Erdrich was born on July 6, 1954, in Little Falls. Minnesota. One of seven children, Erdrich and her family later lived in Wahpeton. North Dakota, close to the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation. Her parents. Rita Joanne Gourneau Erdrich and Ralph Louis Erdrich, both taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. Erdrich's mother was born on the reservation, and Erdrich's grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman. Erdrich thinks highly of her grandfather, who keeps the old traditions alive within the context of modern culture and is respected in both cultures. While Erdrich says that none of her fiction is autobiographical. she does admit to picturing her grandfather's best traits through Nector Kashpaw in Love Medicine.

Erdrich entered Dartmouth College in 1972. That same year, Dartmouth established its Native American Studies department Anthropologist Michael Dorris, Erdrich's future husband. chaired the department As a student in his classes, she...