Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Night Watchman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions
Humor and Pain
Sex, Violence, and Gender
Agency and Exploitation
Summary
Analysis
They’ve made 35 copies of Millie’s economic survey and four more from a photocopier in the office of Superintendent Tosk. The copies will be sent to local and state officials, radio announcers, and newspapers. In the past, an incorrect census survey had been used to convince Congress that the Turtle Mountain people were prosperous. “I suspect,” Millie says, “they simply wanted our land.” And she thinks the government acts like Native people owe them something, but isn’t it the other way around?
The community continues to come together to oppose the Termination Bill. And Millie puts her finger on the true intentions of so many government actions aimed against Native people: They want to steal land.
Themes
