Evelina Harp

Evelina represents a perspective very similar to Louise Erdrich's. In an interview for The Paris Review, Erdrich said:

"My father, rightly, picked out a paragraph in The Plague of Doves as a somewhat autobiographical piece of the book. Evelina leaves for college and at their part ing her parents give her a love-filled stare that is devastating and sustaining. It is an emotion they’ve never before been able to express without great awkwardness and pain. Now that she’s leaving, that love beams out in an intense form."

In many ways, Evelina's character most strongly resembles Louise's own life. Like Louise, Evelina is a mixed blood, having both European-American and Native American ancestors. While Louise's only Native American relative was her maternal grandfather, Evelina acquired most of her Native American stories, traditions, and culture from her maternal grandfather: Mooshum.
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich in college http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6055/the-art-of-fiction-no-208-louise-erdrich