Jim Northrup: With Reservations is a half-hour portrait of the Anishinaabe / Ojibwe / Chippewa writer/activist from Naagajiwanaang (Fond du Lac) in northern Minnesota. A lively mix of powwows, wild ricing, a moose hunt, the sugar bush, the Vietnam Wall and life on the Rez, we follow Northrup traveling all over the country, living his life in the circle of the seasons.
REZ CAR (a poem)
It's 24 years old.
It's been used
a lot more than most. It's louder than a 747.
It's multicolored and none
of the tires are brothers.
I'm the 7th or 8th owner
I know I'll be the last.
What's wrong with it? Well, the other day
the steering wheel fell off.
The radio doesn't work
but the heater does.
The seats have seen more
asses than a proctologist.
I turn the key, it starts.
I push the brake, it stops.
What else is a car
supposed to do?
--Jim Northrup

In a continental context, Northrup's stories belong to the tradition of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Tom King, and other modern Native American writers in Canada and the United States. The sacred hoop will come together as stories like these teach us to walk a mile in one another's moccasins, Reeboks, wingtips or whatever.
--- Meg Aerol