Tracks

Nanapush finds Lulu at his door, nearly frozen to death. Margaret takes care of Lulu, then rushes to help Fleur. Nanapush chastises his granddaughter, in the present day (the moment in which he is telling her the story), for wearing high heels and thin stockings, saying that if she remembered the pain of her frozen feet once delivered from the vain patent leather shoes, she would never wear such things again. Nanapush chants over Lulu all night, holding her frozen feet in his armpits.

Father Damien brings a doctor from town who announces that he must amputate Lulu’s feet to save her life. Nanapush absolutely refuses. Though he does not know whether he can save her feet, he knows Lulu’s character: “You were no quiet child, no pensive thing who could survive without running. You were a butterfly, a flash of wit and fire, a blur of movement who could not keep still” (168). He judges rightly that he knows the best way to treat Lulu. Once Lulu is out of danger, Fleur is desperate to see her daughter. Nanapush packs all of his things and sleds Lulu back to her mother. He intends to live with Margaret, Fleur, Eli, and Lulu at Matchimanito. They nearly starve to death before government food arrives in Argus.

Despite Fleur’s precarious health after the death of her son, another threat immediately appears: the terrible fight to keep their land. Father Damien brings them the notice for the annual fees due on their allotments, and though the numbers seem impossible to pay, they determine to do everything they can to save their lands—the four Pillager allotments, the Kashpaw allotments, and the Nanapush allotment. Fleur speaks with contempt about the map and the money owed, saying that no one would dare try to take land where Pillagers are buried. Margaret and Nanapush know better; even Nector knows that if they do not pay they will lose their land.

Margaret comes up with a plan to sell cranberry bark to the tonic dealer. From that moment, they exhaust themselves working to earn money to pay the allotment fees. Nanapush reports that he can never smell cranberry again without thinking of the betrayal that resulted from the urgent need to earn money for their land.

Though Fleur works herself hard, she is not the same woman: she now knows that she can fail, her child die, her land be lost. Nanapush encourages her to ask her helpers to assist her, to bring her power back. She refuses. Still, Nanapush tries to comfort her, telling her that there was no way for her to save the child who came too soon, and that it will not be her fault if the land is lost, either. Her pride does not allow her to hear his words.

Elsewhere on the reservation, and in town, more disaster strikes. Both Clarence and Sophie Morrissey marry Lazarres. Bernadette cannot believe they have done this. Sophie’s husband, Izear, arrives with six children by his first wife, whom many on the reservation believe he killed. Within a few days, Bernadette deserts her carefully tended home, which has been destroyed by greed and sloth. She moves into town and works for the land Agent, and manages to save her land.

The Morrisseys fall into a degraded, indolent state: the furniture broken, glass in the windows broken and only partially repaired with boards or greased paper, the yard full of trash, and the family dirty and only partially clothed. Knowing that Lulu wants to marry a Morrissey, Nanapush tells her of their decline and encourages her to look elsewhere for a husband.

He also shares that he and Margaret have finally consummated their relationship, though he believes that she is naïve when she says that they will have plenty of money to save both of their allotments. They debate the point; Nanapush figures that they will only have enough to save Matchimanito alone, but the family returns before they can finish their conversation.

In the end, a Lazarre moves into Nanapush’s house, which stands on a foreclosed-upon fragment of land. More and more families fall prey to alcohol, neglecting their children and craving only drink.

Fleur grows more and more ill, refusing to let Lulu out of her sight. Nanapush arranges a healing with Moses, but as they begin the rituals, Pauline arrives in her novice’s habit. She crouches like a crow in the tent. Part of the healing requires Nanapush to thrust his arms into boiling water to pull out meat to strengthen Fleur. He does this, after preparing his arms with certain herbs and chants, and the cure begins to work.

Margaret tries to push Pauline out of the tent without disturbing Fleur. However, Pauline screams that she has been sent by God and plunges her arms, unprepared, into the boiling kettle. Unable to bear the pain, she runs screaming from the tent, ruining the healing.

Fleur does recover somewhat, and the family finally gathers all of the money required to save both Matchimanito and the Kashpaw lands. Nector and Margaret go to town and pay the Agent. When they return, no one thinks to ask for a receipt. From that time, however, Nector spends much time away from Matchimanito hunting, and Margaret returns to her house and frequently stays there, away from Nanapush. Finally, she wears him down, and he agrees to join her at her house.