Difference. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006