In his fiction, scholarly and popular nonfiction, and poetry Michael Dorris repeatedly returns to a few major themes: the centrality of family relationships, the renarrating of American history from Native American perspectives, and the necessity for mixed-blood individuals to search for their identities and to situate themselves in relation to Indian and non-Indian communities. He is committed to destroying the dominant stereotypes of Native North Americans, to taking off the feathered headdresses and beaded vestments, the "noble and stoic / savage and passionate" masks imposed on Native people by non-Natives. He is best known for his novels, short stories, and essays and his collaborations with his much-acclaimed wife, the writer Louise Erdrich.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 30 January 1945, Michael Anthony Dorris is of Irish and French descent on his mother's side and Modoc descent on his father's. When Dorris was two years old, his father, Jim, an army lieutenant...