Gourneau later became the tribal chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, of which Erdrich is a registered member. The daughter of two teachers who taught at a boarding school, Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, a small town straddling the North Dakota–Minnesota state line about three hundred miles southeast of Turtle Mountain. Though Erdrich has lived in Minneapolis for more than twenty years, she travels back to her hometown to visit family there every four to six weeks.
