Moon of the Crusted Snow
Moon Series Book 1
ISBN 9781770414006
eISBN 9781773052465
ASIN B07DWLKMS5
I picked this up a few years ago when my son was doing an indigenous literature course in school. There was an independent assignment and I picked up a few of the books digitally so my son could try and pick. Now however it is the next volume selected for the book club at work that meets every other month. I have only attended a couple of the book clubs but the discussions were so good I wanted to get a start on this one. And man what a powerful story. I could hardly put it down and devoured it in less than 24 hours.
The description of this volume is:
“With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.
Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.”
The sections in the book are:
Part One: Dagwaagin / Autumn
Part Two: Biboon / Winter
Epilogue: Ziigwaan / Spring
About the author we are informed:
“Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His first short story collection, Midnight Sweatlodge, was inspired by his experiences growing up in an Anishinaabe community, and won an Independent Publishers Book Award in 2012. His debut novel, Legacy, followed in 2014. He currently works as a multi-platform journalist for CBC in Sudbury. In 2014, he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling. Waubgeshig now splits his time between Sudbury and Wasauksing.”
Growing up my father collected signed numbered Ojibwa prints, mainly by Daphne Odjig. He also read a number of Books about indigenous culture which in the 1970’s and 80’s was maybe unusual. I remember in my teens reading a collection of tales from the sweat lodge and also a collection about the trickster. It was not long after I overcame my dual form of dyslexia and read anything I could get my hands on. In many ways reading this was like a return to that time in my own youth. Those stories had a lasting impression upon me. And this one will as well. I typically try and alternate fiction and non-fiction and also try not to read the same author back to back. After finishing this story it took a great deal of effort not to start the second volume immediately.
While reading it I described it a few times as an indigenous apocalyptical story. But that word actually appears in the story and it really made me think:
““They say that this is the end of the world. The power’s out and we’ve run out of gas and no one’s come up from down south. They say the food is running out and that we’re in danger. There’s a word they say too — ah . . . pock . . . ah . . .”
“Apocalypse?”
“Yes, apocalypse! What a silly word. I can tell you there’s no word like that in Ojibwe. Well, I never heard a word like that from my elders anyway.”
Evan nodded, giving the elder his full attention.
“The world isn’t ending,” she went on. “Our world isn’t ending. It already ended. It ended when the Zhaagnaash came into our original home down south on that bay and took it from us. That was our world. When the Zhaagnaash cut down all the trees and fished all the fish and forced us out of there, that’s when our world ended. They made us come all the way up here. This is not our homeland! But we had to adapt and luckily we already knew how to hunt and live on the land. We learned to live here.”
She became more animated as she went on. Her small hands swayed as she emphasized the words she wanted to highlight. “But then they followed us up here and started taking our children away from us! That’s when our world ended again. And that wasn’t the last time. We’ve seen what this . . . what’s the word again?”
“Apocalpyse.”
“Yes, apocalypse. We’ve had that over and over. But we always survived. We’re still here. And we’ll still be here, even if the power and the radios don’t come back on and we never see any white people ever again.”
Evan gazed back down to the table. He felt his shoulders ease and his chest open up. He was tired, but she gave him hope. “You’re right, Auntie,” he said. “I never thought of it that way.””
This is a powerful story that is very well told. The pacing is excellent. And the drama builds slowly and almost constantly. The use of dreams or visions is integral to the story, as are understanding the old ways. There are a number of smudging ceremonies. As we journey with Evan Whitesky through these events especially The character of Candace North who is an ‘auntie’ to the council and the whole community is very moving. The character of Aileen Jones also an auntie remembers and tells the stories, she is also pivotal and crucial for story.
“That was Evan’s cue, and he walked over to Aileen. She was in her late eighties, one of the oldest of their community, and she had difficulty getting around, so Evan offered his arm to help her up. She looked up at him with eyes so dark the pupils were hard to distinguish from the irises. She smiled her sweet slow smile that rippled the lines of her face. Her thin white hair draped the back of her neck loosely, and she mouthed a faint miigwech as she pulled herself to stand. She picked up the medicine bundle on the chair beside her and handed it to Evan.”
I have mentioned this volume to a few friends, and I struggle with really describing it. It is a volume that deeply moved me. In some ways it reminds me of Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter and Refuge An Unnatural History by Terry Tempest Williams and from my own tradition Letter to the Future by Michael D. O'Brien.
I really enjoyed this volume and looked to see what else Waubgeshig had published. His first two volumes seem hard to find and there were no eBook editions, which with my dual form of dyslexia I greatly prefer. I will keep hunting, and hope eBook release of them. He has also contributed to a few anthologies, and written the forward to a couple of volumes.
The story leaves a reader with a deep sense of melancholy but also tinged with hope. The story leaves you wanting to find out what happened next. And a second volume was released five years after the publishing of this story. This is a story masterfully written, written in part remembering and in part looking forward, a book of hope, and pain from the past. It is an excellent read and I can easily recommend it.
Books by Waubgeshig Rice:
Legacy
Midnight Sweatlodge
Drum Making : A Guide For The Anishinaabe Hand Drum
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Moon Series:
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Contributed to:
Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices
The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories
The Indigenous City Edit
Telegrams from Home: Vol. 3 What Happens Now?
Sounding Thunder: The Stories of Francis Pegahmagabow (Forward)
A Perfect Likeness: Two Novellas (Forward)
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