In a 2018 PopMatters review of Tommy Orange’s There There I wrote, “Orange lends a critical voice that at once denudes the reality of cultural genocide while evoking a glimmer of encouragement.” In his follow-up release, Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange turns the glimmer into a blaze. Whereas trauma and violence are part of the story, Orange’s novel unequivocally reminds readers that it is not the whole story. As such, Wandering Stars is not a story of generational trauma. It is a story about generational resilience.
Wandering evokes a sense of movement without a destination. This is an apt metaphor for the novel’s opening focus on Native American displacement and cultural suppression. Despite the efforts to erase Native culture, the novel’s characters defy erasure.
Orange eloquently recognizes the resilience and persistence of cultural identity. Bird is a central figure in doing so. He is a survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. He is removed from his culture, people, and land and subsequently becomes transient, wandering for years with Victor Bear Shield. They are imprisoned at Fort Marion Prison Castle, a site of Indian internment. This institution was designed to eradicate Native culture and enforce assimilation. Or, more succinctly: “Kill the Indian and save the man.”
As Bird remembers, “our blankets and clothes were taken and replaced with military uniform, and we were told we could not dress like Indians anymore.” He endures punishment and humiliation until indoctrinated. Bird changes his name to Jude Star, signifying the loss of cultural identity, a theme apparent in his descendants.
His son, Charles Star, endures a similar fate through enforced education and Christianity at the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Bird’s jailer at the Prison Castle, Richard Henry Pratt, is also Charles’ colonizer, masquerading as an educator. Orange methodically demonstrates that the annihilation of a culture is not accomplished with a singular act, even a massacre. Rather, genocide encompasses multiple ongoing acts of systematic violence, dehumanization, and colonization. Yet as Wandering Stars progresses, Orange’s intent is evident: cultural identity, as a constellation, cannot be disunited.
Orange writes in circular prose, quickly moving the reader across generations to further evoke a sense of wandering. Wandering Stars shows signs denoting ancestral connections; dogs, writing, music, and rubber band balls reappear across generations. Addiction, the drive to regain cultural identity, and resilience also reappear. Accordingly, resilience is the thread pulling the narrative into the contemporary moment.
Readers return to the Bear-Shield and Red Feather’s lives after the Oakland Pow-Wow. Here, Orange reconnects the reader to the climax of There There to further represent the contemporary Native American experience. In the wake of the mass shooting, Orvil Red Feather’s journey signifies the challenges young Native American men face. He is a powerful image of addiction, PTSD, and mental health. Orvil reflects Jude’s struggles with alcohol and Charles’ dependency on laudanum and whiskey. This multigenerational approach emphasizes that healing is a long, ongoing process incapable of being told in a single story.
As resilience weaves through Wandering Stars‘ narrative, the enduring trait is symbolized in acts of defiance against cultural oppression, as seen in the scenes depicting hair cutting. Once imprisoned, Jude’s hair is cut. It is an act of violence intended to disempower and sever cultural identity. Yet the haircutting doesn’t sever his survival, a trait then inherited by his descendants.
Later in the novel, Orvil cuts his hair to reclaim his identity. By cutting his hair, Orvil rejects the conformity and societal expectations reflecting Jude’s oppression. Instead, Orvil strives toward empowerment through self-discovery. In doing so, Orange, a masterful storyteller, shifts our lens from historically imposed assimilation to contemporary cultural reclamation.
Orvil’s readiness for his reclamation journey stems from his great-aunt Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Grandmother Jacquie Red Feather. Note their names: this is another connection spanning generations. These women provide the strength and stability Orvil and his brothers require to regain their agency and cultural identity. They are flawed, yet their imperfections enable them to cultivate resilience and reframe their ancestral cycle.
Their mother, Victoria, is raised by a white couple. They rename her “Vicky”, revisiting the colonizing practice of renaming to disconnect individual and cultural identity. Victoria’s strength is palpable and evident as she joins her daughters in the 1969 Alcatraz Indian Occupation. Opal and Jacquie further their mother’s drive toward empowerment.
Whereas Cheyanne culture is typically patrilineal, women are revered as life-givers. Opal and Jacquie did not birth Orvil and his brothers, but the half-sisters give life to familial and ancestral connections. Reliance is their bloodline, passed on to Opal and Jacquie, who now ingrained the trait in Orvil and his brothers. From here, Orange’s characters’ identities are rewritten as their resilience leads them toward reclaiming identity.
Wandering Stars portrays how culture and identity are infinite. Through this family saga, readers see how “Indian children became American Indians, whose American Indian children become Native Americans, whose Native American children would call themselves Natives, or Indigenous, or NDNS, or the names of their nations, or the names of their tribes.” Orange eloquently conveys the indomitability that persists despite generations of cultural oppression. With Wandering Stars, he testifies to the power of cultural reclamation and self-discovery.
Sample reading from Wandering Stars.