Tommy Orange’s ‘Wandering Stars’ Examines the Legacy and Consequences of Cultural Erasure

In his latest novel “Wandering Stars,” Oakland writer Tommy Orange traces the stories of the Native Americans who populated his celebrated debut, “There There.” The book, which is both prequel and sequel, begins with the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and the opening of the first Native American residential school in the U.S whose mission, according to its founder, was to “Kill the Indian to save the man.” Orange examines how you can create identity and connection when your family inheritance embeds thick seams of generational trauma, cultural erasure, and violence. We’ll talk to Orange about his novel.