Jim Northrup

Jim Northrup (April 28, 1943-August 1, 2016) is Anishinaabe and grew up on the Fond du Lac Chippewa Reservation in Minnesota where he and his family lived a traditional lifestyle. As a child, Northrup attended a boarding school where he suffered physical abuse and was not allowed to speak Ojibwe. Later, Northrup served as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War and suffered PTSD from his experiences overseas. Much of his poetry was inspired by the hardships he endured.

Northrup’s candor and wry humor is central to his writing style and especially to his syndicated column, Fond du Lac Follies, which describes life on the reservation. It was distributed in the The Circle, The Native American Press, and News From Indian Country. He won the Minnesota Book Award in 1994 for his book Walking the Rez Road. Many of his poems and stories have been anthologized.