In the novel, Lispsha Morrissey learns that his father Gerry Nanapush has once again escaped from prison and waits by the telephone for his father to call. Just past midnight, the call finally comes in from a phone booth in Fargo and the conversation is held in "the old-time language" to prevent possible discovery should the phone lines be tapped. Lipsha says,
The syllables bunch and go by fast, but I catch at them before the phone buzzes smooth. I memorize what I heard, but as I scope out his intention for the next hour, I become confused. My father is either playing Star Wars games at Art's Arcade, or he is holed up at the Fargo library, or he is hiding curled up in the lodge dumpster of the Sons of Norway...I don't know our traditional language all that well. Now the lack catches up with me (p. 233).
The passage reminded me that proximity breeds familiarity, breeds cultural dynamics that cannot always be predicted. When the Sons of Norway was first founded in 1895, who could have known that it would not only make itself available as a social refuge for thousands of Norwegian-Americans, but also be host to a prison-break scene in a novel depicting Native American life in North Dakota? Furthermore, who could have predicted that members of both ethnic groups would find themselves struggling with issues of authenticity, the dying use of native language, and loss of familiarity with traditional ways?
To be sure, unlike Native Americans, Norwegian-Americans do have an origin homeland and language across the ocean that is intact. Still, contemporary Norway is not really the same Norway to which most immigrant descendents in the U.S. trace their roots. Cultural practices, compositions, and even the language have undergone significant shifts since the first waves of immigration to the U.S. began in the 1800s. Norwegian-Americans find themselves in the position of questioning what it truly means to tie their identities to a country warmly remembered by ancestors, but no more familiar to them now (or perhaps even far less familiar to them) than the American Indian life going on right next door.
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