Kryhoski is currently working as a freelance writer. In this essay, she considers Erdrich's work in relation to the author's Chippewa heritage.

Erdrich's "Bidwell Ghost" is a work shaped primarily by mythic folklore and spiritual beliefs, the rhythms of nature and the author's Chippewa ancestry. A consideration of the poem uncovers themes in keeping with universal folklore and Native American philosophy and tradition. The significance of the work is primarily rooted, however, within the belief system of the native people to whom the author herself is related. A sense of Chippewa spirituality creates a cadence or balanced, rhythmic flow within the narrative.

As the title "Bidwell Ghost" suggests, the poem is a ghost story with a rhythm and feel of a tale that will continue to be passed along orally. The reader is immediately captivated by a ghostly figure in the first stanza, a woman who "Each...