Tracks

When Fleur throws him out after his affair with Sophie, Eli comes to Nanapush’s house to stay. Nanapush has scant sympathy for Eli’s problems because the whites are buying up reservation land at a speedy pace. Disgusted by Eli’s self-centeredness when the whole reservation is in danger of being bought out from under Chippewa who do not understand what they are signing away, he nevertheless gives Eli advice: to wait until the Matchimanito family is starving and needs him to hunt, and that then Fleur will take him back.

Eli eats all of Nanapush’s winter supplies and lays about the cabin bemoaning his situation. After two days without any food, Nanapush puts his gun in Eli’s hand. Then, he lies down and uses the old ways, the old medicine, to guide Eli in his hunt. It is a perfect day for hunting moose. Nanapush visualizes each step of Eli’s hunt, and Nanapush’s voice guides Eli. Eli brings down a moose and butchers it to pack it out of the bush. He completely wraps himself in cuts of meat from the moose, until he becomes a steaming, red man.

Still in his song, Nanapush beats out the rhythm to guide Eli’s steps: he must not sweat, or he will freeze to death under the burden of the gradually freezing meat.

Nanapush praises Eli, calling him his son. Eli, only 19 years old at this time, warms under Nanapush’s praise. Eli then tells Nanapush the story of his last few months at home with Fleur. He relates that she walks into the lake at night and she does not return for many hours. He believes that she is pregnant with the lake monster’s child.

Nanapush laughs at him. He tells Eli that he is lucky that Fleur is trying to make him jealous. He now tells Eli how to get Fleur back again: Eli must start over from the beginning, wooing Fleur by appearing to be a pitiful creature, lower than a dog, so that she will take him back. Eli takes the best cuts of the moose and leaves them at Fleur’s door. She calls out to insult him; Nanapush sees this as a good sign.

Just as Nanapush predicted, the tribe splits down the middle over the cash payments offered by the government Agent for the Chippewa clans’ land allotments. On one side are Nanapush, the Kashpaws, and the remaining Pillager. The Morrisseys and the Lazarres, among others, remain on the other side.

Boy Lazarre and Clarence Morrissey kidnap Margaret and Eli on their way home from church. Lulu is with them, and she runs away safely. Though they fight, and Margaret bites Boy Lazarre viciously on the hand, which eventually causes his death, in the end they are only two old people overcome by young, strong men. While both are tied up in the Morrissey’s barn, the young men intend to take revenge upon the Kashpaw and Nanapush clans for everything—the land purchase controversy, Eli’s treatment of Sophie, and all the old resentments that have built up between the families over the years. In particular, Clarence intended to mistreat Eli’s mother, Margaret, the way that Eli mistreated his sister Sophie. The Morrissey and Lazarre clans have already taken the lumber money and now live in town; they want everyone else to do the same.

Nanapush offers to sign the land papers, and he spins a desperate yarn that he and Margaret were nearly married, and that the boys will have to kill him if they rape Margaret. In turn, his cousin Pukwan will kill them when he returns from his service in WWI. Nanapush also reminds them of Fleur and her supernatural powers.

However, he sees that “[his] words [cause] no ripple in the depth of their greed,” and continues: “I saw in Lazarre’s face that they intended us great harm” (114).

Clarence knocks Nanapush unconscious, while Margaret hisses a death song to her enemies. When Nanapush awakens, Clarence is carefully shaving Margaret’s head. Her braids, never before cut in her life, are tied in a gag over Nanapush’s mouth.

Eventually, Nanapush and Margaret are cut loose to go home. Nanapush is completely humiliated that he was so old and weak that he could not protect Margaret. However, she never shames him, only praises him for preserving her braids. Nanapush knows that he must kill both Clarence and Boy Lazarre for what they have done.

Nanapush and Margaret take Lulu home to Fleur. Upon hearing their story, Fleur cuts off her own braids, shaves her head, and goes hunting. Meanwhile, Nanapush plots revenge with Nector. Nector, a boy who embraces the modern ways, wants to take Boy Lazarre and Clarence Morrissey to court. Instead, Nanapush teaches Nector how to lay a snare to catch and kill a man. They steal Father Damien’s piano wires to make their snares.

Fleur goes hunting for Boy and Clarence in town. She enters the Morrissey house, sprinkling foul smelling powders, touching things here and there and spreading bad medicine throughout the house. Before she leaves, she takes out her sharpest knife and removes a hunk of Clarence’s hair. She does the same to Boy Lazarre, taking his hair, fingernail parings, and the tips of his eyelashes. Meanwhile, Margaret’s bite mark has caused an infection, leaving a festering red streak up Boy’s arm toward his heart.

Nanapush and Nector lay their snare on the path to Boy Lazarre’s house. While they are waiting, Nector asks Nanapush many questions about the land allotments: how lands are parceled out and what kind of fees must be paid to keep the land. Though he is only 9 years old, Nector insists that he is nearly a man. They catch Clarence, but he miraculously is able to straddle the hole with his feet. They leave him hanging by his neck, straddling the hole.

Afterward, Clarence bears the scars of his near strangling, and a sag in his lips that never goes away. As Boy cut him down, he did nearly strangle to death. Nanapush buys Margaret a beautiful black bonnet to cover her naked head; she loves it and proudly wears it everywhere. Nanapush and Margaret become a couple.

Nanapush makes a confession to Father Damien and returns the unused piano wire. A few weeks later, Nanapush, Margaret, and Fleur are trading in the store for foodstuffs when Boy Lazarre enters the store, sees Fleur, and falls down dead.

The winter grips the land more tightly and the starving time sets in. Margaret refuses to bring canned food from her house, hoping that Nanapush will move into her house. The two fight and say unforgivable things to one another concerning Nanapush’s shame at not protecting Margaret, and Margaret’s sharp tongue and shaved head. Margaret leaves, and Nanapush loses the will to keep himself alive.

Two months later, Margaret returns and revives Nanapush, who is nearly dead of starvation. Eli has saved the family by trapping a family of minks and trading their fur for food and blankets. He even buys Lulu a fancy pair of patent leather shoes, which she wears on a belt around her waist. Lulu is brash, intelligent, and spoiled.

The family moves out to Matchimanito to conserve food and travel. Eli has made things right with Fleur, and their lovemaking warms all the tribe members who fish on the lake, too hungry to care about the monster.