Lost At Windy River. A True Story of Survival by Trina Rathgeber

Lost at Windy River is the reclaimed survival story of Ilse Schweder. Ilse was thirteen-years-old and living at Windy River, a northern trading post with her father Fred, her older brothers Charles and Freddy, her sister Mary, and her younger brothers Norman and Mike. Her father Fred had come to Canada from Germany and was a fur trader. Charles was a respected northern guide who was also a fur trapper and sled dog trainer. Freddy was also a skilled trapper and an expert dog-team driver. Mary was skilled in animal skinning and food preserving. Ilse was an accomplished outdoorswoman. 

Four years earlier, Ilse's mother had passed away and then two years ago Ilse and her two sisters had been taken to a residential school. It was after her older sister died at the school and selling their farm near Winnipeg,  that Ilse's father brought them north to live at the Windy River Trading Post. 

One winter the Schweder family began a trip around their trapline. It would take them three days to complete the eighty mile loop. Accompanying Freddy and Charles were the two younger boys Mike and Norman, and Ilse who was along to train the small dogs. Mary would stay behind with their father. 

They set out on a sunny, cold winter day passing "George", a pile of stones that resembled a human man. This was also called a caribou boundary, "...used to direct herds of caribou where hunters want them to go." Animals would pause to look at the stone man, allowing hunters the chance to aim and shoot. 

At the first stop, Freddy, Charles and the two younger boys went to check the first set of traps while Ilse rested and reminisced about the time they moved to the far north. Her brothers returned, telling Ilse a three-toed wolverine ate one of the foxes. Then they set off for the Sandy Hill Camp, one of eight stops along the trapline. After a night there, Ilse and her brothers prepared to continue on. However, Charles noticed the heavy clouds low on the horizon, the strong winds that indicated a storm was brewing. Because of this, Charles decides to continue on to the trapline camp at Kazan River while Ilse, Freddy and the two younger boys are to finish their tasks and then head home. Before leaving they make Charles extra dog food and mend parts of the shelter.

Although the younger boys begged Freddy to leave earlier for home, they don't start their journey until a few hours later. To make Ilse's sled lighter and easier for the smaller dogs to pull, Freddy placed all the supplies and Mike into his sled. He felt if they travelled quickly, they would make home before the storm hit. 

However, the storm came on fast and fierce, with whiteout conditions. Ilse's smaller, unexperienced dogs couldn't keep up with Freddy's sled. Her dogs pulled one way and then the other and she fell behind. To help keep Ilse in sight, Freddy attached a rope to the two sleds. It worked for a time but then broke once and then a second time. Soon Ilse was on her own. Freddy arrived back at Windy Post without Ilse, deeply distraught knowing that Ilse was out in the storm alone. Fred tells his son, they will go look for her in the morning. But for Ilse, soon without her dogs and any food, the struggle to survive on the barrens is just beginning. 

Discussion

Lost at Windy River is the story of author Trina Rathgeber's grandmother, Ilse Schweder who survived for nine days, lost in the barrens, in northern Canada. Ilse's Cree name was "iskwew pethasew" which means "Woman of the Thunderbird".  Ilse's remarkable survival story had been told by various authors, including Canadian author, Farley Mowat in his book, People of the Deer. In her Author's Note, Trina writes "It had always bothered Ilse that the writer Farley Mowat, who her father met on the train to Churchill, wrote an account of her story in the book People of the Deer and made mention of her family in others. He spent time camping outside their trading post too, always scribbling in his notebook. Today Ilse would be happy to know that her story has been reclaimed in a way that was true to her experience."  Her family also knew bits and pieces of this remarkable story: Trina first heard the story when she was about seven years old, with family members often stating that her story should be written down. Trina was able to interview her elderly grandmother, looking at past articles and photographs and even the blanket she used to protect her eyes while out on the snow. Ilse who was born in 1931, passed away in 2018 at the age of eighty-seven.

Although Rathgeber initially wrote her grandmother's story as a novel, she was convinced to use the graphic novel format as a way of engaging younger readers in this reclaimed Indigenous story. Lost at Windy River is that graphic novel, well written and delightfully crafted: the illustrations by Alina Pete and the coloring by Jullian Dolan are beautiful and appealing. Rathgeber presents her grandmother's as a story she reclaims by telling it to young students at a school. At the end of her telling, Ilse has some wise words for these students, explaining how every experience makes us who we are and how the north, "the land of the little sticks" is a piece of heaven 

Lost At Windy River highlights the inner strength, resourcefulness, determination and courage Ilse Schweder showed while lost on the barrens. She remained calm and used her wealth of Indigenous knowledge she had learned over the years to survive. For example, Ilse built a snow cave out of hard packed snow to keep her warm during the nights. She knew she had to keep her caribou clothing, which kept her warm, dry. However, when she fell through the ice, Ilse pressed the fur into the snow, which absorbed the water and dried it. She ate spruce sap that she found, which was a source of Vitamin C. When she began to realize she was suffering from snow blindness, she made makeshift snow goggles from a blanket.

Ilse was eventually saved when she wandered close to Ragnar Jonsson's camp. The Swedish born trapper had a reputation for being very honest and was well respected in the north. He came to Canada in 1923 and spent sixty years as a trapper. When he found Ilse, she was near death and suffering from frostbite. He immediately recognized the seriousness of her condition and did what he could to help her and get her back to her family. Ilse eventually reunited with Ragnar many years later. He passed away in 1988. 

Lost At Windy River will appeal to young readers between the ages of 9 to 12. While there is an Author's Note and a page devoted to small photographs of Ilse and a newspaper article, a more detailed biography section in the back matter would have added much context to Ilse's story. It is hoped that Author Trina Rathgeber will consider publishing a more detailed biography of her grandparents and great-grandparents, with a focus on life in Canada's Far North and the Indigenous peoples who live there. Lost At Windy River feels like just a taste of what could be a very interesting account of Indigenous life and culture. 

Book Details:

Lost At Windy River. A True Story of Survival by Trina Rathgeber

Toronto: Orca Book Publishers      2024

90 pp.