Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

(27. - 1132.) Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon - Cash drives for the farmers of the Red River Valley in eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota in 1970. She operates the big machinery and big trucks of grain farming. She spends evenings at the Casbah drinking Bud two at a time while winning at the pool table. She smokes Marlboros. Some evenings she takes Jim home. She is 19.

Cash’s heritage is with the White Earth Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota. She spent much of her youth in county foster homes. The emotional scars from the foster homes are deep.

The body of an Indian man is found in a field. Cash looks over the site with Sheriff Wheaton. 

The Sheriff has looked out for her for over 10 years. She appreciates what he has done for her. There is mutual respect.

There are an unlikely team. The middle aged white man and the teenage Indian. She is a keen observer. Informally, she is an investigator. She can and does ask questions from the men against whom she plays pool. 

The language of Murder on the Red River is spare. It is as crisp as a North Dakota or Saskatchewan morning. Nary a word is wasted. Cash and Sheriff Wheaton are laconic in the tradition of rural residents of the West. I grew up on a Saskatchewan farm. My father and our neighbours, especially the men, were shy with words. Working the fields, you do not need to speak.

While very conscious of her heritage Cash, probably unknowingly, has adopted the manners of speech of the white farmers.

Cash’s involvement with the family of the deceased man, Tony Day Dodge, from the Red Lake Reservation is heartbreaking.

Life is bleak for the indigenous people of 52 years ago. All the problems outlined in my last review of Winter Counts existed five decades ago. Life was actually harsher in 1970. Casual and overt racism was far more prevalent.

I need a little relief from the darkness of indigenous life. Not every aspect of indigenous life is grim. Cash gets the opportunity to attend university.

Murder on the Red River was well written but I felt Rendon grafted a mystery onto the story of how difficult life was for indigenous people 52 years ago especially with regard to taking children from their parents. I think she would have had a better book without inserting a mystery.