The Porcupine Year Read Online Free PDF Page B

missed them.
    â€œWe should continue north, giiwedin,” said Old Tallow. “Few chimookomanag have made their homes inthe great woods and lakes. We don’t want them to kick us out again!”
    â€œI still think that my brother might come through this way,” said Deydey. “This is our old stomping ground. We hunted here long ago. But now…”
    â€œGame is getting scarce.”
    â€œThere is always good fishing on this lake. But I think we are camped close to the big path of our enemies, the Bwaanag. If their warriors come across us on their way back to their homes, after a raid—mad that they got nothing, howah!—we’d be in big trouble!”
    â€œAt least we know where my aunt Muskrat is,” said Angeline. “We can’t miss if we have to move on, north. We’ll end up at her camp.”
    â€œ Without her annoying husband, I hope,” said Mama. Yellow Kettle had never liked Albert LaPautre, and believed that he tended to drink the ishkodewaaboo, the white man’s water that sent people out of their minds.“Both Muskrat’s and Fishtail’s people live up there now. We could stay with them. They’re all relatives. I miss those little girls, too.”

    â€œTwo Strike probably rules the islands by now,” laughed Nokomis, remembering Two Strike’s imperious ways and ferocious scowl when crossed.
    â€œShe’ll be surprised to see my dogs,” growled Old Tallow. “She’d best beware! My dogs have endless memories! They will never forget how that girl made war against them. They know as much as, or even more than, humans. Their ancestors speak to them in their dreams and tell them which humans to trust. They trust my Omakayas, who is always kind to them.”
    Omakayas warmed to the rough approval from Old Tallow.
    It seemed long ago that Omakayas’s cousin Two Strike Girl had made war on Old Tallow’s dogs and ended up receiving a thrashing from the fierce old woman. Deydey laughed, remembering how poor Pinch had gotten out of that jam—caught between his duty as a warrior answering to Two Strike, and his loyalty to Old Tallow and her dog tribe.
    â€œI want to plant my garden,” said Nokomis. “The seeds in my bark packs are longing to be set in the earth and sprout!”
    â€œWe need those northern berry patches,” said Miskobines. “An old man gets a longing for berries.”
    â€œAn old man needs his sweets, for sure,” teased Nokomis. “I think you want to see Auntie Muskrat because your tooth hurts for sugar!”
    â€œAiigh!” Miskobines swiped at Nokomis, but it was true that he had admired the round and capable Muskrat and praised her cooking to the skies. He’d made no secret of his disappointment when Muskrat’s husband had returned.
    â€œWe need wild rice beds, for sure,” Yellow Kettle insisted. “We can’t depend on these men to get lucky hunting all next winter. We don’t want to starve. We’ll have to make a cache to keep us going this year.”
    Miskobines reminded them that at their last stop, Sandy Lake, they’d heard that the government had a plan for the Anishinabeg.
    â€œThere is talk of making one big home for all of us, over near the land of the Bwaan, where we get the white clay.”
    Deydey did not trust the white people, the chimookomanag. He did not trust the chiefs. He did not trust the one they called “great father” off in Washington. He is not my great father , Deydey would say. I have seen him starve our people. I have seen him take our land. No father kills his children and leaves them homeless! So Deydey did not trust the idea of one big homeland for all of the Anishinabeg.
    â€œThat place where they get the white clay is beautiful,” said Old Tallow, “but once we are there will the agents keep their promises?”
    â€œNo home would be big enough. We do things very