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Pages 143 - 182, Chapters 16 - 19
Ochek, Arik, Morgan, and Eli trek southwest, towards the man and Tahtakiw, on their quest to retrieve the summer birds. They set up camp by the mountains. That night, Morgan dreams of her mother and they speak in the good words.
As they scale a mountain they meet a well-fed wolf. The wolf appears to be guarding the Green Time, and gives the four the opportunity to turn back. Ochek says they’d rather die fighting than die starving. The wolf gives them until nightfall to reconsider their decision.
They reach the mountain summit, where there is a giant sequoia tree. Up high, they see the Green Time on the other side of the mountain. Further in the distance, on an island, they see the man’s cabin. It confirms that Arik was telling the truth.
At camp that night the wolf makes good on his threat. He drags Eli from his tent. Morgan rescues him, and they run back to the camp where a fight ensues between the wolf and Ochek.
Ochek overpowers the wolf, but Eli and Morgan intervene before Ochek can kill him. Even though the four tend to the wolf ’s injuries, he appears ungrateful and tries to provoke Eli into anger. It becomes a match of wills, with Eli determined to be kind to the wolf despite his provocations.
Teacher Background Information: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages
In The Barren Grounds, the language of the animal beings is what they call the good words. The good words are a dialect of Cree. In fact, what sets Eli and Ochek off on a relationship of trust is that he greets Ochek in Cree when he first enters Askí.
Throughout their journey, Ochek introduces an array of good words. No less than thirty Cree words appear across their journey. This is a learning opportunity for Morgan. The more time she spends with Ochek, the more Cree she learns.
Two of the many words Morgan learns are Kiskisitotaso (don’t forget who you are) and Iskwésis (girl). However, a key moment in her learning process happens when Mahihkan—the
wolf—comes to their camp to take away Eli.
As Mahihkan drags away Eli, she yells mwach—no—at him. Morgan was introduced to the word mwach in her dreams. Her mother says mwach to resist when Morgan is being taken away from her. What makes this moment significant is that this is the first time that Morgan uses a Cree word spontaneously. It’s a key step in Morgan’s learning process: Cree is no longer a language in her dreams or a foreign language of the animal beings. Cree isbeing revitalized as her own everyday language.
Language is often a distinguishing feature of a culture and part of an individual’s connection with their cultural identity. Colonization stripped language away from Indigenous people, particularly but not exclusively through forbidding Indigenous languages at residential schools and harshly punishing children who spoke their language.
Despite these efforts to destroy Indigenous languages, today over 70 Indigenous languages are still alive in the land we call Canada, spoken by about 240,000 Indigenous people. While there has been a slight decline in the number of Indigenous people who speak an Indigenous language according to the 2021 census, some languages such as Michif are in a state of renewal.
The need to revitalize Indigenous languages was recognized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In their Calls to Action, they called upon the federal government to acknowledge that Aboriginal rights include Aboriginal language rights and called upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal languages act.
In response to this call, in 2019 the federal government passed the Indigenous Languages Act. This law recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ language rights. It requires consultation between
the government and Indigenous governments to provide funding for reclaiming, strengthening and keeping Indigenous languages.
The law has been criticized for not including any specific rights such as the right to services or education in a person’s Indigenous language. This stands in contrast to greater rights and protections for English and French speakers in Canada under federal legislation. As well, Yukon, Nunavut,and the Northwest Territories all have stronger protections for Indigenous languages. Each of these territorial governments has passed legislation that recognizes the Indigenous languages spoken in the territory, and provides specific rights to use those languages in particular situations.
CLASS DISCUSSION
Reading Reflection
Languages are important to cultures. Often the words a culture uses tell us a lot about the values and identity of that culture. In Canada today, laws recognize the value of Indigenous languages and movements are underway to help protect and revitalize Indigenous languages.
1. One Cree word that Morgan learns is kiskisitotaso. It appears frequently in her dreams, as something her mother tells her. There is no single word for kiskisitotaso in English. In English, it means “don’t forget about who you are.”
If a culture has a single word that captures a whole idea, what can that tell us about the values of that culture?
2. How would teaching a language help a people preserve their culture?
Looking Forward
As you read forward in The Barren Grounds, look for ways that Cree becomes revitalized for Morgan.
• What role does Eli play in helping Morgan learn Cree?
• What does Eli’s guidance tell us about how we can learn from people younger than ourselves?
