About Michael Dorris
Michael Anthony Dorris (January 30, 1945 – April 10, 1997) was an American novelist and scholar who was the first Chair of the Native American Studies program at Dartmouth College. His works include the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987) and the memoir The Broken Cord (1989). The Broken Cord, which won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, was about dealing with his adopted son, who had fetal alcohol syndrome, and the widespread damage among children born with this problem. The work helped provoke Congress to approve legislation to warn of the dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy. He was married to author Louise Erdrich, and the two had a family of six children. They collaborated in some of their writing. They separated in 1995, and then divorced in 1996. He killed himself in 1997 while police were investigating allegations that he had sexually abused his daughters. At a time of rising Native American activism, in 1972, Dorris helped form Dartmouth College's Native American studies department, and served as its first chair.
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