Part 1 of Essay
In 1954, was born to a Chippewa Indian mother and German-American father in Little Falls, Minnesota. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota as a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe. Her family lived near the reservation where her parents worked as teachers for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Louise believes that h ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... as a lifeguard, waitress, poetry teacher at prisons and construction flag signaler. She was also an editor for the Circle which was a Boston Indian Council newspaper. When she worked as an editor she learned about urban community life and took on a new reference point, different from reservation life. She realized that the different people she met had their own problems and confusions and that she wanted to write about them. Louise enrolled in an MA program at John Hopkins University. She wrote poems a ....