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  Omakayas was still for a long time. Then she said, “I will always miss her. I owe her my life. But saving me was not the reason I loved her. I loved her…because I loved her.”

  That night, Omakayas lay outside and looked long at the stars. She held Old Tallow’s spirit bundle. She felt Old Tallow’s hard arms holding her when she was very small. Her sorrow was too great for weeping. It was larger than tears. For the suffering of the noble old woman who had loved Omakayas better than her dogs was a mysterious thing. The pain and degradation had made Old Tallow stronger, but also kind to the helpless. Old Tallow had been just. She had known exactly how long to live. When her life would count the most, she freely gave it. She was proof, in her love, of a love greater than we know. For how, in that heart treated worse than a dog’s, had the capacity for such deep kindness grown?

  Across from Omakayas’s woman lodge, there was a beautiful island, a perfect hump of stone big enough for only a pine tree or two. As Omakayas held her spirit bundle on the second day of her fast, she thought she saw someone moving on the island. It was the wind, it was a woman, a bear woman. Old Tallow. Perhaps she saw someone out there, perhaps she did not. As soon as the year was finished, Omakayas decided, she would place Old Tallow’s spirit bundle on that island. That would be Old Tallow’s island, and Omakayas would think of it as a sacred resting place for her spirit every time she saw it.

  That day, Nokomis told Omakayas many things about what life would be like as a woman. She told her that she could not step over streams, guns, or the clothing of men. She told her that for one year she could not eat berries all summer.

  “I can’t go a whole summer without berries!” said Omakayas.

  Nokomis smiled at her. “You’ll survive. We all do. After that, you’ll live a long time and so will your children.”

  Nokomis told her how a woman loves a man and how a man loves a woman. She told her how her babies would be born, and how to take care of them after they were born. She told Omakayas that she must always remain in full possession of her senses and never drink the ishkodewaaboo, or whiskey, that the traders used to steal the minds of the Anishinabeg. She told her how to read the sky and how to cook stews from lichen and roots. She told her how to predict bad weather, visitors, sickness. She told her how to hunt an animal in her dreams. Many of the things Nokomis talked about, they’d already done together, so they also made plans. They would trade for seeds to plant a garden. They would replenish their store of medicines.

  “And we will live here,” said Omakayas, “won’t we? For a long time to come?”

  Nothing would ever take the place of her original home, but Omakayas also loved this place. She loved this lake with its magical islands, each so different, and now there was one that would contain Old Tallow’s spirit. She loved the mist and rocks, the reefs with their hordes of pelicans, the dark pines with the vast nests of eagles in their branches.

  “Yes, we will live here,” said Nokomis, “and I’ll make certain that you know everything that I know. Let’s make something for every member of your family. It’s important that you give them gifts, too.”

  “I still have these,” said Omakayas, smiling.

  From the striker pack at her waist, she took the bark packet of quills that she had pulled from her brother’s nose and face almost twelve moons ago. Omakayas had promised to make something for him, and now she smiled thoughtfully as she sorted the quills, remembering all that had happened in that year of danger and love, sacrifice and surprise—that porcupine year.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE ON THE OJIBWE LANGUAGE

  Obijbwemowin was originally a spoken, not written, language, and for that reason spellings are often idiosyncratic. There are also many, many dialects in use. To make the Obijbwemowin in the text easier to read, I have sometimes used phonetic spellings. I apologize to the reader for any mistakes and refer those who would like to encounter the language in depth to A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe, edited by John D. Nichols and Earl Nyholm; to the Oshkaabewis Native Journal, edited by Anton Treuer; and to the curriculum developed by Dennis Jones at the University of Minnesota.

  GLOSSARY AND PRONUNCIATION GUIDE OF OJIBWE TERMS

  aadizookaan (ahd-zoh-kahn): a traditional story that often helps explain how to live as an Ojibwe

  aadizookaanag (ahd-zoh-khan-ahg): the plural form of aadizookaan

  akiwenzii (ah-kee-wayn-zee): an old man

  ambe (ahm-bay): come on!

  amik (ah-mik): beaver

  amikwag (ah-mik-wag): the plural form of amik

  Anishinabe (AH-nish-in-AH-bay): the original name for the Ojibwe or Chippewa people, a Native American group who originated in and live mainly in the northern North American woodlands. There are currently Ojibwe reservations in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ontario, Manitoba, Montana, and Saskatchewan

  Anishinabeg (AH-nish-in-AH-bayg): the plural form of Anishinabe

  asiniig (ah-sin-ig): the plural form of asin, meaning stone

  baakwaanatig (bahk-wahn-ah-tig): staghorn sumac

  bagizowim (bug-i-zo-wim): mugwort

  bekaa (bay-kah): wait

  bizindaan (bih-zin-dahn): listen (note: “stand quietly” would be bizaan….)

  boozhoo (boo-SHOE): an Ojibwe greeting invoking the great teacher of the Ojibwe, Nanabozho

  Bwaanag (BWAHN-ug): the Dakota and Lakota people, another Native tribe, whose reservations spread across the Great Plains

  Bwaan-akiing (Bwahn-ah-keeng): the land of the Dakota and Lakota people

  chimookoman (chi-MOOK-oh-man): word meaning “big knife,” used to describe a white person or non-Indian

  chimookomanag (chi-MOOK-oh-man-ug): the plural form of chimookoman

  daga (dah-gah): please

  dagasana (dah-gah-sah-na): an especially polite please

  dagwaaging (dah-GWAG-ing): fall

  Deydey (DAY-day): Daddy

  gaag (gahg): porcupine

  gaawiin (gah-WEEN): no

  gaye niin (guy-ay-niin): me too

  geget (GEH-geht): surely, or for emphasis, truly or really

  gego (gay-go): exclamation meaning “stop that”

  gigawaabamin (gih-gah-WAH-bah-min): I will see you

  giiwedin (gee-way-din): north

  giizhawenimin (gih-zha-WAY-nih-min): I love you

  gijigijigaaneshiinh (gih-jih-gih-jih-gah-nay-shee): chickadee

  Gizhe Manidoo (Gih-zhay Man-ih-do): the great, kind spirit

  hiyn (high-n): exclamation of sympathy or chagrin, meaning “that’s too bad”

  howah (HOW-ah): a sound of approval

  indiy (in-die): the hind quarters of a person; also used in the plural form, indiyan (in-die-yawn)

  ishkodewaaboo (ish-KODAY-wah-boo): alcohol

  izhaadah (iz-yah-dah): let’s go

  jiibayag (gee-by-ug): ghost

  kinnikinnick (kin-ik-ih-nik): a mixture of smoking materials

  majaan (mah-jahn): go away!

  makak (mah-KUK): a container of birchbark folded and often stitched together with basswood fiber. Ojibwe people use these containers today, especially for traditional feasts

  makakoon (mah-kah-koon): the plural form of makak

  makizin (MAH-kah-zin): footwear usually made of tanned moose hide or deerskin, often trimmed with beads and/or fur

  makizinan (MAH-kah-zin-ahn): plural form of makizin

  Manidoog (mah-nih-doog): gods, spirits

  manoomin (mah-NOH-min): wild rice; the word means “the good seed”

  memegwesi (may-may-gway-see): little person

  memegwesiwag (may-may-gway-see-wug): the plural form of memegwesi

  mewinzha (may-wih-zha): a long time ago

  miigwech (mee-gwetch): thank you

  minopogwad ina (min-oh-poh-gwud in-ah): does it taste good?

  Nanabozho (nan-ah-boh-ZHO): the great teacher of the Ojibwe, who used his comical human side to teach lessons, often through hilarious mistakes

  n’dawnis (in-DAH-nis): my daughter<
br />
  nimikwenimaa (nee-mik-wayn-ih-mah): I am pleased

  nimishoomis (nih-mih-shoo-mis): my grandfather

  ninaabemish (nin-ah-baym): my husband (with teasing affection)

  nindinawemaganidok (nin-din-ah-way-mah-gahn-ih-doke): my relatives

  Nokomis (no-KOH-mis): grandmother

  Nookoo (noo-koo): shortened version of Nokomis

  omiimii (oh-mee-mee): mourning dove

  saa (sah): a polite addition to speech

  waabashkiki (wah-bash-kih-kih): swampland

  waabooz (WAH-booz): rabbit

  waaboozoog (WAH-booz-oog): the plural form of waabooz

  weyweeb (way-weeb): hurry up!

  weyass (wee-yass): meat

  wigwam (WIHG-wahm): a birchbark house

  wiikenh (wee-kayh): sweet flag

  wiindigoo (WIN-di-goo): a giant monster of Ojibwe teachings, often made of ice and associated with the starvation and danger of deep winter

  wiishkobi-mashkosi (weesh-koh-bee-mash-koh-see): sweetgrass

  zagimeg (zah-gee-mayg): mosquitoes

  A FEW BOOK NOTES

  An Ojibwe friend of mine named Delia, from Manitoulin Island, once had a porcupine for a pet. She told me that the little fellow liked to drink coffee and milk from a cup that it held in its paws. Nevertheless, I would not recommend taking a porcupine home for a pet. I would suggest an innocuous and harmless creature like a guinea pig, or at prickliest, a hedgehog.

  There were several routes into the fur country of what is now northern Minnesota. Hoping to meet trading partners or other close members of the family, Omakayas’s family decided to enter that wealth of lakes via what is now the St. Louis River.

  The story that Deydey tells about his father was taken from Grace Lee Nute’s book The Voyageur. In a haunting vignette, she writes “the laughable tale” of a half-breed boy who seeks his father just as Deydey sought his own, among the fur traders and French voyageurs who so often made liaisons with Native women. That long-ago boy was greeted with derisive laughter when he stepped up to his father to identify himself. I could not forget how that boy must have felt, and imagined that his wounded pride gave a fierce and unforgiving cast to his soul.

  Conflict and war between the Ojibwe and the Dakota for hunting territory marked the time this book takes place, but there were also surprising acts of peace and friendship, which presaged the good relationship between the two groups today.

  I was struck by an incident recounted in Being Dakota: Tales & Traditions of the Sisseton & Wahpeton by Amos E. Oneroad and Alanson B. Skinner. The meeting between the Wahpeton Dakota warrior Running-walker and the Ojibwe warrior Jingling-cloud concludes this way: “The Ojibway chief gave his best horse to Running-walker and a lot of mococs of rice and maple sugar. Then the Sioux and Ojibway mingled giving presents and the Ojibway were brought into camp where they were told where to pitch their tents. That evening, Running-walker invited all the Ojibway to his lodge, while Jingling-cloud singed a deer whole and made the ‘chief dish’ for them.”

  The two warriors then thanked each other and declared that they considered themselves each half Dakota and half Ojibwe.

  So the fellowship with which the members of Omakayas’s family are greeted by the Bwaanag, or Dakota, was historical fact.

  Old Tallow is based on a short missionary journal description of an Ojibwe woman who lived near Red Cliff. May her dog-loving warrior spirit never die!

  Omakayas’s family ends up together in Lake of the Woods, which is a mysterious and beautiful place indeed. The next book will be set there in the late 1860s, when Omakayas is the mother of twins who get into trouble even more often than their uncle Quill.

  I would like to thank my mother, Rita Gourneau Erdrich, for helping me along the trail, as well as my daughters, Persia, Pallas, Aza, and Kiizh. I would also like to thank my editor, Tara Weikum, and Elizabeth Hall for her own work and her support of other writers.

  About the Author

  LOUISE ERDRICH lives with her family and their dogs in Minnesota. Ms. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She grew up in North Dakota and is of German-American and Chippewa descent. She is the author of many critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling novels for adults, including LOVE MEDICINE, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and her latest novel THE PLAGUE OF DOVES, also published by HarperCollins.

  THE PORCUPINE YEAR continues the story that began with THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE, a National Book Award finalist, and THE GAME OF SILENCE, winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and was inspired when Ms. Erdrich and her mother, Rita Gourneau Erdrich, were researching their own family history. You can visit her online at www.louiseerdrichbooks.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  ALSO BY LOUISE ERDRICH

  FOR CHILDREN

  The Birchbark House

  Grandmother’s Pigeon

  ILLUSTRATED BY JIM LAMARCHE

  The Range Eternal

  ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE JOHNSON AND LOU FANCHER

  The Game of Silence

  NOVELS

  Love Medicine

  The Beet Queen

  Tracks

  The Bingo Palace

  Tales of Burning Love

  The Antelope Wife

  The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

  The Master Butchers Singing Club

  Four Souls

  The Painted Drum

  The Plague of Doves

  WITH MICHAEL DORRIS

  The Crown of Columbus

  POETRY

  Jacklight

  Baptism of Desire

  Original Fire

  NONFICTION

  The Blue Jay’s Dance

  Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country

  Credits

  Jacket art © by Louise Erdrich

  Copyright

  THE PORCUPINE YEAR. Copyright © 2008 by Louise Erdrich. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub © Edition JULY 2008 ISBN: 9780061972591

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