SOURCE: McKenzie, James. Review of Jacklight. North Dakota Quarterly 53, no. 2 (spring 1985): 257-9.

In the following review, McKenzie asserts that Erdrich's first volume of poetry successfully portrays North Dakota's varied population of “ordinary” people of both Native and European American heritage.

The new North Dakota license plate blends romantic figures from the state's territorial past (Sakajawea, the Seventh Cavalry, Teddy Roosevelt) with objects from its present (a curve of highway, a farm silo, the capitol tower) to form what must be the most complicated image on any of the fifty states' license plates. Old Glory, in the middle of the montage, doubling as Teddy's gesticulating arm and a backdrop for Custer's unit, draws the hodgepodge together. It is a cluttered logo, though not without some power to stir. Teddy's bull head and upraised, scolding finger suggest he is bellowing orders to the cavalrymen below him. The cavalry itself marches...