Eagle Drums by Nasugrao Rainey Hopson

Pina lives with his mother and father in the harsh Arctic tundra, where winter lasts eight months, leaving them only four months to stock food. They are Inupiaq.

Out on a hunting trip, Pina catches twelve caribou. For each of the fallen animals, Pina honours their lives, placing a pinch of lichen on each of the animal's tongues and severing the third vertebra. He butchers the caribou, wrapping the meat in their skins and burying the bundles to keep them cool until he can return. Eventually, the caribou meat is stored in the family's siglauq, an underground chamber carved into the ice that never melted, deep within the ground.

Pina had two brothers, the elder Atau and a middle brother, Maligu. When Atau had disappeared long ago in the mountains, his beautifully carved bow, found by their parents, passed on to Maligu. He carved many images into the bow, of mountains and land animals, and where they can be found. But Maligu also disappeared in the mountains, leaving behind the bow. Neither Pina nor his parents knew what happened to either boy. Pina's father's grief was intense so he focused on being the best son.

Pina and his parents live alone, rarely encountering any other people. Their life is good, and they always seem to have enough to eat. They shun people and Pina doesn't really know how his parents met.

One night during dinner, Pina's mother indicates they need more obsidian and because his father will be fishing down the coast to bring in one last catch, Pina will have to travel to the mountains where it can be found. Pina senses his mother's worry but he is not concerned as he has made many trips to the mountains since the disappearance of his brothers without any problem.

Taking his pack and his bow, Pina heads out with the blessing of his parents. When he stops to eat and rest at the base of the mountains, Pina hears the cry of a golden eagle. Suddenly he finds himself under attack by the eagle. Barely escaping, Pina confronts the great bird, waiting to see what it does. When Pina does not attack, the eagle settles and then begins violently shaking its head, causing the feathers to peel off.  Pina sees before him a tall man, wearing a parka of golden feathers. He remembers his mother telling him that "Animals are like us, Pina...They choose to be animals, but when they need to be human, they take off their parkas. And then they are human for a while...Respect them as you would any strong spirit, and never challenge them; you will always lose..."

Pina is certain that this being must have a purpose for revealing himself. The man tells Pina that he is responsible for the deaths of his brothers, bringing out the pain of their loss in him again. He swiftly approaches Pina, telling him he may call him Savik. The eagle-man offers Pina a choice, he can come with him or die like his brothers chose to. Knowing his parents would want him to live, Pina agrees to go with Savik and so picking up his gear follows him. For the next fourteen months, Pina will live with the eagles, learning the lessons they wish to teach him and bringing home this knowledge to his people.

Discussion

Eagle Drums tells the story of how the Messenger Feast came to be in the Inupiat culture. The Inupiat live in the Arctic Circle and they were hunter-gatherers, relying on hunting and fishing as well as foraging. They hunted seals, whale, polar bears, caribou and fish, and also foraged for berries, roots and shoots. With such a life-style, every part of the animal was used. Hopson portrays this throughout her novel, through her main characters, Pina and his parents. Pina's mother was especially skilled at turning caribou skins into beautiful parkas with exquisite borders. And Pina, while living with the eagles, knows what plants and roots he needs to search for in the deep of winter, saving himself from starving.

Hopson, in her Author's Note, explains the Messenger Feast came about because long ago, their people were very isolated from one another. So men ran for miles to find other Inupiat and invite them to the feast. With the arrival of Christian missionaries, the Inupiaq songs and dances, their stories  and their festivals were banned. It was only recently that the the Messenger Feast was reclaimed, after listening to the Elders' accounts of experiencing the festival when they were children.

The origin story of the festival, related in Eagle Drums is that of a boy kidnapped by golden eagles who teach him lessons on how to make drums, compose songs, dance and how to build a qalgi, a large hall where all could come together to feast, dance and tell stories. The hero of the story, Pina is then tasked to bring together his community for the first feast when he returns home. His parents, thrilled to see their son whom they thought was lost, are happy to help plan for the feast, by storing food, making gifts for those who attend, and building a qalgi. 

Pina is taught much more than just the skills to hold a festival. From the eagles he learns that he does not have to do everything alone. When he and Savik begin to plan work on the large qalgi, Pina wishes that he had ten people to help him. To his surprise, the eagles help by bringing supplies for the building. Savik tells him that work goes much faster if you ask for help and work with others. This new idea makes Pina feel uncomfortable. "He had never owed strangers anything before. With his family there was just this understanding."

The first festival has a profound effect on Pina. He had been raised by his parents to be wary of strangers. When he was a ten-years old, he remembered his family, while on their way to their wintering grounds, encountering a family on the tundra. Pina remembered being filled with fear as he had never been so close to strangers before. The strangers believed that Pina's family were rich because of their clothing. Pina saw that they were hungry and tired. At home that night Pina questions his father who tells him that because they do not know strangers, they cannot trust them. Pina wants to help the family and attempts to take food to them in the middle of the night but is prevented from doing so by his oldest brother. Atau tells Pina that when he did this, the people did not trust him and thought he would try to steal from them. 

After the feast, Pina experiences new feelings. "He felt as if his very soul had grown and found roots in the people around him. He felt more connected than he had ever before, connected to the world, connected to the life around him, and connected to his parents. The celebrations filled him with such inspiration, such wonder, and and enduring strength. He felt his humanity blossom with new insight and a deeper sense of stability."  For Pina, the feast showed him that living more fully is to experience connections with others and the natural world. 

Eagle Drums was written and illustrated by Nasurgrao Rainey Hopson, a tribally enrolled Inupiaq author and illustrator who loves celebrating and helping to reclaim her Indigenous culture. Hopson is a gifted story-teller and her account of the origin of the Messenger Festival is both engaging and rich in details about life and survival in the high Arctic. 

Book Details: 

Eagle Drums by Nasugrao Rainey Hopson
New York: Roaring Brook Press      2023
245 pp.