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Erika T. Wurth is Apache, Chickasaw and Cherokee, but she did not grow up on a reservation. She was raised in a culturally mixed Denver suburb, where she witnessed both the stereotypes and beauty of any diverse population. Her debut novel, Crazy Horse's Girlfriend (Curbside Splendor, 400 pages, $15.95), which follows the troubled life of 16-year-old Margaritte, embraces Wurth's experiences while avoiding many of the tropes of a racially influenced narrative.
WW: What was your aim in telling this particular story?
Erika T. Wurth: I grew up where people were three tribes, or fresh off the Navajo reservation, or Latino but Indian in descent and around many working middle-class whites. The reason I write, and why I wrote this novel, was because the way they sounded, their lives, wouldn't let me go. I was the kid who sat under the display case to eat lunch and read my dragon books, to avoid being pushed around. I hated my community for that, but I can understand years later that the people I grew up with were trying to toughen me up.
How much of yourself and your experiences are reflected in protagonist Margaritte?
It's not an autobiographical novel. I wasn't a drug dealer, nor did I get pregnant at 16. But there are parts that are drawn from my life, from the lives of people I knew, and a lot I just made up. I tell my students that I write in a 500-mile radius around me. I don't know what's going on in France—except from the Internet.
How did your Native American heritage influence you?
I think it's really weird how non-Indians see Indians. We don't seem to exist unless you're talking about really traditional stuff, like dancing, or if you're using the word "reservation," or, on the other side of things, if you're talking about drunkenness and homelessness.
Is Crazy Horse's Girlfriend an indictment of class and cultural divides? Wasted youth? What do you hope readers will take away?
I think Margaritte is like a lot of young people. She has
no idea how to grow up, but she wants to live an authentic life—whatever
that turns out to be. She wants to get away from things that are true
damage. And the thing is, she's working middle class. So I don't know
why people keep saying this novel is all about poverty. And you know,
I'm really interested in audience. There's so much discussion around who
you're writing for and if you're performing for, for example, a white
audience that either fetishizes or pities native people. My characters
are people, native people who are in no way distant from their
nativeness.
GO: Erika T. Wurth reads at Crush Bar, 1400 SE Morrison St., on Sunday, Oct. 5. 5 pm. Free.
WWeek 2015