American Horse by Louise Erdrich - Summary

Buddy and his half brother and his mother Albertine American Horse are in the woodshed, hiding from the cops. One of them is Officer Harmony, a tribal policeman who is tough on Native Americans. Buddy knows something horrible is coming, something metal from the sky with barbs and hooks, to kill them. He enjoys watching his mother sleep. His mother regrets her experiences with men but not Buddy. She hates men.

Two policemen and a social worker Vicky Koob come. Buddy hugs his mother close and relishes the contact despite the fear. The brown dog barks at them viciously so one of the policemen draws his gun on him and it retreats. Uncle Lawrence, in strange garb, opens the door. Harmony tells him they have papers that allow them to take Buddy. The other officer, Brackett, warns Lawrence that they'll take him too if he doesn't cooperate. They handcuff him and start searching the house and shed.

Koob is eager to find Buddy "to salvage him". She catalogues all of the things in the house that seem to her unusual, like broken TV sets or chicken necks in the fridge. Brackett tries to look at her notebook and she gets playful. They leave the house and go to the shed, and Harmony asks Albertine to come out. He is afraid she might have a weapon. She wraps a belt around her hand with its turquoise butterfly ornament over her knuckles.

Harmony mentions her father and she thinks of him in spite of herself. She recalls a day when she was a child when her father showed her a black and yellow butterfly that had died on the grille of their car. He rubbed it all over her torso until it blended into her skin, for grace. It made her feel light and powerful.

She kicks the door so that it hits Harmony, and then kicks him with the butterfly, and finally unwinds the belt and whips him with it. They gauge each other. She feels at one with the butterfly. Vicki and Brackett approach but she doesn't notice. Harmony hits her on the head and she passes out.

The policemen and Vicky take Buddy and leave Lawrence and Albertine behind. Vicki sweats a lot. She and Bracket flirt with their eyes. She forces Chocolate on Buddy. Buddy knows that the metal thing he'd anticipated that morning had gotten him. Buddy sees his mother in his mind. He bites his lip and tastes his blood and feels it is his mother's. He tries to say thank you but instead screams a terrible scream and then another.