Summary

Section four of Ducks, Newburyport is highly satirical, with much of its narrative exploring Indigenous experiences in America. The protagonist wonders why Columbus Day was only recently changed to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and remembers how her Peolia students disliked learning about the bloody history of their nation. She expresses disgust that people celebrate the Fireworks Festival, the Pet Parade, and the Tomahawk Trot in the same place where American soldiers ruthlessly slaughtered a community of innocent Indigenous peoples. While Europeans managed to poison the entire country in only a few hundred years, the Indigenous peoples who lived in North America for thousands of years prior kept the environment pristine. The protagonist cannot fathom how so many Americans still consider Indigenous peoples uncivilized despite abundant evidence that proves they practiced sophisticated engineering and politics long before Europeans colonized their land. She contrasts this information with...