Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016.
As expected, Susan Cooper's Ghost Hawk is a contender for the Newbery Medal (2:26 PM Note: I do not have inside knowledge of the Newbery Committee's deliberations. My post is about Ghost Hawk being discussed as a contender in the mock Newbery discussion at SLJ's Heavy Medal blog). Ghost Hawk is the topic today (October 15, 2013) at SLJ's Heavy Medal blog. The author of the post, Jonathan Hunt, thinks that the plot twist at the end of part one is "the best of the year."
The plot twist he refers to? The character, Little Hawk, is killed by a Pilgrim, but that's not the end of him. He goes from being a living person to a ghost that narrates the rest of the story, which focuses on John Wakely, a colonist who grows up and saves the life of a Native boy named Trouble. That Native boy grows up to be Metacom/King Philip. Yep--a leader of the Wampanoag, according to Cooper's story, only gets to be that leader because a white person saves him when he was a child.
Throughout part two and three, Little Hawk can reveal himself to John at a certain time and place on an island. He does so several times during the story. That's because, when Little Hawk was killed, he was unable to rest or go home because John has a stone blade that belonged to Little Hawk's ancestors.
By the end of the story (part four in the book), we're in the present day. A woman lives on the island. With a helper, she works the land. That helper finds Little Hawk's tomahawk and gives it to the woman. The next day, she's holding the tomahawk in her hand and Little Hawk reveals himself to her (page 316):
"She sees a bare-chested American Indian, in deerskin pants and moccasins, his hair greased up into a scalp lock--but the body has no substance, and through it the trees are still faintly visible."
She is startled but they begin to talk with each other. They have what I find to be a troubling conversation about the land itself and land ownership, and she learns that he is kept from resting because of the tomahawk blade she now has in her hands. She realizes that she can free him by burying it. The tomahawk, he tells her, has been buried a long time. Strains of "bury the hatchet"--don't you think?! So, she plants a hickory tree and buries the blade with it. Then, we read (p. 320):
Time breaks open around me, and all at once there is more light than a hundred suns, more light than I have ever seen.
And,
I am gone to my long home at last, set free, flying high, high beyond the world. High, high, into mystery.
With those passages, Cooper is imagining what a Wampanoag person experiences when they die. It is a bit ironic, I think, that it is a person named Cooper doing that imagining, because another person named Cooper did a whole lot of imagining when he wrote his stories about Indians... Course, I'm thinking of James Fenimore Cooper. Remember that guy? He wrote Last of the Mohicans.
Key points in Susan Cooper's story? White person saves Metacom. White person frees Little Hawk. In his discussion of the book, Jonathan says that Cooper's story, written from Little Hawk's perspective,
"engenders empathy for the disappearing indigenous people and their culture."
Perhaps it does, but how what does that empathy mean? What does IT engender? Below is the comment I submitted to Jonathan's post. As of this moment (9:26 AM, Central Time), it is in 'moderation mode' but I expect it to appear shortly. I encourage you to follow and participate in the discussion that will take place. Here's a link to the page:
And, my comment to Jonathan's post (awaiting approval from Jonathan or whomever moderates comments for him):
Hi Jonathan,
As some people know, I blogged Part One of Cooper’s (http://goo.gl/lhf9iX) story in early June. The technique I used in that post is one that is very popular with my readers. They want to know about the process I go through as I read and analyze a book about American Indians. Some people feel strongly that doing that is unfair, particularly because I haven’t yet provided answers to concerns and questions I raised in that post. I have similar notes for posts about Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four and intended to write them up and post them, too, inserting answers to my questions/concerns as I conducted research necessary to answer my questions.
When I read the Author’s Note, however, I decided to write and post my overall thoughts on the book (http://goo.gl/vwimyd) because I don’t think the answers to my questions/concerns will change my primary concerns with the book. In a nutshell: we have an author using seventeenth century sources to imagine the life of a Native character, and then (presumably) using those same sources to imagine the after-life of that Native character. I see no evidence that she consulted any sources that counter the bias and misinformation in the ways that American Indians are portrayed in those seventeenth century sources. In the Author’s Note, she sends us to two websites, but the first one is sketchy and further adds to my concerns that she did not read any of the critical writing by scholars who counter bias and misinformation in materials about American Indians. As such, she’s doing a whole lot of imagining. She imagines the life of living/breathing Native people, and then she takes a huge leap and imagines how that tribe has laid out its spirituality. Given its glowing reviews, what she does works for most people, and that’s troubling. Shouldn’t we be past that kind of imagining that romanticizes American Indians?
A second concern is that in her story, her fictional main character, John Wakely, saves the life of Metacom/King Philip. According to the entry in Hoxie’s ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, he “personified native resistance to colonial power in southern New England in the seventeenth century” (p. 373). John is so adored by the Indians, that they hold their children up high so they can get a glimpse of him. In a way, this is the John Smith/Pocahontas story all over again. But again–shouldn’t we be past themes in which whites save the day?
Obviously, I disagree that the writing is skillful and the themes distinguished. Cooper’s story, as Jonathan says, “engenders empathy for the disappearing indigenous people and their culture.” His use of “disappearing indigenous people” is telling, I think, because that is exactly what I’m talking about. As a society, most Americans want to love a certain kind of indigenous person and story about indigenous people. It is a superficial love for something imagined. Unfortunately, the kind they love is the kind that was mistreated but then disappeared.
Where’s the love of modern day American Indians critical of that superficial love?
It was/is a bit unnerving to read the comments to Jonathan’s earlier post (“October Nominations”), in which commenters discourage others from reading what I said in my post about Ghost Hawk.
I’m not hoping for people to love what I or any Indigenous people say. What we all need is a different perspective of Native/White relationships, past and present. What we need is a citizenry that can see and reject stereotypes of who American Indians are, and a citizenry that wants accurate, not romantic, stories about who we are. Heralding books like GHOST HAWK or SALT will keep us stuck in that same old place of honoring Indians, and that kind of honoring is superficial and not helpful to anyone.
In the Author's Note of Susan Cooper's Ghost Hawk, she says "The only major liberty I've taken is in copying for John Wakeley the whipping inflicted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony on the Baptist Obadiah Homes in 1651" (p. 327).
I beg to differ.
From my point of view, Cooper took many liberties in the ways that she portrays Native peoples in Ghost Hawk. There are so many, that it will take a great while for me to address the questions I've raised in part one, and typing up/uploading/addressing the questions I've got about part two, three, and four.
In part one, we met John Wakeley (he was five years old) when he and his father were visiting an Indian village to learn how to fish. John met Little Hawk (who was several years older than John) at that village. About five years later, John and his dad are chopping down a tree. It falls on John's dad. Little Hawk is nearby and tries to chop a branch to free John's dad, but is shot by a Pilgrim man who thinks Little Hawk was going to kill John.
In part two, the story is told by Little Hawk, but since he was killed at the end of part one, he tells the story as "a spirit" who can see past and present and understand any language, which is why he can tell us what happens to John in the rest of the book. Another important piece of information: As a spirit, he can choose to be seen and speak. In part one, he revealed himself to John and taught John how to speak the Wampanoag language (below, Cooper says "Pokanoket" but the Mashee Wampanoag use "Wampanoag" at their website).
This scene is in chapter 11 of part two.
John is an adult and visiting Plymouth. Little Hawk (the ghost) tells us that there are lot of people in Plymouth, including several Indians. As John walks, he sees a large group of Pokanokets. A wagon comes down the street, and from the group, John sees a small boy run into the wagon's path, chasing a ball.
"Instinctively he dived forward to grab the child, and caught him just in time" (p. 248).
The child is whimpering, and John speaks to him softly in Pokanoket, "it's all right, don't be afraid, everything's all right." (p. 248).
I've got a lot of questions about that passage, but am focusing on one for this post. The child, according to Cooper, is called Trouble. A few pages later, John visits Yellow Feather/Massasoit's village and home. We learn that Trouble is Massasoit's youngest son, Metacom, or King Phillip.
In Cooper's story, a white person (John) has saved the life of a Native person (Metacom) who will become an important leader (King Philip).
That is a major liberty Cooper has taken in telling this story. She's made John Wakeley into a savior. Where would the Wampanoag's in her story be without him?!
Lest you think that Cooper is relating something factually accurate in that passage, I should also tell you that in her author's note, she says John Wakeley is a fictional character. Did a white person actually save Metacom's life? I'll be looking for that info. If you find it, submit it in a comment or send it to me by email.
In Cooper's story, John is so important that the Wampanoag people gather round to see him. Here's that passage:
Gradually the house filled with people eager for a sight of the white man who had saved Yellow Feather's son" (p. 261).
And later on when John leaves the village, people gather round again. One man holds his son up high overhead so he can see the Speaker. The images those two scenes bring to my mind are gross.
I know a lot of people (looking at you, Richie) love this book, but stop and think about WHY you love this story. Why is it tugging at your heart strings?
If you're a writer, don't create a character who rescues a Native person. No doubt that happened, but the larger picture is not one of benevolence.
If you're a reviewer and you read a book where that happens, point it out.
If you're a librarian or a teacher, don't buy books like this. If it is too late and you've already bought it, discuss what Cooper does. Or, see if you can get your money back. Write a letter to the publisher objecting to the story. If they hear from enough of us, hopefully they won't publish a book like this again.
Creating a character that saves Indian lives obscures the reality of what happened. Let's not hide reality. And let's not whitewash it, either.
Editor's note, November 3, 2013: Discussion of this book over on the Heavy Medal blog started on October 15th. There, you'll see that some readers have read this post and are waiting for me to provide documentation of errors/inaccuracies in the book. As you read, you'll see where I've inserted updates regarding such inaccuracies. Some of what I object to is not a factual sort of thing. A good bit of what is wrong with Cooper's book has to do with imagining of Native culture, with that imagining rooted in romantic and biased views of Native peoples. These biased views are of several types. Indians as mystical. Indians as animal-like. Indians as stoic. Indians as tragic. Those--and others--are part of this book, which is a white lament of what happened to Native peoples. For me, that lament is first-cousin to those who wish to honor American Indians with things like mascots, or those who love movies like Dances with Wolves. For my additional writings on Ghost Hawk, see:
On Monday, June 3rd, I received (from a colleague) an advanced reader copy of Susan Cooper's Ghost Hawk. My thoughts, as I read, are in italics.
Primarily a writer of fantasy, Cooper has a great deal of stature in children's literature. One of her books won the Newberry Award, and her series is much acclaimed. As such, she's got some built-in credibility for her writing and people will be eager to read Ghost Hawk. The question is, though, does she have the depth of knowledge, or did she do the research necessary, to give readers a book that doesn't lapse into stereotypes?
We'll see. Below, I am sharing my chapter-by-chapter notes for part one of the book. In some cases, I paused and did some research that I share right away. In some places, you'll see I'm still digging.
Ghost Hawk opens with two epigraphs. The first is from Roger Williams and is dated 1643. Williams tells not to be proudful because "thy brother Indian" was made by the same God that made the English. That Indian, the epigraph says, is just as wise, fair, and strong as the English man.
The second epigraph is a verse from Woodie Guthrie's song, This Land is Your Land.
Why, I wonder, did Cooper choose those two? It was, by the way, rather patronizing of Williams to assume that his God made Indians. How does he know it didn't happen the other way around, with the Indians god making the Englishmen?! And what is the rationale for choosing Guthrie? Was Cooper giving readers a heads-up with the Guthrie song, perhaps, that someone (Cooper?) thinks the land doesn't really belong to the Indians? Is she defending her right to own land? In the Author's Note, she writes that "Seven years ago I built a house on Little Hawk's island" where she "listened to the land, and to its past" and decided to write the book. What is the name of the island? Is it one that the Wampanoag people lost to land-hungry Europeans? Is its ownership contested today?
PART ONE: FREEZING MOON
Chapter 1
Spring or summertime. A man approaches a small bitternut hickory tree and gives it "a respectful greeting and explained what he was about to do" (p. 6). Then, he puts a stone blade in the 'v' of two branches of a young hickory tree and tightly binds the two branches above the blade. Over time, the branches will fuse, enclosing the stone. This is the way that a man makes a tomahawk for his son. This particular blade is precious to the man because it was part of the tomahawk used by his grandfather and father until the handle broke. As he returns to his canoe, he uses his bow and kills three ducks for the feast celebrating the birth of his son. the closing words of the chapter are:
"I was that son. Because Flying Hawk was my father, the name they were giving me was Little Hawk" (p. 6).
My thoughts: I spent a few hours trying to find information about that technique of putting a stone blade in a tree, and so far... nothing about that, specifically. I did find an old text that describes how the branch of a young tree could be bent around a stone blade and then then the branch tied to itself beneath the blade. And, I learned that hickory is a very hard wood and because of that, it is a great for tool handles.
Regarding the names Cooper gave to her characters... How names are given is important, but rarely portrayed correctly. I don't know who the tribe is yet, so can't say much other than that Cooper's choice of Little Hawk fits within a mainstream expectation of how Native people give names.
Speaking to the tree also fits a mainstream expectation in which Native peoples live within an ethical framework in which they see themselves as part of a web of life rather than having dominion over the earth. While that ethic is valid, there's a tendency for writers to overdo it when they imagine living a life with that ethic as part of ones daily life. It is helpful to think of a character who is a devout Christian. That information could be established up front, and need not be reiterated on page after page.
Chapter 2
Little Hawk is now eleven years old and his dad takes him out to the site of the hickory tree where he had bound that stone blade on the day of Little Hawk's birth. In the eleven years that passed, the two branches fused and became one, above the blade. Flying Hawk cuts the tree down. Before he does, though, he gives a pinch of tobacco to the tree's spirit, and Little Hawk says "Thank you, my brother" (p. 9).
My thoughts: This giving of tobacco... Some tribes use tobacco to make offerings, but would it be done before cutting down a tree? I don't know, but Cooper's use of tobacco and thanking the spirit of the tree definitely fits within a mainstream expectation of what Native people do/did. I initiated some discussion on child_lit about Ghost Hawk. Emails I got from Charlotte, in particular, are helpful in thinking about this aspect of Native spirituality. As I noted above, Native peoples see themselves as part of the world rather than dominant over it. That sensibility pervades life. Cooper, however (and many writers who over-do this spirituality) do it only in response to an act of taking. When they have a character taking something, they pack that taking with this "thank you, my brother" kind of activity and dialog. As Charlotte said, when that happens again and again, it takes on a caricature rather than a view of the world.
The tomahawk will be made by wintertime, when it will be time for Little Hawk to "be taken deep into the woods, blindfolded, for the three-month test of solitude that would turn me into a man" (p. 9).
My thoughts: Three months? Dead of winter? Eleven years old? I did several searches on various combinations of Wampanoag, manitou, boy, and vision. When I used "Wampanoag vision quest" I found a book by David J. Silverman called Faith and Boundaries: Colonists, Christianity, and Community Among the Wampanoag Indians of Martha's Vineyard, published in 2005. It has information that supports some of what Cooper says. Specifically, boys did vision quests at adolescence, but, I've traced Silverman's sources and am not finding a specific age or duration of this test. I'm also not finding any reference to a blindfold. I've sent emails asking for help on this three-month-test-of-solitude.
Chapter 3
In their longhouse, Little Hawk's mom and sister are getting him ready to head out for that three-month test of solitude, which is also called his "proving time" (p. 10). His sister, Quickbird, is a tomboy. We learn that there are three other boys in the village who will also be sent out on this test. The other three are named Leaping Turtle, White Oak, and Spring Frog.
My thoughts: Names, again... I wonder (here I am being snarky) why these three boys don't have "little" in their names like Little Hawk does? Does the naming convention Cooper used for Flying/Little Hawk not apply to everyone?
Little Hawk's mom and sister plan to give him several items to take with him, but Flying Hawk glares at them. He is only supposed to take a boy, an axe, and a knife. With these things, he will "come back a man" (p. 14).
Little Hawk and his dad go to a sweat lodge where they "sit naked in the hot steam" (p. 15). Sometimes whole families go there to sweat out "the dirt on our bodies" but this time, it is just the men, and they're going to sweat out "the fears in our minds" (p. 15).
My thoughts: Sweat lodge as family bathing? I don't think I've seen THAT before! But---I'm checking on it.
The day after the sweat, Flying Hawk gives Little Hawk a knife with a metal blade. Such knives are rare. It was made by the white men. The three-month test of solitude starts out with Flying Hawk putting a blindfold on Little Hawk, and then handing him one end of a long deerskin strap. With the leash, Flying Hawk leads him into the forest for a long time (no mention of hours/distance) and then removes the blindfold, hugs him, and takes off. Because some snow has fallen already (it is early winter), they wear snowshoes.
My thoughts: The blindfold part of this whole thing adds to my skepticism of it being something anyone would actually do, especially to an eleven year old boy. Course, I need to do some research to see if I can find anything that supports what Cooper describes.
Alone in the forest, Little Hawk is not afraid. He likes to be alone. He remembers a story about him as a two-year old. He'd wandered off and people had looked for him all day. They found him beneath a maple tree they'd set up to tap its sap. He'd eaten the sap in the birch bark bucket and was waiting, mouth open beneath the tap, for more of the sap. "For some time after that I was called Little Maple, because--they said, making my poor mother cross--I had chosen to be suckled by a tree instead of a woman" (p. 21).
My thoughts: Changing his name, even in jest, as Cooper does here fits within the mainstream notion that Indian names are given based on something near in the proximity of the child. There's lot of crude and insensitive jokes about naming out there. Cooper isn't being insensitive but it is ignorant.
Little Hawk sets out walking. He promptly falls into a tangle of greenbrier vines and hurts his ankle. He makes a shelter beneath the vines and builds a fire. He is hungry, and remembers his grandmother, Suncatcher, teaching him how to dig roots. He thinks he'll dig greenbrier roots but then remembers he's supposed to be fasting. He decides to dig the roots up anyway and save them for later, when he can eat.
Chapter 4
Little Hawk wakes, thinking of his grandmother. She is a member of the tribal council. She had not been home the day Little Hawk left because she was with his older sister, Southern, at the "women's house" (p. 27) where women go when they're menstruating (on page 12, Cooper called this "moontime bleeding.")
My thoughts: Some tribes use "moon" but "moontime bleeding" is not something I remember reading or hearing about. In my research so far, "moontime bleeding" pulls up New Age items.
Several days pass. Little Hawk gets hungrier and more tired, but he's got to fast until the Great Spirit sends his Manitou to him. One night he wakes in his shelter and finds that it is covered with deep snow. He is cold and scared and starts to cry, but since "a man does not show weakness, ever" (p. 32), he forces himself to howl instead, like a coyote. He falls into a "trance of despair" and in that state, his Manitou comes to him. It is an osprey, or, a fish hawk. It tells him to "stop this" (presumably the despair), and that it will show him his strength. Little Hawk flies into the sky with the osprey. As they fly, the osprey tells him many things "that I may not tell to you."
My thoughts: I so badly want to quit reading this book. Ah well. This is stoic-Indian for sure. Or, stoic-male!
Little Hawk wakes up, pushes the snow away, and sees a red-tailed hawk and knows that his Manitou sent that hawk and that he must follow it. It leads him to a pond, and, a deer trail.
Chapter 5
Little Hawk waits for the deer to come by on the trail. He breaks his fast by chewing on pine bark. He cuts branches to make a bed in a little cave nearby the pond. In the cave he finds a cache of acorns and uses them to sets snares to catch squirrels. He cooks the greenbrier roots and eats them slowly. When he wakes up the next morning, there's a squirrel in his trap. He kills and eats it, working its hide for later use.
My thoughts: He doesn't do any kind of prayer for the squirrel. In fact, what he does think kind of flies in the face of a reverence for the earth and its creatures: "Perhaps I had caught him with one of his own acorns, but he would save me from starving" (p. 38).
He sees a lone wolf but manages to scare it away. Little Hawk is getting weaker without foot and then, he sees two deer. He wounds one and spends several hours tracking it. When he finds it, he sees that the lone wolf got to it first and is eating it. He yells at it, it turns on him, and he shoots it. It is wounded and takes off. Little Hawk gives thanks to the Great Spirit, his Manitou, and the spirit of the deer. He breaks the skull open with a rock so he can get the brain, which he'll use to tan the deerskin. He skins the deer, cuts off one of its legs, hauls the brain/skin/leg back to his cave and goes back for more meat.
That night at his cave, he is "very tired and very dirty" and thinks about the sweat lodge. He cleans up with snow, makes a fire, cooks some meat, and goes to sleep. Over the next few days, he understands that the squirrel and the deer and he himself have a "part in a long harmony of things, a balance" and that is why his people send the boys out on this "solitary voyage of learning" (p. 46).
Chapter 6
One day when he's out, the wolf goes into the cave and eats Little Hawk's deer meat. He and the wolf fight. He kills the wolf but gets a deep gash on his face during the fight. He has to honor the wolf by burying it, which he does. He remembers one of his grandmother's bark remedies for cuts, finds some of it, and uses the squirrel skin and some sinew to make a bandage. He must find more food, too, so makes a hole in the frozen pond below his cave. His first catch is an eel. In pulling it out of the hole, his knife falls into the hole, gone forever.
A few days later he sees the stars dancing in the sky (something his father showed him) and interprets that as a sign that he should make ready to return home. He imagines his return, and then after awhile, heads home.
Chapter 7
He runs into the center of the village but there is nobody around. He stumbles over a body (covered in snow) and then runs home. Inside, he finds his grandmother. She's weak, and tells him that the white man's sickness has killed everyone. Little Hawk figures out that the sickness was brought into the village by his father, who had traded with a white man for the knife he had given to Little Hawk. His grandmother grows stronger. One day, the flap door opens wide, and Leaping Turtle is there, wondering what has happened.
Chapter 8
Little Hawk, Suncatcher, and Leaping Turtle live together. One day the boys see smoke to the west of them. There's a break in the smoke, followed by a puff of smoke, and then two more breaks/puffs. The people in the village to the west of them are using smoke signals to talk to them. "Three smokes--remember? It's the greeting for anyone who sees it. Three just means 'I am here'" (p. 83). They decide to respond. One puff means danger, two puffs means come, four means I am coming. They choose to send three smokes but get no response. Darkness falls and they return to the house.
My thoughts: Aha! Smoke signals! And these ones even have the code!!!!! You could interpret my use of many exclamation points as me alternately rolling my eyes and laughing aloud at how ridiculous this is. I'll look, though, to see if I can find some old sources that give that code... It will be useful to see what Cooper's source for this is. In the meantime, the National Museum of the American Indian has a book called Do All Indians Live In Tipis. In it, there's a section on smoke signals.
Suncatcher thinks the two boys should go to that village without her. She can't make a journey because the cold had "done something bad to her feet" (p. 84). Little Hawk saw that the skin was very dark and tight.
My thoughts: Apparently, Suncatcher got frostbite before Little Hawk returned to the village. But, several days have passed by this point in the story. Wouldn't they be needing medical care? And, she's the one who knows how to do things... why is she not taking care of her feet?!
Little Hawk and Leaping Turtle decide to make a litter so they can carry her. They also decide to bury the body Little Hawk tripped over, which is that of Suncatchers brother, Morning Star, who was a medicine man. Before they start out for that village, however, three men from there arrive: Hunting Dog, Wolfchaser, and One Who Waits. One Who Waits is the sachem. They've built a new village and someone from Little Hawk's village is at the village, but they won't say who it is. When they all get there, Little Hawk sees that it is his little sister, Quickbird.
Chapter 9
Quickbird recounts the last days in their village. Morning Star told her to go to the other village because "The gods are angry with our people here." Listening to her, Wolfchaser agrees about the gods being angry and thinks they should pray that the anger of the gods is satisfied.
My thoughts: Sounds like Christian theology... a god who punishes his people...
Suncatcher disagrees with the idea that angry gods would do this. She says the plague is from the white men and that it kills Indians, not white men. Wolfchaser thinks that perhaps the gods aren't angry with the white man. One Who Waits tells them that the white men came on a ship. Little Hawk remembers that he heard the story of this ship.
"South of here, not far from the Pokanoket village of Sowams, where our great sachem Yellow Feather lived, a trader from across the sea had invited a number of our people aboard his ship and suddenly, for no reason, had killed them all." (p. 94)
My thoughts: Finally! Cooper gives us the name of a tribe! Yellow Feather is Massasoit, but I'll need to do some research to see who that trader was. All this angry-gods stuff also fits within the mainstream expectations of a primitive people. These Indians think they've brought these troubles onto themselves. They're to blame.
In the weeks and months that follow their move to the new village, they hear a lot about the white men. The people in the village, including Spring Frog (he ended his test at their village rather than his own) work hard to build houses and get winter stores of food ready. Wolfchaser seems to be sweet on Quickbird. As time passes, they get ready for a deer drive. A deer drive is a technique in which deer are herded into an enclosure where they are more easily shot.
My thoughts: I never heard of a deer drive and will need to look it up.
As they wait for the drive to start, Little Hawk and Leaping Turtle talk with Wolfchaser. He tells them that his father (One Who Waits) has gone to Sowams because Yellow Feather has called all the sachems together. "Many white men have come in a big boat--not just traders, but whole families. Yellow Feather is not happy; he would like them to go away" (p. 99-101).
My thoughts: I've pulled up the transcript for "After the Mayflower" from the PBS We Shall Remain series. Its consultants are amongst the top Native and non-Native scholars in the country. Reading the transcript, I learned that there was a plague from 1617 to 1619 but that nobody knows what exactly it was. Historian Neal Salisbury says that sickness was usually interpreted as the invasion of hostile spiritual powers. Not---as Cooper tells us---as gods that are angry.
Wampanoags were especially devastated by this plague, and the Narragansetts, who did not get that plague, set upon them while they were vulnerable. In 1620, an English ship lands. On it is Miles Standish and many families. They enter Patuxet, an abandoned village that was hit hard by the plague. Colin Calloway says that the English think that God killed its inhabitants to make way for them (the English). Jill LePore says that Wampanoag's view this ship of people different than others because they've brought families, which means they're not there to make war. Through the winter, Massasoit watches the small group in the village they've called New Plymouth. He thinks they could be allies for them in their struggles against the Narragansetts.
The group stops talking about the white families when the deer come towards them. They kill 23 deer. The share for their village is 14. Swift Deer, who is in charge of the drive, cuts off the tongue and left hind foot of each deer as an offering. He calls out a prayer of thanks to Mother Earth and the deer spirit.
My thoughts: So.... what will they do with the other nine deer? And what is this business of cutting off the tongue and the left foot? Why the left foot???!!! Remember what I said earlier about exclamation points...
When they get back to the village, there's a traditional celebration of the hunt. They sing, dance, and eat. One Who Waits is back from meeting with Yellow Feather, and he seems uneasy. A few days later, One Who Waits is visiting Suncatcher. He tells Suncatcher and Little Hawk that Yellow Feather has decided to offer help and friendship to the white men, "now that our pleas to the spirits have not sent them away." One Who Waits also says that Yellow Feather does not enjoy war, and that the Wampanoag, weakened by the plague, are paying tribute to the Narragansetts. Little Hawk asks what the white man wants, and One Who Waits replies "I think our father Yellow Feather fears that they want the land" (p. 103).
My thoughts. So, their spirits are again leaving them hanging. Prayers unanswered, the only recourse is to make friends. Again---this praying stuff makes me very skeptical. But the history itself is correct. Massasoit did make that treaty, and the white man did want the land.
Chapter 10
Springtime brings the fish run when herring, shad, and bass rush from the sea into the rivers to spawn. The villagers head to the streams. They catch so many fish that Quickbird complains that they all smell like fish and she can't wait to get back to the village and the sweat lodge to clean up.
My thoughts: Again---sweat as a way to get cleaned up? Gotta check on this. I was talking with Jean Mendoza about this, and she asked an obvious question. They were at the river! Why couldn't they get cleaned up there, in all that fresh running water?!
As they fish, the villagers see One Who Waits and Swift Deer walking from the camp towards the river with a group: "there were some strangers with them: an important-looking warrior wearing an ornate beaded headband with an eagle feather, and three others" (p. 106). Two are white men and one is a five year old boy. They gather round. "Swift Deer and Wolfchaser came forward to join us; Swift Deer was very wet, and shook himself like a dog" (p. 107).
My thoughts: Oops. That's a bit confusing. Swift Deer was in the river? Or in the camp? I'm thinking he was in the river and that's why he was wet. But... shaking like a dog to rid himself of the water?! COME ON, SUSAN COOPER!!!
One Who Waits calls out to the villagers "My sons! You remember the one they called Squanto?" (p. 108). Swift Deer and Wolfchaser greet offer greetings but Little Hawk detects uncertainty in their voices. Squanto is the important man wearing the beaded headband with a feather. One Who Waits goes on to tell them that Yellow Feather wants them to be helpful to the white men because "they are friends of our people. They are in care of Squanto, because he speaks their language" (p. 108). Little Hawk thinks Squanto "clearly knew he was somebody special" (p. 108). Squanto tells them the names of the Englishmen and that he has taught them how to catch eels and how to plant, but wants them to learn how to fish the fish run, so has brought them to watch and learn how to do it. Suncatcher steps forward with bowls of soup for Squanto and the Englishmen, but they decline her offer. Squanto tells them that "The white man is not good at eating our food" (p. 109).
My thoughts: Was Squanto dressed that way?! And, I wonder if Cooper is going to tell her readers why Squanto knows English? As the historical record shows, he was kidnapped and taken to Europe where he learned to speak English. He eventually made his way back, but his village (Patuxet) was gone. And, he was a troublemaker.
Wolfchaser demonstrates how they use woven mats to catch the fish. Squanto translates for the Englishmen. The little boy wanders off to Quickbird and two children that are with her. One of them shows him a toy and they start playing. Quickbird watches them and says "Look how different they are!" and "The same, but so different!" (p. 110).
My thoughts: Nice touch, to demonstrate the humanity in children, regardless of who they are.
Quickbird decides to teach the white boy their names. She takes his hand, points to herself, and says "Quick bird." Turtledove (one of the children) does the same thing, and "with some difficulty" the boy says "Turtle dove" and then "Bird."
My thoughts: I guess we ought to be, in our minds, thinking that the Wampanoags are speaking in their own language, and as such, it would be hard for the little white boy to enunciate turtledove or quickbird in the Wampanoag language. Without the actual use of those names in the story, that learning-of-names seems a bit odd to me.
The boy then taps his own chest and says "John." John then looks around and sees Little Hawk and the scar on his face (from the wolf attack). John reaches up to gently touch the scar. He wants to know Little Hawk's name. He listens to it, and then and says "Hawk."
Again---the use of English translations for their names rather than their names makes this learning of names awkward.
Quickbird has given Turtledove and Little Fox some pellets made from the boiled-down maple sap. Little Hawk gives some to John. John's father comes over, and Little Hawk detects a sour, unwashed smell about him. John points to Little Hawk and says "Hawk," and then Squanto comes over and leads them on their way. The villagers insist on giving them two baskets of fish.
In the sweat lodge where they've gone to get rid of the fish smell, One Who Waits tells Little Hawk, Wolfchaser, and Swift Dear that Squanto knows English "by living in their country. He and some others were carried there in a boat to become slaves, and he was there for some years before a white man from a different tribe brought him back again" (p. 112). When he got back, he found the plague had taken most of his village. He is "useful to Yellow Feather, because without him we could not talk to the white men" (p. 113).
My thoughts: Good to see that Cooper does tell her readers why Squanto knows English, but I don't know what to make of the white man from "a different tribe."
The fish they took is to be used as fertilizer for their corn. Swift Deer says that the corn they're going to plant was stolen from the Nausets. Wolfchaser says he'd heard the corn they took was from a village where the Nausets had all died of the plague. One Who Waits tells them its time to leave the sweat lodge so others can use it and get clean, too.
Chapter 11
The new village grows as more families move to it. Little Hawk is glad of that because it means more children to scare crows, raccoons, woodchucks, and jays away from the fields. The children are taught that they must never kill Brother Crow "because it was his ancestor who brought mankind the corn and bean seeds in the first place, one seed in each of his ears" (p. 116).
My thoughts: Crows have ears? I really don't know much about birds. I need to see what I can find out about Wampanoag traditional stories about crows.
Little Hawk and Leaping Turtle return to the old village twice. Once to get a birchbark canoe they had made there the year before, and a second time to do Suncatcher's bidding, which was to dig "a memory hole" (p. 117) in honor of the people who died in the village. A memory hole "was a round hole about a foot deep, lined with stones, and now that it was there it would be kept open by generations of people to come. These memory holes were all over our land, on our trails; they were the record of the people who lived before us, and of what happened in their time" (p. 117).
My thoughts: Memory holes? I gotta look that up! Added to Heavy Medal blog on October 17, 2013; added here on November 3, 2013: Memory holes. I do have an answer on that one. When I called the Mashpee Historic Preservation office in June, I asked specifically about memory holes. The woman I spoke with said it sounded like something from Philbrick’s MAYFLOWER. So, I got a copy and found memory holes on page 105. The woman was rather derisive in referencing Philbrick’s book. I remembered that Indian Country Today (ICT) had run an article about a forum on the book, and that I’d pointed to their article, so I went back into my site to find it. My link doesn’t work right now because ICT is redoing their website and not all of their items are archived/available yet, but I was able to find the article in its entirety at another site. Here’s the link: http://www.firstnations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=526The article does not specifically address memory holes, but I think it is fair to say that the response to the book casts a lot of doubt on Philbrick’s book. I haven’t read it, but from the reviews, it sounds a lot like he did what Cooper tried to do.
Bearclaw, a friend of Swift Deer's, has been keeping watch on a white settlement nearby the Massachusetts tribe. He's on his way to give Yellow Feather a report. The people in the settlement are not doing well and the Massachusetts are using some of them as laborers in exchange for food. One Who Waits asks Bearclaw to give his greetings to Yellow Feather and hopes that he is well, but Bearclaw says that Yellow Feather is not well.
All year long, the people have been talking about the treaty Yellow Feather made with the English. There is a lot of unrest. Disagreements abound, including ones Squanto incites between Yellow Feather and the English.
My thoughts: I recall that Squanto does this sort of thing... He's definitely an opportunist.
Leaping Turtle doesn't trust the white people, but Little Hawk has faith in Yellow Feather's wisdom. Winter comes and rumors prompt One Who Waits to call a council meeting. He tells them Yellow Feather had been sick, but was healed by a white man named Winslow. He also tells them about a white man named Standish who invited two Massachusetts warriors named Wituwamet and Pecksuot to eat with him, but that was a ruse. He killed them and three other men. One Who Waits reminds the people that they are aligned with the English, and that the Massachusetts and the Narragansetts have acted aggressively towards the Wampanoag. The English, he reminds them, are their friends, and he also says that the English know that the Wampanoag's are not the same as the Massachusetts and the Narragansetts. Swift Deer asks to speak. Reluctantly, One Who Waits lets him talk, and he tells the people that Standish beheaded Wituwamet and put his head on a pole at Patuxet. The people are upset but One Who Waits tells them that they should not seek war. In the silence, Suncatcher sings a song in which the lines tell Little Hawk to fly in peace. The meeting ends and they all leave.
Chapter Twelve
Leaping Turtle and Little Hawk are chosen to be runners who will carry messages for Yellow Feather. They are now about 17 years old. On the way, they hear the sound of a tree falling, followed by screams. They race to the sounds and find that a white man had cut the tree and it fell on him.
Another white man is pinned. Little Hawk wants to help get the man out, especially when he realizes that the boy is John, now 10 years old. He raises his tomahawk to cut away at the tree to free the man. At that moment he is shot and killed.
My thoughts: That is how Little Hawk becomes Ghost Hawk!!! Naming! Again!
----end of part one---
On to part two, but, based on what I've read so far, I can't recommend Ghost Hawk.
I recently picked up James Crowley's Starfish.... My comments (below), as I read the book are in red. (Update---September 28. I'm adding more to this post. New information is in purple.)
I wanted to quit reading early on, but I've seen a couple of references to the book as a contender for the Newbery Medal, so I forced myself to read the entire book. It is about two Blackfeet children in 1915. They've run away from their boarding school in the winter. Unlike the "Frozen Man" who Crowley introduces at the beginning of the story, the children survive the Montana winters. Thinking about that, I'm reminded of the Kiowa children in Oklahoma who ran away from their boarding school in 1891and froze to death. N. Scott Momaday has a play about them. It is in Three Plays.
Chiori Santiago and Judith Lowry's picture book, Home to Medicine Mountain recounts the story of Lowry's father and uncle. They ran away and got home safely.
Starfish isn't deserving of the Newbery medal (or any medal at all). It isn't plausible, and it is downright awful in many places. From the posture of the frozen body at the start of the book to the alcohol the kids drink near the end, I found myself wondering why it got published. What does it seek to add to anyone's "knowledge" of American Indians?
Doing some research on Crowley (the author), I see he makes films.
The book is published by Disney/Hyperion Books. Maybe Crowley wants to make a movie and is starting that project with this book. I hope not, but I can see why it would work. On page after page, its one "white man's Indian" after another. That phrase---white man's Indian---is actually the title of a book by Robert Berkhofer. He took great care to document the images of American Indians from early days of America to more recent times, demonstrating that they aren't really American Indian images---they're only Indians of a white-imagination. Get a copy of The White Man's Indian and study it. It'll help you do your own analyses of books like Starfish.
My analysis is in a chapter-by-chapter format. I invite you to read what I've managed to write.
Debbie
------------------------
James Crowley's Starfish, published by Disney/Hyperion, 2010.
Setting: the "Chalk Bluff Indian reservation" in Montana.
As far as I know, there isn't a reservation named that. In my research I found a place called the "Chalk Bluff Indian Trail" in Kentucky, and, another site called the "Chalk Bluff Indian Massacre" in Texas where twenty Indian men attacked and killed two Indian hunters. There was also a Civil War battle at a place called Chalk Bluff.
State: Montana
Prologue
It is winter and snowing heavily. An old man walks through the snow alongside the "government barracks and outbuildings of the Chalk Bluff Indian reservation."
That doesn't quite make sense. A reservation is a big place. Today, the Blackfeet Reservation is over a million acres in size. Maybe I'm reading the sentence wrong. To me it seems like Crowley is telling us that the reservation is a single building and that it has barracks and outbuildings near it.
The old man carries a bottle of "corn liquor" in one hand. He drinks from it and:
He remembered the days before there were buildings like this, or of any kind, on the land--the days when he had been known as a great warrior, a great hunter. But that was a long time ago. Now he was known as a drunk.
Woah. The book is being marketed as for children in fourth through eighth grade. I wonder if, by that age, a typical nine-year-old has the drunken-Indian stereotype as part of his "knowledge" of American Indians? While alcoholism is something we contend with in American Indian communities, it is a part of all-of-America. Will a teacher who uses this book point that out?
I wonder who this great warrior is? I wonder what tribe he is? Did Crowley base him on a real person? We never learn who the name of this great warrior. Crowley doesn't tell us. Given the way Crowley portrays the soldiers (Jenkins and Lumpkin), it seems to me they would have heralded the conditions under which the life of this "great warrior" came to an end. They would know who he was.
The old man gets to a corral and falls down to his knees in the snow. He mumbles a song that seems to call a "shadowy presence" from the darkness. The old man drops the blanket from his shoulders, takes a string of bear claws from his neck and holds it out to the presence. Then, he collapses.
Chapter One
Lionel is in the "Chalk Bluff boarding school."
Ok! That makes sense. The "Chalk Bluff reservation" in the prologue is an error. The author meant to say "Chalk Bluff boarding school."
Lionel's older sister is also there. Her name is Beatrice. She's 12 and he's nine. Their mother died of tuberculosis in 1903.
That information provides the year. Doing the math, the year is 1915.
Beatrice says their mother died long before 1903. She says her mother died "the day they started calling our land this-here reservation." Lionel and Beatrice were sent to the boarding school shortly after she died and have been there now for six years.
According to the timeline on the Blackfeet Nation's website, the reservation was established in 1873. In order for her to be somewhat aware of the impact of what the reservation meant to the Blackfeet, she would need to be a pre-teen or teen, born in the late 1860s. That would mean that she gave birth to the children when she was in her thirties. Doing the math, Beatrice was born in 1897 and Lionel in 1900.
The school the children are at is "run by the Brothers from the church, but overseen by the government men, soldiers who were charged with maintaining the peace and some semblance of order."
"Brothers" tells me Chalk Bluff is might be a mission school. Again referring to the Blackfeet Nation timeline, Chalk Bluff could be based on St. Peter's Mission, established in 1879.It is no longer in use as either a school or church.
Beatrice speaks to Lionel in their language. Lionel tells her she'll get whipped if they hear her doing that. She is rebellious, not wearing the clothes they want her to wear. And, she's got long hair. She had been sick when "the new regulations came from the East." The regulations dictate how girls' hair would be cut.
I'm guessing Crowley (the author) used some of Darrel Kipp's work on language to get this information. Kipp is Blackfeet and runs a Blackfeet language immersion school. I wonder if I can find a copy of those regulations? Cutting hair was standard practice when the government boarding schools were established in the early 1880s. Was that not the standard at all the schools? Was there a directive in 1915 about that?
Chapter Two
Lionel sits up. Brother Finn has shoved his bed and is shouting in Latin, "Up. Up. Today is your day to serve your Lord our Savior!"
Latin? Hmmm... Not sure about that. I'll see what I can find out.
Lionel and Beatrice go outside. He thinks about their grandfather, who lives a day's ride from the school. Beatrice makes an offering using tobacco. He taught Beatrice to do that when she was nine years old. She's been doing it now for three years "despite the Brothers' and soldiers' rules." Lionel hopes that nobody sees her.
Crowley doesn't say she tries to do it secretly, just that she does it. That surprises me.
Lionel sees a man kneeling in the snow at the far end of the corral. He goes to the man, says hello, and asks the man if he's all right. Lionel realizes that
The kneeling man was frozen. Frozen solid. His exposed skin was the facing gray color of the morning, and a silver layer of frost covered him from head to toe. In one hand, almost as though he were handing it to Lionel, was a string of bear claws; in the other hand was a green glass bottle.
Lionel takes the bear claw necklace and puts it in his pocket just as Sargeant Haskell Jenkins walks up.
I find it hard to believe that a person could freeze in that position...
Jenkins' face has a scar on it. He tells ladies he got it from "fierce savages" in "the defense of this Great Nation" but Lionel knows it came from a "drunken debacle" with a log-cutting machine at the Wyoming State Fair. Lionel starts thinking of the man as "the Frozen Man." Jenkins kicks the body and then takes money from the man's pocket and the man's hunting knife. Jenkins' friend (also a soldier), Lumpkin, appears and takes the bottle. He looks up and sees Beatrice sitting on the corral fence watching him. Lionel is sure that she will stay there to make sure the men do nothing else to the corpse.
Lumpkin reaches out and grabs Beatrice's jacket and the horse, Ulysses, rears up as though by her will. Brother Finn arrives, goes to the Frozen Man, and "knelt down to feel his forehead." Finn and the children start to the chapel for Mass and Jenkins says they'll bury the man. Jenkins calls out to Beatrice that her hair is too long and that he will cut it for her. Lionel sees him "give Beatrice a scalping sign behind Brother Finn's back."
I don't know what a scalping sign is...
Chapter Three
From inside the chapel, Lionel watches Jenkins and Lumpkin. First they drank the rest of the liquor, and then tried to lift the body. But the kneeling position with arm outstretched made it difficult. Instead of praying, Beatrice starts singing a song. Lionel joins her. They sing louder and won't stop when the priest tells them to stop. He grabs both children. The priest tells her the song is gibberish, and Beatrice counters by calling the Latin prayers gibberish. The priest says
I will not have you disrespecting the Lord with some half-cocked pagan philosophies in His house---or anywhere else, for that matter.
The priest and Beatrice continue to trade words. The priest throws her out the church door and calls to the soldiers to come get her and cut her hair. They keep Lionel in the church.
Chapter Four
Still inside the chapel, Lionel sees the soldiers grab Beatrice and use her head to break the ice in the trough. Her ear is bleeding and he sees the blood on the white snow. One of them has sheep shears they plan to use to cut her hair. They force her head under the water twice. Lionel runs from the chapel to her, with Brother Thomas behind him. The horse, Ulysses, is rearing near the trough. When the soldiers bring Beatrice up out of the water again, she grabs the sheers and rams them through Jenkins hand, pinning his hand to the wood of the trough. Beatrice scrambles away, but Jenkins frees his hand and goes after her. Lionel, now riding Ulysses, races to her and they ride away.
That's a really intense scene. Intense and violent.
Chapter Five
Lionel and Beatrice spend a night outside and the next day they arrive at the "two hundred forty acre plot of Big Bull Boss Ribs."
Chapter Six
Big Bull Boss Ribs is Blackfeet. As Lionel and Beatrice ride up, a boy named Corn Poe (the son of Big Bull Boss Ribs) tells them that his pa is not fond of trespassers. Corn Poe is the ninth of thirteen children. He was born prematurely, is small, has poor lungs, and is considered a runt. Big Bull considers his premature birth a bad sign.
Big Bull Boss Ribs, wearing a bowler derby with "a cluster of goose feathers trailing off the back brim" is "gnawing" on an old ham bone. He throws it aside to some dogs and asks about Ulysses. As Lionel and Beatrice tell him they're looking for Milk River, Big Bull's wife appears in the doorway. Lionel is surprised that she is white.
Big Bull tells Lionel and Beatrice they may be hung for stealing the horse because the soldiers are trying to break the Blackfeet from stealing horses. Corn Poe says "They'll hang ya, alright" and Big Bull says to him "Who asked you anything?" He throws a second ham hock at Corn Poe and hits him in the head. Corn Poe "eagerly picked it up and began to gnaw at it much like his father." Big Bull then calls his son a "little half-breeded sonuvabitch." Big Bull laughs and laughs at Beatrice and Lionel as they ride away.
I'm not sure what bothers me more... "Gnaw" on bones? Come on, Crowley (and editors)! Why are you, in 2010, using language that is most often used to describe the ways that animals eat? And how is it that Big Bull Boss Ribs treats his son that way? He sounds more like a person from one of those peoples that would leave a baby like that to die of exposure!
Chapter Seven
Beatrice figures out someone is following them. It turns out to be Corn Poe. Beatrice knocks him down in the snow. He tries to fight back but she's got the best of him. She asks why he is following them, and he says "Get offa me you chicken-livered jack---" She pushes his face into the snow and he calls out "You're gonna freeze my eyeballs right out of my head, you idjit!" She lets him up. He is crying and takes a small knife from his pocket and tells her "I'll teach you to mess with Corn Poe Boss Ribs" and tries to jab her with the knife. She easily knocks it from his hand. He cries and tells her that she's lucky he's all wet or she'd be dead.
Next he pulls out half of a ham hock. Lionel thinks he's going to try to kill Beatrice with the ham hock. Corn Poe says he was only trying to help them by giving them food and asks why they shoved him in the snow. Lionel says "Hell, you was trying to kill us."
I find the dialog between the three a bit ludicrous. Does Lionel really think Corn Poe was going to use the ham hock to kill his sister?! And what happened there with Lionel's more correct manner of speaking?! He sounds like Corn Poe now!
Beatrice offers Corn Poe a hand up. They apologize, and he gives Lionel the ham. He eats some, she eats some, and Corn Poe eats some of it, too. As Corn Poe finishes (again gnawing) the ham hock he tells them that his father would skin him alive if he found out that a girl had beat him, and that he'd given them the ham hock. Corn Poe says "He hates Injuns, despitin' the fact that he is one." The three get on Ulysses and continue on.
I wonder if, later in the book, we'll learn just why Big Boss hates "Injuns?!" Is this a case of internalized racism?
Chapter Eight
The three children continue on their way to find Lionel and Beatrice's grandfather. At one point, Lionel and Beatrice (but not Corn Poe) see what seems to be "a deer with very large antlers looking at them, almost spying on them." It comes closer to them. Beatrice sets out to investigate, telling Lionel and Corn Poe to wait there. The two boys wait... "As it got closer, it began to look more and more like the body of a man with a deer's head." Corn Poe thinks its an apparition. It calls out to them in a language they don't understand. Corn Poe runs, telling Lionel it is going to kill them.
Then the creature spoke again, this time in English. As it came closer Lionel could see that it was "definitely some sort of man." It moves easily on the deep snow that the children have been floundering through, which seems to confirm Corn Poe's assertion that it is a ghost. As Lionel waits, it comes closer and he sees it is wearing snowshoes, and that's why it was able to move so quickly over the snow.
At ten paces away, it asks "What in the hell are you children doing way out here in weather like this, anyhow?" Lionel sees that the deer head was actually a hood---a hood worn by an old man. The cowl covered the sides of his face and was fashioned from hide and antlers to mimic a deer's head. Beneath the hood, his face was dark with deep creases around his eyes and mouth. Two thick braids with feathers woven into them fell onto his broad shoulders.
He continues to question Lionel (Corn Poe has run off):
"Well, what's it going to be? You gonna run off like your friend over there and hide in a hole like a rabbit, or are you gonna stand up and tell me what the hell you're doing out here? Out here on my land?"
At that point, Beatrice comes up behind the man, riding a mule. He spins around, pulling a pistol from his coat. Lionel lunges at the man, but he keeps Lionel at bay as he points the pistol at Beatrice. He tells her to get off his mule, but she rides closer to them. The man recognizes her:
"Beatrice?" the man stuttered in disbelief, then spun to face Lionel. "So... you're Lionel. I should have seen it in your eyes. I'm slippin' in my old age, I tell ya."
The man is their grandfather. He tells Lionel that last time he saw Lionel, he was two feet tall.
There's a lot going on there, in chapter eight! This man sounds (in speech and disposition) just like Big Bull Boss Ribs! And then he recognizes Beatrice. Recall that in an earlier chapter, Crowley says that the grandfather saw Beatrice when she was nine years old, and spent enough time with her then to teach her some Blackfeet ways. I'm guessing he would also have seen Lionel at that same time. Lionel would have been six years old.... But, the grandfather says, last time he saw Lionel he was two feet tall. That sounds to me like a toddler... (barely). Maybe this past meeting will be fleshed out later in the novel.
I can't move to the next chapter without commenting on that hood! What was Crowley looking at when he developed that item? Looking around my sources, I see some Blackfeet headdresses with buffalo horns, but none with deer antlers. I suppose it is possible, but, why is this grandfather wearing it? He's hunting, so maybe he's trying to be in camouflage? And the feathers "woven" into the braids? Not sure about that either. Maybe "woven" was just a poor word choice.
Chapter Nine
The grandfather (now called "Grandpa") takes the children to his cabin where they eat. Beatrice tells Grandpa what happened, starting with the Frozen Man. He tells Beatrice that the government "can't be too happy" that the kids ran off, and that he's sure the soldiers will come looking for the kids. Beatrice says she's never going back. Lionel, thinking about the bear claws in his pocket, asks Grandpa where the Frozen Man went to when he died. Lionel starts to say what they were told at school, but Grandpa cuts him off. He then tells the children the Blackfeet creation story about Napi, the Old Man. Lionel falls asleep.
Chapter Ten
Lionel wakes and sees that Grandpa has woven red and blue flannel strips into Beatrice's braids. She also has one of Grandpa's hunting knives, hung from a beaded belt, around her waist. Grandpa then lends Beatrice a red-tailed hawk feather, tying it onto her braid. Lionel goes outside to the outhouse, thinking about the creation story he heard at school compared to the one Grandpa told him. When he gets back inside, he sees bundles of provisions (including a rifle) that he and Beatrice will need for their travels. Grandpa will take Corn Poe back to his family and, hopefully, draw the soldiers after them, thereby giving the children some more time to get away. He tells the children that once he leaves Corn Poe, he'll try to find them.
Grandpa notes that a snow storm is coming. Before sending them off, he tells them to pay attention to what's around them:
That school and them government men tried to kill that in ya. You've got to find and listen to it. Listen to the animals, the wind, the mountains. We may not speak the same language no more, but they're talkin' to ya. It's up to you if you choose to listen."
Grandpa then:
took a long braid of twisted sweet grass from his jacket and lit the end. He raised it high above his head and began to sing.
Grandpa gives the children advice and a blessing and sends them off, alone? I'm not sure how likely that is, but for Crowley, I guess it makes for a good story!
Chapter Eleven
As they ride Ulysses, Beatrice tells Lionel that a long time ago, their grandfather had been forced to join the "new government's army, and that he had been taking by a large boat across a great body of water where they fought other men who spoke different languages." Grandpa's brothers died there, and the army gave Grandpa a medal. He didn't want it, though, and buried it for his brothers on the river bank.
What war was that? Grandpa must be between 50 and 80 years old. It is 1915, so, it had to be a war fought somewhere between 1850 and 1900. Could it be the Spanish-American War? Or the Philippine-American War?
Beatrice also tells Lionel more about Napi. Late that day they reach a barbed wire fence that Beatrice thinks is the boundary of the reservation. Neither one had ever crossed that boundary before. Beatrice asks Lionel if he is ready to do it, because they might never be allowed to come back to the reservation. Lionel says "I guess" and they crossed through "a gaping hole in the fence, leaving the reservation and all that they had ever known." That night, wrapped in a buffalo robe, they "slept off the reservation for the first time in their lives."
According to the Blackfeet Nation timeline, a fence was built around their entire reservation in 1903. It was removed in 1909. Recall Starfish is set in 1915. I wonder if "off the reservation" was a phrase the children would have used at that time?
Chapter Twelve
The children ride on...
Chapter Thirteen
The children find a cabin in a snow-covered meadow that provides shelter from the storm. They start a fire.
PART TWO
A man with a "slight Caribbean accent" looks down into the meadow. He cups his hands, makes the sound of a barred owl. A small boy replies and then appears. He's on horseback, leading two other horses laden with "loads wrapped in heavy waxed canvas." The man says they best not stop at the cabin because someone is there. The boy doesn't speak. He nods. The man smiles and they move on. The man's name is Avery John Hawkins.
A lot of info! It is provided before the next chapter starts. I guess all of that will make sense later...
Chapter Fourteen
A wolverine is in the cabin with the children. The chapter is about how they get it out. At the close of the chapter, Lionel says he's going to do as Grandpa told them, and think about that wolverine, that he's going to keep his eyes open and listen.
Chapter Fifteen
The children explore the cabin and find an old trunk and a phonograph and hard wax cylinders. They figure out how to work it. They put on clothes they found in the trunk (a silk gown and a coat with long tails and a top hat) and dance to the music. Three weeks pass. Their provisions run low and Beatrice decides they should hunt for food. Beatrice fired the rifle twice but missed the animals she'd been aiming at. Suddenly she froze and tells Lionel there's someone else in the woods. He listens, doesn't hear anything, and then heard or felt someone behind him. He turns around, and two paces away is their grandfather.
So, he snuck up on them? They had a rifle. Wasn't he worried they'd shoot at him? Seems to me he'd call out to them, glad to see them. Instead, he does what Indians in westerns do.... silently sneaks up...
Chapter Sixteen
Grandpa kills a deer using a bow and arrow that he had made "based on what Napi the Old Man had taught the Blackfeet a long time ago." He tells the children killing the deer with the bow and arrow instead of a rifle is more honorable, that it shows a mutual respect for the deer because its more difficult to use. It gives the deer "a fighting chance."
Is that really a Blackfeet view of bow and arrow versus rifle? Throughout this book, Crowley is imparting a lot of what passes as Blackfeet ways, but are they? I wish this book had a "for further reading" list...
As they eat, Grandpa tells them about being at Boss Ribs' place. Corn Poe got a beating from his father. Then he went to the outpost to get news about the school and the children and Ulysses. He pretended that he was there to visit the children, and feigned anger at Brother Finn and the captain for losing the children. Grandpa tells the children he doesn't like to lie, but this instance called for it, and that he enjoyed doing it in this case.
He learns that several parties went in search of the children but turned back due to bad weather. They plan to go search again in the spring. Grandpa seems happier now than before. And, he's wearing a second hawk's feather in his hair.
A second feather? Earlier he has feathers woven into both braids. What's with the second feather? And specifying that its a hawk feather?
Beatrice and Grandpa go outside to unload supplies. Inside the cabin, Lionel picks up Grandpa's bow and arrow, fixes an arrow to the bow. Just then, Grandpa and Beatrice enter the cabin. Lionel is startled and lets the arrow fly. Grandpa leaps aside and then laughs, telling him he could get hurt messing with something he knows nothing about. He says that he'll show Lionel how to make his own bow and teach him how to shoot it.
Chapter Seventeen
The day starts with Grandpa how to smoke the deer meat (to preserve it). He tells them they'll use the bones to make tools "for ya" and the hide to make a shirt and maybe leggings. Lionel is anxious to get started on the arrows, but Grandpa says that has to wait because they need to reinforce the roof of the cabin. They go into the woods where Grandpa selects two trees. He "thanked the pines for their service" and cut them down. They tie the trees to Grandpa's mule and drag them to the cabin and hoist them upright. They spend the next few days working on a new outhouse and repairing other outbuildings near the cabin.
Crowley is attempting, here and elsewhere, to convey a Blackfeet reverence and worldview for life in the trees and animals. In some instances he's trying to do this in a matter of fact way, which is good, but again, I wonder what his source for this material is?
Grandpa tells Lionel that Napi told the "first people, the ones with the stone knives, to use this to make their arrows."
Napi told the people to go to the Great Plains and hunt buffalo. They did, but, the buffalo killed and ate the people. When Old Man found the dead hunting party, he felt bad, and decided that buffalo should not eat men. Instead, men should kill and eat buffalo.
Napi finds some of his people---ones who were still alive---and tells them he doesn't understand why they let the buffalo kill and eat them. He says that he had created the buffalo to be food for the people. One of the men says that they don't have weapons, and the buffalo does (his horns). So, Napi made a bow, and an arrow (using feathers from birds to help the arrow fly straight) and sent the people to hunt the buffalo.
Most of this Napi material is from George Bird Grinnell. Stories he recorded are linked to from the Blackfeet Nation website. The bow and arrow making, however, seems compressed. The sticks used to make the arrows have to be dried out over time before they're used for arrows.
Grandpa shows the children how to prepare the ground for planting. As the children work, Grandpa is weaving grass, leaves, and tree branches together. The children wonder what he's making. When he's finished, its a straw man (scarecrow). One night, Grandpa tells the children that the soldiers never made them leave, that he's pretty sure they're the only tribe whose reservation is on their own hunting grounds rather than where the government told them to go. He says "We stayed where we were, and although our land is a bit smaller, we're still here."
Grandpa may not know it, but they aren't the only tribe who was moved. Crowley knows it (I hope), but he chooses to have Grandpa not know.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, when its still dark, Grandpa wakes up covered in sweat. He's been having a dream, Grandpa tells him. The two go outside, leaving Beatrice sleeping inside. Lionel thinks about his dream. In it, he's alone (no Grandpa, Beatrice, or Corn Poe). The Frozen Man, however, is in the dream, walking toward Lionel. Lionel is afraid, wondering about the bear claw necklace, that perhaps the man is angry at him. But, the man holds out his arm towards Lionel, and in his hand is the bear claw necklace. Suddenly Jenkins approaches on his horse. Lionel steps in front of the Froze Man to protect him. That's when he woke up from the dream.
Grandpa tells him dreams are powerful, and that he should pay attention to them, just the same as he does to the trees, mountains, and animals. They sit down. Lionel starts crying, and decides to tell Grandpa about the bear claws. He hands them to Grandpa who studies the beading and the leather. He tells Lionel its better than Lionel have it (rather than the government men).
Lionel asks again about where the Frozen Man went, and Grandpa says nobody really knows for sure. He tells Lionel he's sorry that Lionel has had to see "this side of our people" (the old man as a drunk?) and the governments side, too. That he is confused and that they should sit and think about it for awhile.
They sit for awhile, and then Grandpa says in a low whisper "do you smell that?" It turns out to be a grizzly bear, two hundred paces away, in the river, fishing. The bear looks at the two and walks away with a fish in its mouth. Grandpa tells Lionel "I think we can take that to mean that you have their blessings." He then ties the necklace around Lionel's neck and they go back to the cabin.
Chapter Nineteen
They figure out where the bear's den is, and Grandpa is sure the bear won't hurt them. As they walk back to the meadow, Grandpa tells them another Blackfeet story.
Chapter Twenty
When the children wake up, grandfather has new clothes for them, made from deerskin. Lionel has buckskin lettings, and Beatrice has a new shirt. Lionel thinks
with her long braids and hawk feathers, Beatrice looked like a page from the painted picture book of savages that the Brothers had showed Lionel once in the library at the boarding school.
Unlike the savage in the book who scowls, Beatrice grins. Grandpa then loads his mule and says he best get back to his cabin. He's been counting the days, and figures the soldiers are due to stop by "day after next". They do this regularly, about every ten days. Grandpa says he'll be back as soon as he can.
Hmmm.... They've done a LOT in the days since Grandpa arrived and this departure... It is not plausible! If it takes four days of travel, that means Grandpa was with the children for six days. In that time, they killed and tanned two deer, cut trees and fixed the roof, built an out house, cleaned and repaired the cabin, planted a garden, learned how to make bows and arrows, how to shoot them, found a grizzly den...
Chapter Twenty-One
Spring turns to summer. The children thrive. Their hair grows longer. They work the garden, hunt, and fish. They tan more hides and make more clothes. Still, Beatrice is worried that they don't have enough food and that they should go deeper into the woods to hunt and to see if there's any signs of the government from the school. They prepare food for their journey. Beatrice weaves feathers into Ulysses's mane. When they start out, they look like "young wanted warrior outlaws." As they travel, they're surprised there is little game. In the afternoon, they hear drumming. They sit, listening, when they're knocked from Ulysses's back. Lionel looks over and sees a "large, fat boy" standing over Beatrice,
clucking and pawing at the dirt like an overstuffed prairie chicken. The boy had feathers in his hair, and he began to squawk and occasionally jumped sideways, striking Beatrice with the end of a short stick as he did.
I think Crowley is trying to portray the boy's idea of a chicken dance and counting coup. Or is it Crowley's idea?! There is a Prairie Chicken dance, but it is not one in which the dancer acts like a chicken, clucking or squawking. Later in the book, Lionel thinks that the kids from Heart Butte are making things up.
Giving that thought to Lionel lets Crowley off the hook. It is possible that the children at an early boarding school did not know their dances and ceremonies and would have tried to recreate them in some way, but the way Crowley does it here is troubling for two reasons. First, he makes what they do sound ludicrous, which, in my view, mocks what was happening to (in this case) the Blackfeet people. Second, by placing these ideas in the heads of the children, it lets Crowley off the hook when the things the children do are, in fact, incorrect. He didn't have to do the research to get it right.
Do we have a writer who wants to create a story about a Blackfeet child, but, since he can't really get the insider-info he needs, he has his characters "playing Indian" in the way that white children would ignorantly play Indian? Do we have, in the end, "the white man's Indian" Berkhoffer writes about in his book?
There are ten more children, Lionel's age and older than Beatrice. Among them is Corn Poe. They were wearing a combination of clothes Lionel recognizes as the uniform the children at Heart Butte boarding school wear. Note: in chapter three, Lionel recounts when Chalk Bluff and Heart Butte played against each other in a football game.
Chapter Twenty-two
Corn Poe tells Lionel and Beatrice that he got tired of his father's beatings. He stole a horse and ran away. The horse died, and Corn Poe ate some of it and wandered around for three days when he came upon the group of children from Heart Butte. They had run away from school because they weren't given permission to go to fourth of July horse races and a pow wow.
That may be the Arlee Pow Wow, which has been going on for 112 years.
The Heart Butte children take Lionel and Beatrice to their camp, where they've made what they call a sweat lodge. Corn Poe says he had a vision the night before, and that they haven't eaten in two days, or had much water either, because it "helps you get your vision." They plan to do a sweat and then dance. The Heart Butte children say a few words in Blackfeet.
That they remember words but not ceremony and dance doesn't quite make sense to me...
Chapter Twenty-three
They go into the sweat lodge at sunset. Inside, Corn Poe lights sweet grass, which they pass around, inhaling the smoke. They pass around a small wooden bowl holding a paste of black ashes. They smear the paste on their faces. Lionel watches and
wasn't sure what they were trying to do, and this was the first time that it occurred to him that neither Barney nor Corn Poe did, either. It seemed like they were making this up as they went along.
I don't know if that is what happens inside a sweat. I've never done one. As noted earlier, I find Crowley's technique here problematic (saying the kids don't know what they're doing.)
Corn Poe says its time to dance. They leave the sweat lodge. It is dark night now. They go to the river, jump in, and then go back to the fire by the lodge, and begin to "shuffle around the fire to the drum, stopping occasionally to let out a yell of one sort or another." Lionel joins them and they dance, but Lionel isn't sure how long. He notices Corn Poe leave the circle and return with a bottle of corn alcohol. He takes a drink of it and lets out a yelp. He hands it to the next boy and the next, and they take turns drinking until the bottle is empty. They continue to dance, now drunk, nearly falling into the fire. Lionel and Beatrice do not drink. After a while, the kids all collapse, sleeping.
Why did Crowley introduce the drinking? What is the point? I don't know...
And now, I quit. I've given this book a careful read, from beginning to end, but I'm going to stop making detailed notes here.
In the remaining chapters (twenty-four through thirty-six), Lionel and Beatrice and Corn Poe take off, meet a man named Avery John Hawkins and his son who they spend the summer with in the cabin (they're black and Lionel is surprised that Avery's blood is red), are pursued by the soldiers who whip Lionel, and then saved by the Captain (who is the original owner of Ulysses). With Brother Finn (he was also in the pursuit), all but Hawkins and his son go back to the cabin. Throughout the story, the illness for which Beatrice was in the infirmary at the beginning of the book has continued (she coughs a lot), and she dies that night. The next day, they bury her in a traditional Blackfeet way (place her body in a tree) and Lionel, Corn Poe, and Grandpa return to Chalk Bluff where Lionel and Corn Poe's long hair is cut and their clothes replaced with uniforms. The two boys look at each and laugh "beyond control" thinking about the last year and their experiences. Eventually, the boys and Grandpa buy some cattle and have a small herd. That's it. The end.
Oh! I didn't mention the STARFISH, for which the book is named. It appears in chapter 27. It is, in fact, a starfish that Avery John Hawkins has in his bag. It was given to him by his mother. It came from the island where she was born. Hawkins tells Lionel it was a fish in the ocean one time, but now it is dead because "Sometimes when you take something out of where or how it's supposed to be, it'll just... well... it just dies." Lionel asks "everything?" and Hawkins says "Naw, not everything, some things change, they adapt." I guess Lionel's people and way of life is like the starfish... Not dead, but adapting.
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