LITMIR.BIZ

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and guard dog. I’m depending on the two of you to take on this great responsibility in my stead until I can take over.”

      Within the hour the village was packed and gone. We kept three dogs for sentries, and they took the rest to help carry all their belongings. It would take them a full day of travel, but they will be in a safe place there. Our people had used this place many times when we felt threatened. There were caves, fresh water, fish, and game nearby.

      With only Mitigomij, Wàgosh, Wajashk, and me left in camp, we settled back and waited for our Omàmiwinini brethren to come. It was time to paint our faces and pray to Kitchi Manitou.

      13

      The Island People

      I WOKE THE NEXT morning to the sound of rain on our lodge roofs with the accompanying thunder and lightning. This weather would help us in many ways. It would bring the Hochelagan canoes to shore, and they would be so anxious to make shelter from the rain that they may let their guard down.

      We were constantly struggling to have enough to eat and always battling the elements to stay warm or dry. Add the constant threat of our enemies and it was a life of never-ending vigilance. Our whole survival as a nation depended on the health of our women. They cooked, looked after the children, maintained our lodges, prepared skins for clothing, and foraged for berries, fruit, and other food. When we brought game home, they smoked and dried it. They gave birth to our children with sometimes deathly consequences. Our future existence depended on the survival of our children. Kitchi Manitou had given the men the power to hunt and fish and make war. Nations waged war for two main reasons: to weaken their enemies and to capture women and children. With the capture of the women and children, the tribe could remain strong. Children grew up to be warriors and wives. Without either, the tribe would wither up and die like a fall flower. A community of men would die out eventually, but a village of women and children would survive and prosper because the children could grow and reproduce. While Nokomis fed all of us, the women were made in her likeness to carry on her work. When a man married, he always went to the matriarchal home. This was another reason woman wielded so much power. They brought warriors to the family unit, strengthening the village. The wife’s mother was treated with great reverence and was never talked to directly by her daughter’s husband. He and the mother-in-law had to talk to each other through his wife or another family member, never person to person.

      Until then, I had not lost any of my brothers to another family unit. Mitigomij and Wàgosh were unmarried. Kàg’s wife was captured in a raid on a Haudenosaunee camp many years ago when she was young. My wife, Wàbananang, was the daughter of Nìjamik. Mònz, our brother-in-law, was the son of Pijakì and married to our sister Mànabìsì (Swan). Kàg’s first wife was of the Nibachis. A year after they were married she and their newborn son both died at childbirth. Kàg left his wife’s family unit and came home to us. A couple of summers later, on a raid against the Haudenosaunee, he captured a young woman and brought her back to be his wife. Her name was Kinebigokesì (Cricket), the mother of the twins.

      While Kitchi Manitou only gave us this land to oversee, we had to defend our interests. If someone else tried to force us off or threaten our families, we had to stand and fight. If we didn’t and were submissive, we would be under their mìgàdinàn wàgàkwad (war axe) and have to suffer the consequences of any decisions our enemies made for us. That usually meant death or a completely different way of life than we had been used to, being their slave.

      My thoughts were now on what the next few days would hold for us. Would there be death? These battles were always brutal because of the weapons we used — arrows and lances that tore as they entered the body. Hand-to-hand combat with knives that ripped and cut. War axes that broke bones and caused tremendous head wounds. If you were wounded and managed to live through the battle, you could bleed to death or die from infection if the Shaman or your fellow warriors couldn’t get to you to administer the healing plants. If you were wounded and your tribe had retreated, you could expect no quarter from the enemy. All warriors were considered a threat. If captured alive, you were usually tortured or forced to run the gauntlet. And if you survived the gauntlet, sometimes you were adopted into the tribe or suffered painful retribution from your enemy. Surrender was almost always worse than death. The only time a battle was usually one-sided was when one of the opponents had been able to lay a successful ambush or if the numbers of one of the opposing forces totally outnumbered the other.

      The life of the Omàmiwinini was forever between life and death at any known time. Cluskap, the Creator Force, had fashioned this life for us, and we had to accept our fate.

      With the rain having let up a bit, we left Mitigomij to watch over the campfires. Wàgosh, Wajashk, and I went into the forest with our birch pails and collected the tree sap. We would store it in the village and when all this danger had passed, the women would boil the water down to the sweet contents.

      The forest was laden with the smells of spring and the life that the rain was giving it. For me this was the best part of the year. However, another month or so and the pikodjisi (blackfly) would hatch. After the blackfly come the sagime (mosquito). Both drove men and beast to distraction. The giant moose and wabidì (elk) would be driven out of the forest into the lakes and ponds to escape the menace. My people used the crushed root of the goldenseal plant mixed with bear fat to keep these insects away.

      We spent most of the day gathering the sap and storing it. When we were finished, Mitigomij had a meal ready for us.

      Just as dusk approached, the rain and wind picked up with increasing velocity. With the weather starting to worsen, we headed for one of our lodges. At that moment the dogs started to growl, putting us on alert. Grabbing our weapons, we headed toward where they were facing.

      “Mahingan, it’s me, Asinwàbidì.”

      “Enter, brother. We have food and a warm lodge.”

      “Mahingan, because of the storm the Hochelagans have landed in the clearing. But there is another problem!”

      “Yes, Asiniwàbidì, what is it?”

      “There is more of the enemy than first thought. They have fooled us. The warriors in the canoes were a diversion. There was another force that had travelled through the forest on the distant river bank, and they have raided the Otaguttaouernin and taken captives. Wàgosh, they have Kwìngwìshì!”

      With that Wàgosh jumped to his feet and grabbed his weapons.

      “No, Wàgosh! We must wait for our people to come back. We are not strong enough in numbers to take on the Hochelagans until they arrive! If you go now they will leave with her and kill you in the process.”

      “Mahingan, my brother, you are right. I’ll wait.”

      “Asiniwàbidì, how many captives and warriors do they have?”

      “Mahingan, it was hard to tell, but at least ten or twelve captives, all women and children. Warriors, they have twenty from the boats and another twenty-five or thirty from the woods.”

      I then realized what had happened. “They must have left the other canoes down river on the eastern bank, then had those warriors continue on foot into the forest. That way when they were spotted on the river, their numbers didn’t cause any concern. When they were past all the village fires, they ferried the group travelling on foot to this side of the river and started their raid. Their plans must have been to raid all the way down the riverbank area until they reached their canoes.

      “Warriors, our plans have changed. We will let them raid us, thinking they have caught us by surprise. When our allies reach us, we will lay the trap. Hopefully this rain stays at this intensity, keeping the Hochelagans pent up until our brothers arrive. We can’t risk attacking them. They’ll have guards out and be on edge because they are in a strange land. The captives will be well guarded. They will do nothing until they can get their canoes into calm water. Our force will have to be split to handle their two-sided attack — land and water. Hopefully enough Omàmiwinini answered our call to make this trap successful.

      “This will be our plan. All the fires in the lodges will be kept ablaze to make it look like

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