Native Americans participated in the Vietnam War
in a disproportionally large number in relation to their actual
population in the United States. Nevertheless, few American Indian
novelists have dealt with the war and its legacy. This article explores
the significance of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Pacific
Northwest Coast to the protagonist’s war trauma in Linda Hogan’s novel
People of the Whale (2008). Drawing upon Michelle Balaev’s pluralistic
model of literary trauma theory, my reading of the novel investigates
the importance of place and contextual factors vis-à-vis the
protagonist’s process of remembrance of the traumatic event. It also
looks at the narrative strategies employed in the novel and uses
ecological approaches when exploring the meaning of the two sites.
Ultimately, the novel not only raises serious moral and political issues
concerning the Vietnam War, but it also shows that the places of
healing are symbolically linked to one another