The Round House: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Joe discusses Geraldine’s job as the tribe enrollment specialist, describing how she determines who qualifies for tribal enrollment. The morning after Joe talks with Bazil and Soren about his mother’s phone call on the day of her rape, Soren returns to ask Geraldine about the file she went to fetch from her office that day. Joe brings a tray of breakfast upstairs for Geraldine, who pretends to be asleep as he sets it down. Joe feels guilty for betraying Geraldine’s trust and telling his father about the file. Joe goes back downstairs to Bazil and Soren.

Joe, Bazil, and Soren then return upstairs. Bazil goes into the bedroom and says something inaudible to Geraldine, who loudly exclaims “no!” and knocks over the breakfast tray. Bazil tells Soren and Joe to come in, and they sit in folding chairs. Geraldine sits on her bed with her back to them, covering her ears. Bazil tries to appeal to Geraldine, telling her not to behave like that with Joe around. Geraldine tells Bazil to make Joe leave. Soren asks Geraldine about the phone call and the file, and Geraldine is totally silent in response. When it becomes clear that Geraldine will not respond, they all leave.

That evening, Bazil sets up a dining table in Geraldine’s room, against her protests, so that they can all eat upstairs together. Over the course of several dinners, Bazil tries his best to make conversation. One night, Bazil tells Geraldine and Joe about a conversation with Father Travis in which he recounted his experience on the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On another night, Bazil tells Geraldine and Joe about the Ojibwe idea of doodems, which are part of the system of Ojibwe law.

Bazil recounts the story of Geraldine’s great-aunt, who was left on an island by her family. Her parents had intended to come back and pick her up, but they never did. Eventually, Geraldine’s great-aunt decided to swim to the mainland, but she got very tired and thought she would drown. When she could swim no longer, her doodem, a turtle, brought her to shore. Bazil associates this story with the many other stories throughout history about children rescued by animals. He goes on to tell the story of Arion, who was saved by a dolphin after sailors asked him to sing and then threw him overboard. Bazil then announces that he is going back to Bismarck to see a friend, who is going to help prepare legal matters for when Geraldine is ready to talk about the file and the phone call, so that they will be ready to prosecute.

Bazil tells Geraldine that he believes getting justice will help her heal. Bazil also intends to talk with the governor of Minnesota, who Bazil notes spoke with Curtis Yeltow, the governor of South Dakota, about the fact that he is trying to adopt a child. This sparks Geraldine’s interest, and she asks which child he is trying to adopt. Bazil says that Yeltow, who is known for his bad legislative treatment of Native people, is trying to adopt a Native child, but is having trouble because of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which limits the number of adoptions of Native children to non-Native parents. Bazil tells her that the child’s tribal background has not yet been determined, since her mother disappeared, but she is definitely at least part Sioux. Geraldine is profoundly affected by the story, vomiting and beginning to have an anxiety attack.

Bazil tries to assure Geraldine that she is safe. Geraldine stops writhing, stares at Bazil, and harshly tells Bazil that she was raped. Bazil encourages Geraldine to tell him what she remembers. With Joe still present, Geraldine tells Bazil that the call she received on the day of her rape was from Mayla Wolfskin, who wanted to enroll her child. Bazil asks who the child’s father was and Geraldine goes silent. Bazil encourages her to continue, so Geraldine says that Mayla called to ask Geraldine to meet her at the round house, saying that her life depended on it.

Geraldine was attacked by a man when she arrived at the round house. He put a pillowcase over her head and tied her hands. The man kept asking Geraldine for “the file,” but Geraldine did not know what he was talking about, so he marched Geraldine forward and then raped her. Bazil pushes Geraldine to remember something that will help them determine where the crime took place, but Geraldine becomes irritable, so Bazil backs off. Geraldine states that, after the rape, the man dragged her back to the round house, untied her, and took off the pillowcase. Inside, Geraldine saw Mayla Wolfskin and her baby. Mayla had just recently come into the office to file her enrollment.

With their attacker right outside, Mayla and Geraldine looked at each other, and Mayla kept looking at her baby, so Geraldine understood that Mayla wanted her to get the baby somewhere safe. The attacker came back inside, took off his pants, and told women about how he hates Ojibwe people and Ojibwe women in particular. The man started to scream at Mayla that he loved her but she had had another man’s baby. The man continued to express bigoted and possessive thoughts, talking about how he loved Mayla and wanted to kill her. The man struck Mayla and Geraldine repeatedly and then asked Mayla where “the money” was.

Strangely, the man began to calm down and then apologized profusely to Geraldine. As he apologized he uncapped a gas can and poured it all over Mayla and Geraldine. While the attacker was looking the other way, Geraldine peed on his pants, wetting the matches in his pocket. He tried to start a fire with those matches, but they would not light. The attacker left to get more matches and threatened to kill the baby if they left, saying that he was going to kill them both no matter what.

The narrative cuts to Joe eating cereal in his kitchen. He is going to work at the gas station when he runs into Bazil, who had stayed up with Geraldine all night. Bazil tells Joe that Geraldine refused to talk about what is in the file until she knows that Mayla and the baby are safe. Bazil explains that Mayla is s relative of Larose, a friend of Geraldine’s. Joe asks if Mayla is still alive, and Bazil guesses that she is not. Joe asks why the attacker would kill her, and Bazil does not respond, but gives Joe a big hug.

Joe goes to work at the gas station. When he gets back that night, Bazil tells Joe that he took Geraldine to the hospital to rest. Bazil also tells Joe that he believes Geraldine knows who raped her, and although Bazil has a suspect in mind, they need Geraldine cooperate to be sure. Bazil tells Joe he wishes that Joe had not been there to hear his mother’s story, and although Joe says it was for the best, the story feels like “poison” to Joe. Bazil tells Joe that he is going to the hospital tomorrow to see Geraldine, and so Joe should stay with Whitey and Sonja.

After Joe works at the gas station the next day, Whitey and Sonja take Joe and Pearl home with them. As they drive home, Joe asks Whitey about Curtis Yeltow and Whitey lists the many ways that Yeltow has perpetuated the oppression of Native people in South Dakota. When they get to the house, Whitey starts to make dinner and Sonja and Joe do chores in the house and in the barn. They eat dinner together outside on lawn chairs. After Whitey goes to bed, Sonja sets up the couch for Joe to sleep on. They watch TV and then talk about the money they found. Sonja tells Joe he should use the money to go to college.

Sonja gives Joe a pillow from her bed to sleep with, and Joe is turned on by the fact that it smells like Sonja. One night while Joe and Sonja are watching TV on the couch, Sonja rubs Joe’s foot and Joe ejaculates, though it is unclear whether Sonja realizes it or not.

During one of the days that Joe is staying with Sonja and Whitey, Whitey notices at breakfast that Sonja is wearing earrings that he has never seen before. They get in the car to drive to the gas station. Sonja tries to turn on the music but Whitey smacks Sonja’s hand away. When they arrive at the gas station, Whitey stalks off. Sonja unlocks the station and gives Joe the keys to the gas pumps so he can take care of a car that is waiting for them to open.

Joe walks over to the car. The white man who is in the front seat tells Joe to fill up the tank. Joe pumps the gas and the man pays, then asks Joe how he is doing. Joe is caught off guard, since he does not know the man, but he responds politely. The man tells Joe that he hears he is a “good kid,” and then talks about how, since Joe has a good family, he might even “draw even with a white kid…who doesn’t have a loving family.” Joe turns to walk away from the man, and the man calls to Joe that he is “the judge’s son.” Joe turns around and the man tells him that he has a twin sister who also has a loving family. He then drives off. Joe realizes that the man was Linden Lark.

Angry, Joe wants to quit, but he must stay because Whitey is gone. Whitey returns at eleven, smelling like beer. Sonja makes sandwiches at lunchtime and Joe watches Whitey change a tire for Geraldine’s childhood friend Larose, who is also Mayla’s relative. While Whitey unscrews the tire, Larose takes Joe inside. Joe asks Larose how she is related to Mayla, and Larose tells Joe that they are cousins. Joe asks more questions, and Larose asks sarcastically if Joe is in the FBI. Nonetheless, Larose tells Joe that Mayla went to boarding school. She then enrolled in a program that places Native students in government jobs, and went to work for Curtis Yeltow.

Sonja interrupts by walking inside the store to ring Larose up for her purchases. Outside, Joe sees that Whitey has wandered off to the nearby bar, so Joe starts to fix Larose’s tire in his place, but one of the nuts will not budge. Joe hears Cappy, Zack, and Angus ride up behind him. Cappy succeeds in taking the nut off after using WD-40. Sonja, who has taken out her new earrings, tells Joe to go fetch Whitey, who finishes fixing the tire.

When the day is over, Sonja, Whitey, and Joe all get in the car and head back to the house. Everything seems normal that evening, but after Joe has gone to sleep, he wakes up to a crash and the sounds of Whitey and Sonja arguing. Joe hears Whitey hit Sonja, who begs him not to hit her while Joe is there. Joe knocks on the door and tells Whitey to fight him. When Whitey opens the door, Joe punches him in the gut. Whitey pins Joe’s arms and tells him that Sonja is cheating on him with a man who gave her diamond earrings. Whitey lets Joe go and promises not to touch Sonja again, but tells Joe that Sonja is “dirty.” Joe, however, knows that Sonja bought the earrings herself with the money from the doll. Joe tells Whitey that he gave Sonja the earrings for her birthday after finding them in the gas station bathroom. Sonja then hits Whitey on the head with a glass bottle, knocking him out. Sonja kicks him out into the living room, brings Joe in the bedroom, and locks the door.

Sonja instructs Joe to go to sleep in the bed. Joe tells Sonja he knows she used the doll money to buy the earrings and Sonja starts to cry. Joe tells her not to touch the money. The next morning, Sonja and Joe leave the house early for the gas station. Sonja tells Joe that he should stay with Clemence that night. Joe tells her he is quitting his gas station job. He feels that Sonja has betrayed him by using the doll money, but he also thinks he is still in love with her. Joe gets out of the car and walks to Clemence’s house.

When Joe arrives at Clemence’s, he tells Clemence that he quit his job at the station. Clemence realizes that Sonja and Whitey are fighting again. Joe helps Clemence with chores. After dinner, Joe goes into the sewing room to sleep, but it makes him think about Bazil sleeping in the sewing room at their house instead of with Geraldine. Joe asks if he can sleep in the extra bed in Mooshum’s room, and Clemence says yes, but warns Joe that Mooshum talks in his sleep. Joe wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of Mooshum, who is fast asleep, telling a story.

Mooshum’s story is offset from the rest of the narrative by a title, “Akii.” The story begins by introducing Akiikwe (Akii), the Earth Woman, and her husband Mirage. Akii would help her husband find food by using her dreams to determine where the animals were. They always had lots of food until the Chippewa people were forced onto the reservation, where the farms they started were not high yielding and there were no animals left to hunt. The government promised supplies that never came, and everyone went hungry.

In order to feed their children, Akii and Mirage went ice fishing. One day, however, a fish told them that the fish were going to sleep, so they would starve. Tensions rose in Akii and Mirage’s household. Mirage started to think Akii had been possessed by a wiindigoo, giving Akii a craving for human flesh. Mirage believed he had to kill Akii, so he gathered a group of men and persuaded them all that Akii was a wiindigo. The men tied Akii up and a woman took away her children except for her oldest son. The group told the boy, Nanapush, to kill Akiii, but he refused. Instead, Nanapush stabbed one of the men holding Akii.

The men tied Akii to a tree and left her to starve or freeze, but Akii got loose and had to be tied up again. The men then decided to drown Akii in the hole she used to ice fish. After they submerged her in the freezing water, Mirage gave Nanapush a gun to shoot his mother if she emerged again. After the men left, Akii surfaced again and Nanapush helped her out. The mother and son went into the woods and walked as far away as they could, then made a shelter. Akii told Nanapush that the fish taught Akii a buffalo song, despite the fact that the buffalo had been gone for years. After a few days of camping, Akii instructed Nanapush to go find the buffalo.

Mooshum suddenly stops talking, and Joe is upset that he has not heard the story’s ending. Soon, however, Joe falls back asleep. When he wakes the next morning and sees Mooshum in the kitchen, Joe asks who Nanapush is, and Mooshum tells him that Nanapush was a greedy but good healer to whom Mooshum went for advice when he was young. Joe asks about Akii and Mooshum says he has no idea what he is talking about. Joe hopes that the next night Mooshum will finish the story and, sure enough, Joe wakes up in the night to Mooshum’s voice.

Mooshum returns to Nanapush, who had just begun his journey to look for the buffalo. Nanapush sang the buffalo song that his mother told him about and it made him cry with sadness over their loss. Nanapush continued to sing the buffalo song and suddenly he saw buffalo tracks, which he followed for a long time through the snow. Nanapush eventually saw a buffalo ahead of him, and the buffalo stopped to listen to his song. The buffalo was old and thin. Nanapush spoke to her, telling her that he hated to kill her, but he had to for his family. Nanapush sang the song again. When he finished, he shot and killed the buffalo.

Nanapush was cleaning out the chest cavity when a blizzard started. Nanapush crawled inside the buffalo and fell asleep. When he woke up, Nanapush was frozen to the buffalo’s ribs and unable to move. He began to sing the buffalo song again. Meanwhile, Akii went out to find Nanapush. When Akii reached the buffalo, she heard Nanapush singing the buffalo song and cut him out of the animal’s body. Akii and Nanapush brought the buffalo meat back to the community, including to the men who tried to kill Akii. Akii then left Mirage for good. The old buffalo woman, whose spirit revisited Nanapush throughout his life, warned him that wiindigoo justice must be carried out with care.

With the story finished, Mooshum goes back to sleep. Joe also falls asleep and forgets the story until the next day, when Bazil comes to pick Joe up. Bazil talks with Edward when he arrives and tells him that they have Geraldine’s rapist in custody. Joe asks who it is, but Bazil will not tell him. At home, Geraldine is buzzing around the house, completing chores and full of energy. Joe leaves and convenes with Cappy, Zack, and Angus. The boys decide to go to the lake beach near the church.

On the road to the beach, the boys pass the church’s youth group—a mix of reservation kids and summer volunteers—sitting on the ground in a circle. The boys get to them, leave their bikes by the dock, and strip down before they go swimming. After a half an hour, an older boy and a very beautiful girl around Joe’s age approach them. The boy asks them to leave because the beach is reserved for church activities. Cappy refuses. When the beautiful girl tells them to go, Cappy walks out of the water naked and the boy screams, then tries to fight Cappy.

Cappy dunks the boy and then lets him go, but the boy vomits in the water. Cappy apologizes, but the boy begins to have a seizure. The boys bring him onshore and send Angus to fetch Father Travis. The boy (whose name turns out to be Neal) begins to come to and Cappy, Joe, and Zack pretend that he has converted them. They put their clothes back on, and then continue acting as if they have found God when Father Travis returns with Angus. Joe looks over at the beautiful girl, Zelia, who is looking at Cappy. Joe thinks that she has fallen in love with Cappy.

Later that afternoon, the boys join the youth group in order to hang out with Zelia. Joe, Angus, and Zack watch Cappy and Zelia flirt, knowing that they have no chance with her. The next day, the boys go to the youth group again, where they sing group songs and do reflection exercises. During one of the reflection exercises, one girl talks about being delivered from a “serpent,” and Cappy, Joe, Zack and Angus make a series of comments with sexual innuendos. After the girl explains her experience, Father Travis talks about the difference between temptation and instinct, saying that temptation is a “slower process.” Travis’s description inspires Joe to panic, though he isn’t sure why. The group holds hands and says a Hail Mary, and the rest of the day continues with similar exercises and discussions.

When Joe gets home, Geraldine is more subdued than she had been before, and is resting upstairs. Joe sits outside with Bazil and asks him who the rapist was. Bazil refuses to tell him, explaining that, although there will be an arraignment, they need more evidence and to know whether the rape occurred on reservation land in order to make a better case. Bazil draws Joe a map, explaining the different places it could have happened and the different jurisdictions that would entail depending on the location. Both Bazil and Joe believe, however, that it happened on reservation land.

Joe, Cappy and Angus discover a search-and-rescue unit a few days later while biking. At the lake, policemen and search teams with dogs are out on the water in boats. Zack hypothesizes that they are looking for a car, and Joe knows it is Mayla’s, which Geraldine said the attacker sent to the bottom of the lake. He also knows that they are looking for Mayla’s body. The boys watch the searchers until dark. The next day, the boys go back to the lake, set themselves up on a cliff above, and watch all day. Just as they are getting hungry, a tow truck pulls a Chevy Nova out of the water. There is no body in the car. There are, though, many toys in the back window, and cloth with the same fabric as the outfit of the doll that Joe had found stuffed with money.