The Plague Of Doves

“His human flock had taken up the plow and farmed among the German and Norwegian settlers. Those people, unlike the French who mingled with my ancestors, took little interest in the women native to the land and did not intermarry […] but the doves at their crops the same.” 

From the outset of the novel, the author identifies the tensions between the native and white populations. Erdrich uses the stories of Seraph to illustrate these tensions, which differentiate the German and Norwegian settlers from the previous French settlers. Whereas the French intermarried with the native populations, the other white people did not, creating a distinct divide in terms of culture. Although the author creates this cultural divide, she also implies the ridiculous nature of this manmade division as nature does not abide by it: the doves eat both populations’ crop yields, reminding the humans just how little control they hold over the natural environs.

“She had the pale, opaque skin and slanting black eyes of the Metis or Michif women in whose honor the bishop of that diocese had written a warning to his priests, advising them to pray hard in the presence of half-breed women, and to remember that although their forms were inordinately fair their hearts were savage and permeable.” 

The racism of the white populations that made them refuse to marry the native peoples also suffused white spirituality. The white priests believe the Metis women possess an inherent sexuality that might rob them of their vows of chastity, as though the mere presence of these women remains enough to lure the priests from God. Of course, there is no mention of the priests’ culpability in the sexual objectification of the Metis women. Rather, the guilt is entirely laid upon the feet of these women, who seem to trick the priests into forsaking their vows.