

The next few days everyone watches for signs of the sickness.

One visitor enters the dance lodge and shortly after arriving, dies of smallpox. The grownups discuss travel routes west and others come to visit almost every day. When Omakayas says no, Nokomis encourages her to learn to listen to them. Nokomis shows interest in Omakayas and asks if the plants are talking to her.


Nokomis prays and blesses the food before the rough winter. They return home with a small portion and now need to prepare other foods to eat during winter the family guts and dries fish, corn, and venison. It is time for the family to harvest the wild rice in Kakagon. The men disagree about whether they should move Deydey believes the white men will never be satisfied. In the fall, Deydey sits with his friends Fishtail and LaPautre to discuss how the white people are moving farther and farther west into Ojibwa land. She believes that this is the best day of Neewo’s life. Omakayas takes him outside, shares her candy with him, and gives him a stick to play with. Omakayas spends time with Baby Neewo, as her mother and grandmother head into the village to listen for news about Deydey. Omakayas loves Baby Neewo and hopes to be the one to name him the people on the island who can give names have not dreamed up a name for him yet. The mother bear does not hurt her, and Omakayas believes they have communicated and understand each other somehow. As Omakayas heads down the path towards home, she encounters two bear cubs and a mother bear. Old Tallow treats Omakayas differently than the other children and ensures her safety against her vicious dogs. One afternoon she is able to avoid her daunting chores by picking up a pair of scissors from Old Tallow, an important woman in the community. It is summer and Omakayas has responsibilities around the house, including building the birchbark house and scraping and tanning the moose hide for makazins. She also has an annoying younger brother, Pinch, a sweet baby brother Neewo, her father, Deydey, and family friend, Old Tallow. The main story begins by introducing Omakayas as a seven year old girl living with her family: her mother, Yellow Kettle, her beautiful old sister, Angeline, and Grandma Nokomis. In the prologue, a crew of men find a baby girl, the only survivor of a smallpox epidemic, on Spirit Island.
