Starfish (18 page)

L
EAVING THE
M
EADOW
• J
ENKINS AND
L
UMPKIN
• G
OOD-BYE TO
T
OM
G
UNN AND
B
ARNEY
L
ITTLE
P
LUME
• B
ACK TO
B
OARDING
S
CHOOL
• I
NACCURATE
W
HISPERS
• B
EATRICE
M
OVES
O
N

LIONEL COULD
never remember much of the days that followed. They returned to the meadow and gathered their belongings for the journey back to the boarding school. Unlike before, Lionel was anxious to leave the lodge. without Beatrice, the fallen cabin wasn't the same. Corn Poe was quiet but stayed close to Lionel's side, offering to help him in any way he could.

Lionel looked around and remembered that when they had arrived, the meadow had been covered with snow. Now, in early autumn, the snows came but melted away with the morning sun. Lionel wondered if someday his people, like the snow, like Beatrice, would also melt away, but then thought that no matter how many times he had seen the snows come and go, they always returned.

Lionel and Corn Poe rode out of the meadow bareback on Ulysses, the great horse sandwiched between the captain and the rest of the soldiers who had made up the search party. Lionel's grandfather rode on his mule next to the captain and Brother Finn, but very little was said during the three days that it took them to ride back to the boarding school.

They rode east, parallel to the stream on what Lionel realized must have been the southern border of the Great wood. Lionel noticed that with every step of the horses, the terrain that surrounded them changed. The vastness of the woods soon gave way to rounded foothills with clumps of trees, mostly pine, aspen, and birch; and these foothills soon opened into the endless sea of grass that Lionel and Beatrice had crossed at the start of their journey in the early spring of this year.

When they cleared the last of the wooded hills, they stopped to water the horses, and Lionel stood with the forest to his back, looking out across the plain, half expecting to see Beatrice in her tiny raft navigating the great swell of grass that rose and fell before him.

Sometime during their first night in the vast openness of the plains, Jenkins and Lumpkin escaped, choosing lives on the run rather than face what awaited them when they returned to the outpost. Lionel hoped that he never had to see them again.

The day before they reached the school, Tom Gunn and Barney were taken by a detachment of soldiers back down to their school at Heart Butte. Tom Gunn apologized to Lionel, and gave him his pocketknife before they left. Barney tried to apologize but broke down sobbing instead.

They rode on, and soon the rolling grass hills began to look familiar and Lionel felt as though he was revisiting a distant dream. word arrived at the boarding school before their return, and as they rode into the dusty streets of the outpost, people came out of their shops and businesses to stand and stare as the renegade horsemen slowly passed.

The children of the school were gathered around the cluster of military buildings when the small party arrived. They pushed and pulled at each other trying to get a glimpse of the new boy, Corn Poe, and they reached out to touch Lionel in his buckskins and braided hair as the two boys rode, still on the captain's horse, past the barracks and the officers' quarters up to Ulysses's corral.

The school children spoke in hushed whispers about Beatrice and the men who had killed her, but as the horses passed over the last of the fading green grass of summer, it began to snow, and Lionel knew that no matter what the people said, no matter how the story was told, a simple bullet from a government gun could never kill Beatrice. Beatrice was somewhere and she would live forever.

IN THE END
it was decided that Lionel, along now with Corn Poe, should return to school. They were turned over to the boarding school's administrators who immediately stripped them of their buckskins, issued them uniforms, and took them to the outpost's barber.

Lionel and Corn Poe sat on rough pine benches in a cold concrete room while their hair was cut away in chunks and scattered on the floor around them. Lionel looked over at Corn Poe and the relatively pale skin of his exposed scalp and couldn't help, for the first time in days, but smile.

In no time, he and Corn Poe were laughing. They laughed, despite reprimand, both thinking about the lodge in the meadow and their long summer days spent running through the Great Wood. They thought about Mr. Hawkins and Junebug and the sweat lodge with Barney and Tom Gunn from Heart Butte. They thought about the wolverine and the bear and the stories of Napi the Old Man, and they laughed about the infuriated look that Beatrice had been able to instill on Jenkins's and Lumpkin's scowling faces. This was a laughter that was, as is the case with young boys, beyond control. For this was a laughter that could not, no matter what the governments, teachers, or Jenkinses of the world said or did, be silenced.

The adjustment back to school was difficult for Lionel and Corn Poe, but they both worked hard and eventually finished their yearly studies. Lionel's grandfather moved down into town for the winter to be closer and took a small room in the back of a lumber mill, where he swept the floors and watched over the place at night.

In the spring, Lionel's grandfather took what little money he had saved, and with the two boys as his partners, invested in a small herd of cattle. The herd was matched cow for cow by the government, and when the snows melted, they moved their outfit to graze on their own “reservation,” the small plot on the banks of the Milk River near the northern end of the Blackfeet's allotted lands.

C
OMMON
B
LACKFOOT
T
ERMS

AND
E
XPRESSIONS

O'káát!
: Sleep!

Nítssksinii'pa
: I know.

Ássa! Póóhsapoot
: Hey! Come here!

Saaám
: medicine or powers of healing

Sstsiiysskaan
: sweat lodge

Kitái'kó'pohpa?
: Are you afraid?

Niitsítapi
: (literally) “real people”; original people

Po-no-kah-mita
: “elk-dog” or horse

Nioomítaa
: a great horse

Ninaimsskaahkoyinnimaan
: medicine pipe bundle

OTHER TERMS

Travois:
a vehicle used by Plains Indians to carry loads over rough terrain. It consisted of two trailing poles that formed a frame for a load-bearing platform or netting. It could be harnessed to a horse or pulled by hand or a shoulder harness.

Counting Coo:
To count “coo” or “coup” means to touch an armed enemy with a special stick called a coup stick, or with the hand. The touch is not a blow, but serves to indicate how close a warrior could get to his enemy and escape unharmed. As an act of bravery, counting coup was regarded as greater than killing an enemy in single combat, greater than taking a scalp or horses or any prize.

Fourth of July Pow-Wow:
A Pow-wow is Native American Indian ceremony or organized social get-together. At the time of this story, the U.S. government only allowed these to take place as a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. Independence Day was the only time that tribes were allowed to engage in traditional practices.

Many thanks to my editor, Jennifer Besser, without whom this novel would not have been written; and to Beth Clark, Monica Mayper, and everyone at Disney-Hyperion.

Thanks also to my friends and family who patiently read the many unpolished drafts and offered their opinions, support, and advice.

And a special thanks to the Blackfeet Nation, whose history and enduring culture continue to inspire.

for James Crowley, author of
Starfish

1) When did you first become interested in the history of Native Americans?

I'm not sure, as I've been interested in Native American culture for as long as I can remember. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a kid, so I was always fascinated by the close connection that Native American cultures have with the natural world. I was drawn to their traditions and mythology, which reflect the Native Americans' heightened awareness of their surroundings. I remember one time walking through a forest. The trees were immense and took my breath away. But what was amazing to me is that everyone I was with suddenly started to whisper as if we had walked into a great cathedral, mosque, or synagogue. And, in effect we had. It was amazing. There were no signs asking people to keep their voices down; it just happened. A natural reaction. It seems that Native American cultures were more in tune with that. In tune with what made us whisper, and I think it's worth paying attention to.

2) What inspired you to tell a story about this particular time period?

I loved reading comic books as a kid (still do), which rely heavily on pictures to tell the story. I see stories that way. First the images come to mind, and then I try to convey those images through words. with
Starfish
, my inspiration started with the image of Beatrice and Lionel, although then they didn't have names at the time. I could just see two kids on a horse running or returning back to nature.

I knew the story would be set around 1900, but didn't have the exact year in mind until I sat down and started the research. And then I became fascinated with 1909 as a kind of transition year. The big push west for European immigrant exploration was winding down, but the inevitable settlement that followed was now becoming evident. I kept coming back to the idea that many people alive in 1909 would have seen firsthand the change from the Great Plains societies to the largely European settlement of the west. And the world was about to become a much smaller place with world war I just around the corner. It was also a time just before a large part of the Blackfeet lands would become Glacier National Park. For me, this transition time or “crossroads” in many ways echoes Lionel and Beatrice's journey.

3) What research did you do to help you write a historically accurate story about the internment of the Blackfeet?

A few years ago, my work in film brought me to a job on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. I had heard about the existence of boarding schools (the inspiration for the Chalk Bluff boarding school), but I knew very little about their history. while spending time in Blackfeet country, I worked with several people who had either attended boarding schools like these or had relatives who had. Hearing their stories inspired me to do further research. I started with visits to the Museum of the Plains Indian and contacted the Piegan Institute in Browning. Their bookstores and recommended reading lists from their web sites were highly influential as well. one book in particular,
The Reservation Blackfeet, 1882–1945: A Photographic History of Cultural Survival
, edited by Dr. william E. Farr, was a great resource for me—the book is full of so many intriguing and haunting images that were really hugely impactful. And then, of course, one text would answer questions while simultaneously causing me to ask others, leading me to the next book.

4) There is a scene in the book in which some of the characters breach Blackfeet tradition. Why did you add this into the story?

In the sweat lodge scene, I wanted to show how Beatrice, Lionel, and the Heart Butte boys have a desire to connect with Blackfeet customs, even if the results are imprudent. Being raised at the boarding schools meant they were forbidden from speaking their own language and participating in any kind of Blackfeet religious ceremony, and so they must interpret the traditions on their own—which leads to some big missteps, like Beatrice taking part in the sweat lodge ceremony. They very innocently get things wrong. This scene was important to me because I also wanted to demonstrate the danger of true customs being lost in the face of the U.S. government's assimilation policies. Beatrice in particular fights to hold on to Blackfeet customs, despite being told not to at school. In part, this defiance stems from her strong-willed character; on a deeper level, it's a way for her to connect with her ancestry, to something larger than herself (even if that means figuring it out on her own). But she's also a child who lost her parents at a very young age, and so a connection to the traditions of her ancestry means a connection to her parents, to her family.

5) Why did choose the title Starfish?

Choosing a title is tough. You write a story that is more than three hundred pages long and then try to sum it all up in a word or two. For me, the starfish is an important symbol in the book for a couple of reasons. one is that it ties in to the water theme that runs throughout the story. on my first visit to the Blackfeet Reservation and to Montana, I was struck by how the rise and fall of the hills on the plains that lead to the Rocky Mountains look like rolling waves of water. water also has great spiritual meaning in Blackfeet culture. As Grandpa mentions in the novel, the Blackfeet avoid fishing because of their belief that the Suyitapis, or Underwater People, inhabit rivers and lakes. The Suyitapis are a source of power for sacred items, such as medicine bundles. Then there's the moment when Mr. Hawkins shows Lionel a starfish. It's a childhood memento, from a faraway place, which I hoped would demonstrate Mr. Hawkins's own journey. It also initiates a conversation between Lionel and Mr. Hawkins that explores the larger themes in the book—ideas about assimilation, as well as about resilience and adaptability. Lionel is experiencing firsthand the U.S. government's assimilation policies and their attempts to eradicate Native American culture. He knows that, like the starfish, people have been displaced from their environment, with devastating results. But Mr. Hawkins also discusses the idea of resilience, something he sees in Lionel and his sister. To me, Lionel and Beatrice are two incredibly resilient characters. They survive even the harshest conditions on their journey—being lost, freezing cold, and nearly starving. we see Lionel's struggle to adapt—to reconcile the stories Grandpa tells with those he's learned at school, especially in the face of a great loss. And hopefully we see Beatrice's perseverance in safeguarding Blackfeet customs, traditions, stories, and spiritual beliefs in her life and that of her brother.