Warrior Girl Unearthed

Now that Pauline’s internship assignment has been changed, she sits next to Perry at the Friday meeting. The internship supervisor, Claire, says that interns will receive double pay at next Friday’s Fourth of July picnic if they ask an Elder to consent to having a story recorded.

Pauline helps Team Misfit Toys on their weekly team challenge, an escape room, and they finish first. The secretary who brings lunch to the Tribal Council room breaks down crying, saying that the police found a body they think is Darby’s. When the teams all discuss their final projects, Perry overhears someone on Team Tribal Council make a joke about their project being a search for “the next missing Nish kwe” (124); Perry angrily confronts him, but Claire calls her away for a meeting. Cooper enters; he has been crying. He asks how many seeds she took from Fenton, and Perry answers honestly. Cooper fires her because he can’t “trust” her.

Although Perry is disappointed, she goes fishing in the morning, checks on her sprouting seeds, and has breakfast with her family. She ponders whether, far in the future, the bad memories of this time will outweigh the good ones. Aunt Daunis arrives with Waabun, who plays with Elvis Junior as Daunis braids Perry’s hair. Daunis opens up about how she was raped at 19 by Grant Edwards. She “escaped” the situation by going “numb.” She says she “blanket-partied” him, but it didn’t help because she still sees him in town. A white man on the Mackinac board of trustees, Edwards raped her on tribal land, so the federal government couldn’t prosecute his crime.

Later, Perry looks up an Ojibwe turtle-shell shaker selling for tens of thousands of dollars. She hears Pauline sneaking out for a “sneaky snag” (139). Perry fears it’s Erik, and Pauline calls her “obtuse.”

Perry’s new assignment is at Tribal Administration with Subchief Tom Webster, who asks her to call him Web. The Team Tribal Council members are chilly, especially Flynn, whom Perry scolded the previous week for his joke about missing women. Web agrees to let her pitch an “independent study” internship if she still attends Tribal Council meetings. She wants to research the turtle-shell shaker that’s up for auction and ask the Council to buy it. Web agrees to let her make a case at Wednesday’s meeting. He admires her fight and calls her “Ogichidaakwezans,” or “warrior girl.”

After dinner, Pauline drives Perry to traditional healer Stormy Nodin’s house so that she can ask for help with her research into the shaker. She brings him a plate of fried walleye and asparagus. Stormy was the best friend of her Uncle Levi, who was sentenced to two years in prison for contempt of court after the events of Firekeeper’s Daughter. After Stormy eats, Perry shows him pictures of the shaker and gifts him semaa. In Ojibwemowin, he tells a story about the lunar cycle and invites her back the next night to give him time to pray over her query. She agrees.

Before Perry’s Tribal Council presentation, Darby’s death is confirmed, and Perry recognizes her attacker as Grant Edwards, the white man who raped her aunt. She begins her presentation about the shakers: Stormy had told her what was okay to say and what knowledge must be kept just for their community. She explains the shaker’s provenance, why it’s identifiably Anishnaabe, and NAGPRA doesn’t cover its repatriation. Only Web looks interested; Chief Manitou says he’s “tabling” her request for a future week because they recently had a private collection donated. Later, Web tells her that the donor is Frank Lockhart. In addition to owning Teepees-n-Trinkets, he owns “the southern tip of Sugar Island” (153).

At home, Perry’s mom says that she and her father both volunteered to help the Repatriations Committee, visiting other communities and asking how they prepared their ancestors for burial. Daunis will watch the twins while they’re gone.

Lucas drives the twins to the Fourth of July picnic at the powwow grounds. Perry meets Shense’s baby, Washkeh. Team Misfit Toys decides that their interviews will be about memories of basket weaving.

Perry recalls seeing a picture on Claire’s desk of her with Frank Lockhart and asks about their relationship. Claire uncomfortably says that he was her stepfather for a short while.

When Perry interviews the Elders about baskets, some of the stories are sad. Some Elders have no memories of baskets because they were forcibly removed from their families and put in boarding schools. Perry realizes that much generational knowledge is lost to boarding schools. After the interviews, Erik tells Perry that he now understands why she took the basket.