David Treuer is an Ojibwe writer, translator, and professor at the University of Southern California. His books include the novels Little, The Hiawatha, The Translation of Dr. Appelles, Prudence, and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual. He divides his time between his home on Leech Lake Reservation and Minneapolis.
There isn’t even a discussion. There aren’t any words. You just start swinging—the building is a fence, your cousins are a fence. The two of you are surrounded. There’s no escape for either of you.