The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

How does the federal assimilation policy of missionary work create the conditions that make Agnes’s gender transformation possible?

How do written records function as instruments of historical manipulation throughout the novel, and how do characters like Nector and Father Damien use documentation to reshape official narratives?

How does the novel depict the process by which Ojibwe spiritual practices adapt to and incorporate Catholic elements? What does this shift suggest about the cultural resilience of Indigenous peoples faced with colonial pressures to conform?

Analyze Mary Kashpaw’s role as an unrecognized Christ figure. How does her silent, physical devotion contrast with the institutional Christianity represented by the Church hierarchy?

How does Agnes’s piano-playing scene with the snakes represent a synthesis of her various identities and spiritual traditions? Why might this moment be interpreted as a “miracle” from both a Catholic and an Ojibwe perspective?

How does Father Jude’s investigation into Sister Leopolda’s potential sainthood force the narrative to function as a detective story? How does this implicit genre choice affect the novel’s broader philosophical exploration of truth and faith?

How do characters other than Agnes construct and maintain their identities through disguise and deception?

How do different characters approach the ritual of confession? How does Erdrich use this Catholic sacrament to explore questions of truth, absolution, and spiritual authority?