Jim Northrup was an artful wit

From the history archives of the MNopedia project developed by the Minnesota Historical Society.

James Warren Northrup was an award-winning Ojibwe author, columnist, playwright, poet, performer, political commentator, and Vietnam War veteran. He wrote extensively on combat life as a marine in the Vietnam War as well as daily life on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation. The combination of these topics gives his works broad crossover appeal.

At age 6, Northrup was sent, with his sister, to the federal Pipestone Indian School in southwest Minnesota. It had been established as part of a movement in...