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.

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom

A young girl cannot wait for her hair to grow. Her mother and grandmother (Nokomis) weren't allowed to have long hair. It was cut at the school they attended. But for a young girl letting her hair grow is important.

The stories and memories of the day Nimishoomis taught her to fish for the first time, were woven into her hair which reached her ears. The birth of her baby brother happened when her hair touched her shoulders. Welcoming him was woven into her hair. Learning how to make moccasins from her cousins is woven into her hair that now fell past her shoulders. 

At the Pow Wow, the girl's hair, down to the middle of her back, was braided by her Auntie Delia. Her aunt's teaching and prayers from that day are woven into her hair. When Nimishoomis passed away, the girl cut her hair so that he would have her "energies".

Discussion

In the exquisite picture book, My Powerful Hair, the significance of hair to Indigenous peoples is explained.  Author Carole Lindstrom, who "...is Anishinaabe/Metis and an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe," explains what hair means to her people. 

Lindstrom was not allowed to grow her hair long when she was growing up. Her mother also did not have long hair, even though she had beautiful, thick black hair. Lindstrom learned that this extended back another generation to her grandmother and great-aunts who also had "...shorn black hair above their ears." This was a product of their forced attendance at Indian boarding schools in the early 1900's. At the boarding school, Lindstrom's grandmother was taught that long hair was "...a sign of 'wildness' and 'savageness'." It's a peculiar view, since at this time most European women had long hair, which was often pinned up. 

To avoid being viewed in this way, Lindstrom's grandmother, mother and herself all wore their hair short. When she learned of this, Lindstrom decided to grow her hair long, as a way of reclaiming her identity and culture. In her Author's Note at the back, Lindstrom explains the generational impact the Indian boarding school had on her own family.

In My Powerful Hair, Indigenous artist Steph Littlebird's  vivid illustrations capture the essence of what hair means to Indigenous peoples. Hair is believed to be a source of strength and holds memories. It is grown long to be close to Mother Earth. Hair is considered a celebration of life, carrying power. Having hair braided by a loved one reinforces the relationship. For Indigenous peoples, stories, memories, culture and connections to one another are woven through hair. The richly coloured illustrations done in Procreate, reinforce this beautiful message of the importance of hair in Indigenous culture.

Book Details:

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom
New York:  Abrams Books for Young Readers   2023

Written In Stone by Rosanne Parry

Written In Stone  is the story of thirteen-year-old Pearl Carver, a member of the Makah tribe. The story begins in 1999 with eighty-nine-year-old Pearl walking to the beach with her great-granddaughter, Ruby to see the whales. The smell of the beach and of the whales bring back memories of the summer when Pearl was thirteen.

The story flashes back to the summer of 1923. Pearl's father is Victor Carver, the best whaler of the Makah Nation. Her father and grandfather were Makah whalers, her "mother was a Tlingit princess from the northern tribes, a weaver of the famous Chilkat blankets." Her grandmother was from the Quinault Nation in the south. Pearl's mother and baby sister died five years ago, in 1918, leaving just Pearl and her father. The war in Europe was over and returning soldiers brought home the deadly influenza. For two days her mother and sister were sick before they finally died. In their village of one hundred, sixty-one graves were dug.

Now Pearl and her village, including her uncle and her grandmother, are anxiously awaiting the return of the whalers who left three days ago. After relieving her cousin Charlie from watching at the look-out, Pearl thinks back to how her people have given up their traditions. On her watch, Pearl spots the returning whalers and runs home to inform the village. But when the whalers arrive, Pearl's father is not among them.

Reeling from this loss, the village is visited two days later by the Indian agent on a "condolence" call. Instead, he dishonours  Pearl's dead father with the frequent use of his name and suggests that Pearl be sent to the Indian school, Chemawa in Oregon since she is now an orphan. 

Because holding a potlatch leads to jail and the confiscating of tribal regalia, Pearl and her family decide to have a secret one. The feast and gift-giving is held in a secret location in a cave,  on Tatoosh Island with only the men in attendance. But Pearl makes a plan to secretly attend. Having witnessed her father burning all of her mother's clothing and belongings, she desperately wants "something of my father's to keep". 

At the feast in their longhouse, Pearl learns what happened on the whale hunt, how they saw an old scarred whale with a fresh wound. Her father was about to drive the harpoon into the whale when Uncle Jeremiah's son, Henry yelled and the whale dove deep. Pearl's father leapt into the water hoping to harpoon the whale but it dove deep taking him with it and overturning their boat. All that surfaced was the harpoon broken into two pieces. On their way home, they encountered a whaling ship that has hunted more than twenty whales. Stunned by this waste, the Makah whalers now know where their whales have gone.

 

When her grandmother realizes that Pearl intends to secretly travel to the potlatch, she offers something better for her: she has Pearl do a naming of family attending the potlatch while Grandma tells her the gifts they will receive.

After the potlatch and the feast, Pearl and her family must now decide how they will survive, without the prospect of whale meat and oil. Pearl considers whether she should live as the white man does or is there perhaps another way? As she struggles to deal with her own inner conflict, a deceitful wildcatter looking for oil and gas but masquerading as an art dealer, shows up. In a race to return home to protect her father's Raven masks, Pearl unexpectedly gets marooned at the Seal Hunter's Beach, where she makes a startling discovery that changes everything.

Discussion

Written In Stone is the heart-stirring fictional story of a young Makah girl who's determined to preserve her way of life and the memory of her culture for herself and her future children during a time of enormous change. In this beautifully written novel, Parry portrays an Indigenous way of life deeply connected to the natural world while greatly at odds with the European culture overtaking them.

The story is set in 1923, in the Makah village of Ozette located on the Pacific Northwest Coast in Washington state.  Pearl has lost her father, the best Makah harpooner, at sea. This means there is no whale meat for her village, no oil to trade and possibly a hungry winter ahead. Faced with an uncertain future, Pearl and her grandparents, and extended family consider their options. One of these options is to sell her father's Raven regalia, which angers and upsets Pearl. Another option, which her family comes to plan out, is to harvest and sell oysters. 

But as Parry shows, Pearl's struggle is not just to find a way to earn money for her family. It is also about saving  herself , preserving her way of life and the culture she belongs to. This sets up a fierce inner conflict within Pearl that she wrestles to resolve.  

After her family makes enough money to support themselves through the winter by selling oysters, they decide to visit the theatre. It is while in the theatre where she notices how they are shunned, that Pearl considers what living like the white man might  cost her. "I could do it if I wanted to. I could put on a white woman's clothes and high voice and little steps. But then I would never be able to sing or dance in my own language, never be able to bring a visitor or a token from home to the boardinghouse in town."

When Pearl struggles to teach herself how to weave she comes to realize that she may be losing all that is dear to her and that those who follow her may having nothing of their culture to learn and instead become part of the white man's world. "What if I couldn't remember my father's dances either? What if I could only see how beautiful they were and how easy he'd make it look to dance like Raven? What if my sons received the masks and never learned to dance?

I thought of the footprints of my descendants on the beach. Would those feet ever dance, or would they trudge after me to factories and lumber camps and cities far from home?"   The mention of footprints on the beach is foreshadowing the novel's framing story which is set years later in 1999 when Pearl is on the beach with her granddaughter Ruby.

Pearl already knows every song and dance of her tribe, every birth and marriage in the family and could recite all of her grandmother's stories. However, when she is stranded on the Seal Hunter's Beach she discovers a hidden carvings of Chitwin the bear and of a whale in the sea above two whaling boats facing a human face with closed eyes and open mouth. Pearl wonders why she has never known about these carvings and what they might mean. "Every other carving my family made - totem, mask, canoe - was a public work mean to proclaim the strength and prosperity of our name. Why would this stone carving be kept a secret from all but passing birds? Then she realizes that the whale hunt is made real by the teller, the whale hunter who tells what happened on the hunt. Pearl's father was that teller. She decides that now she will be the teller of the Makah stories.  The decision to become the storyteller offers her a resolution to her internal conflict, and leads her to immediately begin writing down what she has seen and all she knows about her tribe's stories.

Experiencing once more the beauty of her own culture and traditions reinforces what Pearl felt earlier about living as the white man does. "I imagined that life. Me, alone in the city, working as a washerwoman or living in one of those orphanages where they taught you to be a white person. How to stand and dress and pray, until the bread-loaf brown faded from my skin and the words of my childhood were erased like chalk marks. What a grub they would make of me, a pale, blind weevil that thinks of filling its belly and nothing more. I raised a fist against that path. Something worse than the Pitch Woman would be waiting for me at the end of that road." She now knows she doesn't need to go down this path. There is another - that of being the teller of her people's traditions, stories and families.

Pearl's story is one of courage, determination and integrity. She and the other Indigenous peoples of the Pacific coast struggle with deep distrust of the white man and outsiders whom they view as dishonoring the land. This is shown in the story of the whale hunt that her Uncle Jeremiah tells. He explains that they saw "...a battleship making war on the whales. The cannon held a harpoon. Dead whales were pumped full of air, chained up, and dragged along behind, only to be eaten away by sharks. Twenty whales were pouring out their blood, and still they steamed after more. The waste. The dishonor. We wanted to curse their white greed, but these sailors had faces like ours. They flew the red sun of Japan. Hours later, we passed more battleship whalers, one from America, one from Russia. We saw more dead whales in one day than this village has seen in three generations."  

This distrust is also portrayed by the events surrounding the visit by an "art dealer" seeking carved Totem poles and masks. When Arthur Glen shows up at the post office in Kalaloch looking to travel to Ozette, Pearl believes that he is after her father's Raven masks. However, with the help of Henry, Pearl learns that Glen is actually a wildcatter, looking for oil and gas resources under the pretext of being an art dealer and a photographer. Pearl knows well what will happen to them if Glen's discoveries are made known, because she knows the treaties they have signed are worthless when there is something the white man wants. "My friend Anita from Nitinat had cousins in Montana. They used to live in the Black Hills, but gold miners came and now they live in a rail-yard shack in Helena with strangers all around them and no clean water or view of the mountains. The schoolmaster called it assimilation. He called it admirable. I knew piracy when I saw it."

It is Susi who tells Pearl that despite what they have discovered about Mr. Glen, they cannot act with dishonor but instead should use her words to tell the truth - about the "art dealer". Her stories help save her culture. In the end, Pearl lives long enough to see the whale hunt resume and her own granddaughter learn the traditional weaving lost so long ago with the death of her own mother.

Rosanne Parry includes a map of the story's setting as well as an extensive Author's Note that covers many different topics mentioned in the novel including the potlatch, petroglyphs, Makah and Quinault rituals and stories and much more. There is a list of resources as well as a Glossary of the Quinault words used in the story. Parry spent some of her first years as a teacher on the Quinault Reservation in Washington state. She writes, "The resumption of whaling was a key inspiration for this story, and I am grateful to the Makah Nation for having kept their whaling history alive for all the generations it took  for the whales to recover from near extinction by industrial whaling."

Written In Stone is a captivating story that offers readers a strong female Indigenous main character and plenty of themes to explore including the intergenerational relationships within Indigenous culture, the exploitation of the Indigenous people of North American, racism, Pacific Coast Indigenous tribes and culture and its preservation and the relationship of man to the natural world. This well-written short novel will appeal especially to readers in Grades 6 to 8. Yet another thought-provoking novel by author Rosanne Parry.

Book Details:

Written In Stone by Rosanne Parry
New York: Yearling    2013
196 pp.

My Indian by Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill

My Indian is a historical fiction account of Sylvester Joe, a Mi'kmaq guide who accompanied William Epps Cormack, a Canadian Scottish explorer who journeyed across the interior of Newfoundland in 1822. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Cormack's journey had three aims, one of them to establish contact with the Beothuk, an reclusive First Nations people who had fled north to avoid the Europeans.

The story is told in two parts; Suliewey's Tale and Sylvester's Tale. Suliewey's Tale begins with his birth and his naming. Suliewey was named so because his black hair had a streak of silver like that of his grandfather. He was given the name of Sylvester later, when he was baptized by the Catholic missionaries.

When Sylvester was young, he was taken everywhere by his parents in a cradleboard made for him by his grandfather. He watched the hunting of the qalipu and helped to clean the hides so they could be used to make clothing. His grandmother taught him about the plants to be used as medicines. When Suliewey was growing up, everyone worked together in the village. People ate together, prayed, sang and laughed together. They gave thanks to the animals and plants for what they supplied to keep their people alive. "All young Mi'kmaw people were taught the language of the land. They were given the landmarks to recognize, so that when they were out by themselves, they would know what to look for. Wayfinding was taught by using the stars...Suliewey learned from the land, even as he grew up on it." 

One night Suliewey awoke to hear his grandfather speaking to someone in a different language. Suliewey was not able to see the man's face, but in the morning, he questioned Grandfather about this encounter. Suliewey sensed Grandfather was troubled after this meeting. He tells Suliewey they must leave immediately for Pmaqtin, the Sacred Mountain, as the answers he seeks can only be found from the Wuklatmu'jk, or little people. They have been invited to meet with them.

Their journey began with a walk across the bog, towards the mountain. When the fog lifted, Grandfather pointed to a dark spot on the mountain and explained to Suliewey this is where the little people live. Suliewey was frightened and wanted to return to his wikuom, but Grandfather encouraged him onwards. On their journey, they crossed the tracks of a party of three Beothuk, also headed to the mountain. Grandfather decided to follow them.

That night by the fire, Grandfather told Suliewey his story. When he was a boy out with his family gathering berries, Grandfather wandered away from them. After resting at a stream, he awoke to find a large man covered in red ochre staring at him. This man carried Grandfather away to his own people, the Red Indians. He was then taken to their main campsite, a journey of many weeks away from his home. Eventually Grandfather adapted to the ways of his new tribe, befriending a Beothuk woman who helped him to pray and learn their language. Two years after his capture, when Grandfather was eight years old, he managed to run away. He encountered two Mi'kmaw men near a lake. Because he was covered in red ochre, they thought he was a Beothuk, but he spoke to them in Mi'kmaq and told them his story. He explained how he had been captive with the Beothuk for two years. Eventually, he was reunited with his grandfather and grandmother, and parents and was considered a hero because he had survived with the Beothuk.. 

Grandfather told Suliewey that the man who came to talk to him at their home, was the son of the man who had captured him so long ago. This man told Grandfather that the Beothuk were going to the Sacred Mountain to pray and that they were very afraid of the white men and what they were doing to the Beothuk. The white men have been shooting the Beothuk. This man told Suliewey's Grandfather that the Beothuk know Suliewey and his Grandfather are close by. Because the Beothuk were angry and afraid, he asked Grandfather to be careful. Grandfather was not afraid of the Beothuk because he believed they would remember him from living with them years ago. Grandfather was known as Ipa'tu'jij with the silver streak of hair, and he believed that would cause the Beothuk to remember. Nevertheless, Suliewey's Grandfather wanted to be very careful so as not to lead the white men to the Beothuk. The Beothuk are their people too. Like the Beothuk,  they would continue their journey to the Sacred Mountain to pray and give thanks.

When Suliewey turned sixteen, he journeyed from Miawpukek to Nujio'qonikllek also called St. George's Bay by the Europeans. After staying overnight with others from Miawpukek, Suliewey stowed away on a schooner that was travelling to U'nama'kik (Cape Breton Island). At U'nama'kik, Suliewey walked to a village called Membertou. He travelled around Nova Scotia where he learned more about his own people and also went trapping with several Mi'kmaw Elders. Eventually Suliewey returned home, telling his village about his travels that also included trips to Mikl'n, a French island off the Newfoundland coast, a stay on Pass Island as well as stays near Gaultois Island and Roti Bay.

Suliewey spent the following winter trapping furs with his grandfather and then in the spring took his furs to Hermitage. It was here that Suliewey learned that a white man named Cormack in St. John's was looking for a Mi'kmaw guide to lead him across Newfoundland in search of the Beothuk people. Back in his village, Suliewey discussed this with his grandfather and the other Elders. Suliewey's grandfather tells him that if he decides to act as a guide, he cannot take Cormack to where the Beothuk people live as he will be responsible for their deaths.

Suliewey travels to St. John's where he eventually meets up with Cormack. William Cormack, after announcing that Suliewey is "my Indian" informs him that he intends to take him on a one hundred and fifty mile walk to test his fidelity. This both puzzles and offends Suliewey but he agrees to do the walk. The two make the journey from Holyrood to Placentia in July and then prepare for the larger journey across Newfoundland in search of the Beothuk. But the time spent with Cormack has only made Suliewey more determined to ensure Cormack never comes near the Beothuk.

Discussion

My Indian is a fascinating account of a real historical event that occurred in 1822. Told by Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill from the perspective of Sylvester Joe, My Indian reclaims the story from European authors. The title is a reference to Cormack's way of addressing Sylvester Joe whom he considered to be "My Indian". In the novel, Sylvester frequently returns the favour by referring to Cormack as " nei'n Aqalasie'w" or "My White Man". Cormack's use of the phrase "My Indian" was insulting to Sylvester, as no one owns another person.

The first part of the novel tells of Suliewey's life before he meets William Cormack, while the second part, titled Sylvester's Tale tells about his journey with Cormack across Taqamkuk. This journey was undertaken by Cormack to make contact with the Beothuk. The Beothuk were Algonkian speaking hunter-gatherers who began to avoid contact with the Europeans when they settled in Newfoundland in 1600's. As more Europeans settled in  Newfoundland, the Beothuk became increasingly isolated and it became more difficult to access their traditional fishing and hunting grounds. This led them into conflict with the Europeans and they were often murdered in retaliation. By the beginning of the 1800's, there was only a small population of Beothuk remaining and the last Beothuk, Shanawdithit died in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1829.

In reclaiming the story of Suliewey and his journey with William Cormack, Mi'sel Joe is able to portray the differences between Indigenous and European cultures and their way of thinking about the land and their relationship to other peoples.This is best highlighted in Sulieway's explanation to Cormack about how the Mi'kmaq view the land and everything in it. In response to Cormack's question about whether or not his people have a Bible, Suliewey tells him they are walking on his Bible. 

"This land is Mother Earth. It provides nourishment to my body, my heart, and my spirit. It provides everything I need to survive on this land. It teaches me to be strong, it teaches me to be respectful, and it teaches me to be humble. This land is not mine or yours. It belongs to all the living creatures; it belongs to all of us. And we are all responsible for this land that we walk on. So you see, this is my Bible." Sulieway's explanation highlights a key Indigenous concept about the land, that it belongs to everyone and that everything on it is shared. The European notion of land ownership was not a part of the Indigenous way of living.

Later on Sulieway also explains to Cormack how his people view others in relation to the land. "You say we have no Bible, and we are looked upon as what you call 'savages'. But your people kill our people for money or to take away our land and food sources. When you block our rivers and take our fish and access to other foods we need, our people get weak; they cannot fight with weak bodies....This land gives us all that we need---clothes to keep us warm, food for our survival, transportation, and shelter from the cold. Most of all, it teaches us how to be humble, have patience, and have much respect for all the good things the Great Spirit has given us." He also tells Cormack, that although he might think them lazy or having no spiritual guidance, they recognize their blessings and give thanks for all they have.

Throughout the story, Suliewey offers Cormack his medicines to help him when he's ailing, but Cormack dismisses them as Indian savagery. When Cormack becomes ill, Suliewey collects the seven medicines needed to help him recover. During their journey, Suliewey rubs bear fat on his feet to protect the skin from injury. Cormack believes this is ridiculous, telling Suliewey "We have well-trained doctors who know all about how to care for people. I have lots of medicines with me to cure anything that may be hurting me. So my Indian...." Cormack tells Suliewey his medicines are "uncivilized". However, later in their journey as Cormack's feet deteriorate, he does finally accept Suliewey's offer to use bear fat on his feet.

There are also numerous examples in the novel about how the Mi'kmaq try to live in harmony with nature rather than attempting to subdue it or abuse it of all its resources. For example, when they sail past Baccalieu Island in Conception Bay, Suliewey notes that "eggers", men who collect seabird eggs would take all of the eggs from a nest without regard for the survival of the birds. This was in stark contrast to the Indigenous approach which was to never take "...more than one or two eggs from each nest, leaving the rest as we have done for hundreds of years, and our food source healthy." In the back of the book, in the Book Club section, it is pointed out that this stripping every nest of all its eggs is likely one of the reasons for the extinction of the Great Auk.

As Suliewey experiences more of how Cormack, and therefore the Europeans view the land, the animals and birds in it, he becomes even more determined to never help Cormack locate the Beothuk. Throughout the journey, Suliewey takes great care to watch for any possible contact and to steer Cormack clear of the Beothuk. He also warns any of his own people not to provide Cormack with help in this regard.

Chief Mi'sel Joe is a distant relative of Sylvester Joe. My Indian is based partly on William Cormack's journal, "Narrative of a Journey Across the Island of Newfoundland" which was published in 1873. In 1828, Sylvester refused to accompany Cormack to Red Indian Lake (Mekwe'jite'wa'kik) to look for the remains of two Beothuk killed by Europeans. Sylvester was never seen again, while Cormack did journey to Red Indian Lake where he removed the skulls of  two Beothuk, Nonosabasut and Demasduit from their burial hut and took them to Scotland. The skulls were repatriated in 2020 due to the efforts of Chief Joe Mi'sel.

My Indian offers young readers a chance to learn about both the Mi'kmaq and Beothuk people and their culture and to understand how European contact impacted them. The back of the novel contains an Afterword that details about how the Mi'kmaq and Beothuk, who lived together harmoniously on the west coast of Newfoundland became separated, as well as details on the repatriation of the Beothuk skulls from Edinburgh, Scotland. Also included is a Glossary of Mi'kmaq to English, photographs and maps, References, and a section the offers Book Club Questions.

Book Details:

My Indian by Mi'sel Joe and Sheila O'Neill
St. John's, Newfoundland: Breakwater Books    2021
172pp. 

If You Want to Visit a Sea Garden by Kay Weisman

This exquisitely illustrated picture book explains a sea garden. Do you know what a sea garden is?

To visit a sear garden you need to get up early. They can only be seen when the tide is at its lowest in the early morning. After tying up the boat in a safe spot, walk along the beach.

You will be welcomed by the "symphony of clams" as they squirt out water. There are rocks covered in barnacles, "tiny creatures that live inside sharp shells."

At the edge of the water, reefs of stone built by the First Peoples over many years, create new places for sea life to make homes.

There is a wealth and great diversity of sea life here: whelks, kelp, hermit crabs, and sea cucumbers. The warm waters inside the stone reef are perfect for clams. Some of the stone walls have existed for generations, helping First Peoples feed their families and providing opportunities to connect with their community.

Discussion

If You Want To Visit A Sea Garden is a nonfiction juvenile book about the sea gardens created by First Nations people on the west coast of Canada. They are an ancient aquaculture technique created by Indigenous peoples. 

Sea gardens on the northwest coast have been dated by Canadian archeologists as having existed for at least 3500 years. Some gardens have been used for thousands of years. Sea gardens, also known as clam gardens create a greater area for clams to grow by expanding their shallow water beach habitat.  These gardens have been found throughout the entire stretch of the northwest coast, from the state of Washington, along the coast of British Columbia to Alaska.

Aerial view of a historic clam garden.

A clam garden is created by building a stone wall of boulders parallel to the low tide line, then backfilling to create an area where clams can safely grow. The garden is then regularly tended, raking to remove detritus from the sediment as well as clam predators such as star fish. Clam gardens allowed a variety of clams to thrive, and as larger clams were removed, younger clams were free to grow. Clams were an excellent source of nutrition for Indigenous peoples living along the northwest coast.

The artwork of renowned Indigenous artist, Roy Henry Vickers is truly the highlight of this informative children's book about a little known aspect of First People's culture.His colourful panels capture the beauty and serenity of the coast and the sea gardens. The illustrations, created digitally, incorporate some of the Vickers' well known features such a his signature suns and his use of bright clean colours.

Kay Weisman has also included a detailed More About Sea Gardens at the back which includes pictures for young readers.

If you'd like to know more about clam gardens, check out the clam garden network website. 

Image credit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/august-3-2019-science-of-awe-blue-whales-and-sonar-chromosomes-and-sleep-and-more-1.5047142/clam-gardens-have-been-cultivated-by-indigenous-people-for-millennia-1.5047148

Book Details:

If You Want To Visit A Sea Garden by Kay Weisman
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press      2020

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence.

Stolen Words tells the story of a Cree grandfather whose culture and language was stolen from him as a result of his attending a residential school.

A young girl comes home from school, happy, carrying a dream catcher she has made. Walking with her beloved grandpa, she asks him how to say grandfather in Cree. But her grandfather doesn't remember. He tells her, "I lost my words a long time ago." Puzzled, his seven-year-old granddaughter asks him how this happened. He tells her how he and others were taken away from home, their way of life, and their mothers, "...to a school that was cold and lonely."  When they tried to use their words at the school, "...angry white faces raised their voices and their hands..." Grandfather and others were punished if they spoke their words - their own Cree language. Remembering brings tears and great sadness to her grandfather.

The next day, the young girl returns home, this time with his words. She tells him she has found his words, handing him a paperback book of the Cree language. As he looks through the book, his words come back, and so does his past. He is filled with joy. His granddaughter asks to learn his words too, and so begins, in some small but important way, the passing on a his heritage.

Discussion

Author Melanie Florence of Cree/Scottish heritage wrote this picture book in honour of her grandfather. Unlike the little girl in the story, Florence never had the chance to speak to her grandfather about his Cree heritage.For the author,  "...this story is about the healing relationship she wishes she had been able to have with him." 

Stolen Words gently introduces young readers to the residential school issue in a way that is easy to understand, simple text that presents the essence of what happened to young Indigenous children. Florence's text is given colour and emotion through the lovely, soft, warm illustrations by Quebec artist, Gabrielle Grimard. 

September 30 is Orange Shirt day, which is a day of remembrance and education about the Indian Residential school system and the impact it had on Indigenous children who were forcibly taken from their homes and placed in schools. These schools were designed to assimilate young Indigenous children into white European culture. Indigenous children were often completely separated from their families for long periods. The result was a loss of their mother language and the forgetting of a way of life. Afterwards, belonging to neither the white culture nor their own Indigenous culture, children who attended the residential schools grew into troubled adults, suffering from a deep sense of loss and profound alienation. As we now know, the impact of the residential school program has been ongoing and inter-generational.  Books like Stolen Words, are essential. They remind us to acknowledge the harm done by Canada's racist policies towards its First Nations, to work towards healing and to helping Indigenous peoples of Canada recover their culture and identity.

Book Details:

Stolen Words by Melanie Florence
Toronto: Second Story Press    2017