Page 13 of God’s Country

When I came back from making the call, Stephen was tending the fire alone.

“Where’d everybody go?”

“Swimming. Just there, off the point. See them?”

They were in view, men and boys, fathers and sons, skinny-dipping, a Boundary Waters tradition, creating waves that were blue-black under an evening sky.

“That water’s cold,” I said.

“And they’re loving it,” Stephen said. “So what did you find out?”

“Marsha’s going to talk to Babs Bishop, see what she can learn about Cordell’s group. And she’ll check with the Forest Service to see if anyone else has reported anything suspicious.”

“That’s it? She’s not sending anybody out?”

“Not enough to go on. Not yet anyway.”

“So, we’re on our own.”

“We’re fine. Whoever was here, they’re ahead of us.”

“And if they come back this way?”

“It won’t be tonight, in the dark. Tomorrow we’ll keep watch.”

The fathers returned with their sons, and as evening gave way to night, we sat around the fire that my son had tended, and we did what people have done around fires for thousands of years. We told stories.

“Do you know how our people, the Anishinaabeg, came to Minnesota?” Stephen asked Luke.

“Uh-uh,” the boy said, shaking his head.

Stephen looked to Waaboo. “Want to tell this story, or should I?”

“You,” Waaboo said. “You’re a good storyteller.”

Stephen smiled, pleased at the compliment. “Our people used to live far to the east. You know where New England is?”

“Sure,” Luke said.

“Long, long ago, that’s where we lived, there and north into Canada. But we had enemies, fierce enemies who wouldn’t let us live in peace.”

“The Pilgrims?” Luke asked.

“European settlers were part of the problem. But we also fought with other Native people, the Iroquois. But before that, we were given prophecies about what would happen in the future. We call them the Seven Fires. The prophecy of the first fire was that the Anishinaabe people would leave their homes in the east and follow the sacred megis shell of the Midewiwin to an island shaped like a turtle. The second fire prophecy said that the people would follow the shell but lose it, and the way of the Midewiwin would diminish. But a boy would be born who would lead the Anishinaabe people back to their traditional ways. The third fire prophecy was that our people would find a path to a place where food grows on water.”

“Food doesn’t grow on water,” Luke said. “It needs ground.”

Stephen held up a finger. “Just wait. The fourth fire came from two prophets. They said that light-skinned people would come. If they came in brotherhood, that would be a good thing. But they could also come bringing death. We were warned that the face of brotherhood and the face of death could look very much alike.”

“How could you tell them apart?” Luke asked.

“If they brought only knowledge and helpful ways, that was the good face. If they brought weapons, that was the face of death. The rivers would be poisoned and the fish unfit to eat.”

“Which one came?”

“In the end, both. The fifth fire prophecy told of a great struggle among our people. Choices had to be made, and the wrong choice could mean our total destruction.

“The sixth fire prophecy told of a time when our children would be taken from us and our elders would lose their purpose and their way. Those elders who still held to the old beliefs and ways would be hidden, out of sight but not out of memory, so that when the right time came, they could be brought back.”