of Crown of Columbus, Dorris quit teaching at Dartmouth to become a full-time writer. In 1991, his oldest son Reynold Abel was hit by a car and killed. Dorris, Erdrich, and their three daughters moved to Kalispell, Montana, allegedly because of death threats Sava had made towards them. They later returned to New Hampshire in 1993. They finally moved to the Piper Mansion in Minneapolis. Sava sent a letter to the couple in 1994 threatening to "destroy their lives" and demanding money. Dorris and Erdrich took Sava to court for attempted felony theft. The first jury deadlocked, and the next year Sava was acquitted of the charges. The couple separated in 1995. Dorris went for treatment of alcohol abuse at Hazelden. Dorris and Erdrich divorced in 1996. Dorris considered himself "addicted to" Erdrich and fell into a depression. Madeline and two of Dorris' biological daughters made allegations of abuse against him. In March 1997, Dorris made a suicide attempt. On April 10, 1997, he used a combination of suffocation, drugs, and alcohol to end his life in the Brick Tower Motor Inn in Concord, New Hampshire. In conversations with friends, Dorris maintained his innocence and his lack of faith that the legal system would exonerate him without his "demolishing" his wife and children in a "vicious" court trial. With his death, the criminal investigations into the sexual abuse allegations were closed. Reception Dorris was the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books in the genres of fiction, memoirs and essays, and non-fiction. His Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987) has been named among the "finest literary debuts of the late 20th century." It tells the story of three generations of women, in a non-linear fashion, from multiple perspectives, a technique that Dorris would frequently use in his later writings as well. His memoir The Broken Cord is credited with bringing "international attention to the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome" ("FAS"). The book won a number of awards, including the Christopher Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction. It is credited with inspiring Congressional legislation on FAS. It was adapted as a made-for TV film, with Jimmy Smits playing Dorris. In an essay originally published in the WicaSa Review, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn criticizes Dorris and Erdrich (who had written the Foreword), claiming that they were calling for the jailing of alcoholic Native mothers during their pregnancies to