Tracks: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Nanapush continue his story to Lulu, telling her that his name loses power each time the government uses it, and so he refuses to give it to Father Damien and the Agent. A Captain comes to deliver a ration payout for the first treaty, but Nanapush refuses to sign his white man’s name for that either. He believes that holding onto the land is his only hope, distrusting both cash and government promises and holding out like the Pillagers. Nanapush reveals that he received a Jesuit education as a child and so he can read and write English, uncommon amongst the tribe, and that his name is a tribute to a trickster who stole fire and girls’ hearts.

Fleur both embraces and resists Nanapush like any daughter would a father after he saves her. Nanapush hints that Fleur has ended up complicit in keeping his own name alive, though he didn’t know that would be the case when he saved her. He notes that much of what people experience and see can only be understood in hindsight.

Fleur returns from Argus holding a black umbrella and wearing a dress that is too small for her, and Nanapush says that he didn’t think, at the time, about whether the dress was tight because she carried a child or a pile of money. Nanapush invites her to catch up in his cabin, but Fleur just smiles and walks on. Pauline returns to the reservation soon after, as well. The people on the reservation know something is wrong, but they cannot tell what. A black dog guards the turnoff to Matchimanito, attacking a woman and her children when they hold up a cross to scare the dog off, but they remain unhurt because it was “odjib,” a thing of smoke.

The lake monster seems to have calmed down with Fleur’s return; the fish are plentiful, and no boats are lost. Fleur’s presence in the woods also seems to have stirred up some of the spirits of the dead there, but the other members of the tribe can’t help but still hunt there because the animals and berries are of better quality. The people are even more afraid of meeting Fleur or her cousin Moses, who it is said has turned half animal as a way of defeating consumption. When Moses was a child, Nanapush had tried to help him fool the spirits into thinking he had already died, and Nanapush wonders if this bit of trickery is what initially confused Moses and set him off course as a child.

It’s Moses who visits town to buy supplies for both himself and Fleur, and to pay off the Pillager allotments. He pays with coins and bills, when the Pillagers had always traded goods before, and so the villagers know the money has come from Fleur’s time in Argus, and that it is far more than a single summer’s wages. Fleur visits Nanapush at his cabin, and he asks Fleur if something is wrong. She tells him that she shouldn’t have left the reservation. They play cards together and Nanapush mentions that Pauline has also returned home with a story. Fleur counters with the comment that Puyat people (Pauline’s family) lie.

Nanapush explains to Lulu that Pauline was always unclassifiable as a person and uncomfortable to be around, so they tried to ignore her. He confirms that Pauline has a tendency to lie. He even wonders if Pauline is afflicted with mental illness of some sort, because her aunt says that Pauline has had visions. The people of the reservation speculate about how Fleur earned the money and why they never see her, and predict that she is pregnant—perhaps paid to disappear with the evidence of an affair inside of her, or even stolen from the father.

Nanapush then introduces Eli Kashpaw, who he describes as not the most industrious or educated of young men. Eli’s mother Margaret tries to get him to go to church, but he’s uninterested in that, too. Eli approaches Nanapush to teach him to hunt, though, and he grows so comfortable in the wild that he loses the basic skills to interact with humans, especially women. Eli asks Nanapush to teach him, also, how Nanapush was able to satisfy three wives in the days before the church banned such relationships. Eli has become interested in courting Fleur Pillager.

Eli tells Nanapush a story of hunting a doe in the woods, and injuring it, so that he must track the crippled animal. He follows the animal all day, eventually growing tired and failing to leave a trail back for himself, until eventually he is led to a fire where the deer has been already hung and split. Fleur stands there, gutting the deer herself. Eli tells Fleur that the doe is his, and Nanapush tells Eli that was the wrong decision. Eli insists on taking at least half, but Fleur ignores him as she works. Eli tells Nanapush how beautiful Fleur was to him despite her wildness, and mentions that the only curve on her gaunt body was her breasts, which surprises Nanapush, what with the rumors about her pregnancy. Nanapush warns Eli that Fleur is dangerous, and that Eli is not immune to her like Nanapush is.

Eli refuses this idea and tells of how he joined Fleur in butchering the animal. He finishes the job, hoists much of the meat into a tree, and then takes the choice parts into Fleur’s cabin to prepare a meal for her. Fleur eats the whole heart of the deer by herself. Eli helps her to bed and then sleeps alone on the other side of the room. Nanapush tells Eli he should be happy he survived this encounter, but Eli says now he wants Fleur. Nanapush tells Eli to find a woman in town instead. Eli says he wants instructions instead of warnings, and Nanapush tells him that he’ll need a love medicine to woo Fleur, but Eli says he doesn’t want anything that can wear off.

Nanapush breaks down and tells Eli of his romantic history and what pleased his wives, but he does not mention his dead daughter, who was also named Lulu. Nanapush talks for a long time, telling all his stories, all connected so that there is no logical end. Nanapush says that this is the way he stayed alive in the year of sickness, by talking so much that death could not get a word in edgewise. Speaking of Fleur, Nanapush tells Eli, “It’s like you’re a log in a stream. Along comes this bear. She jumps on. Don’t let her dig in her claws.” Eli returns to Fleur and Nanapush assumes Eli is using his advice to keep Fleur off balance.

Eli’s mother, Margaret, shows up to Nanapush’s cabin to inform him of the rumors she’s heard about her son’s behavior. Nanapush attempts to ignore Margaret by continuing to read his newspaper. She swipes at the paper, but Nanapush knows she can’t read and is shy of the “tracks” the newsprint will leave on her skin, because of the mystery inherent in the text.

Eventually Nanapush puts down the paper, and Margaret asks him where Eli learned all of the advanced lovemaking techniques her son was witnessed performing in the open woods (with Fleur). Margaret says she was told this information by Boy Lazarre, and Nanapush realizes that Margaret has paid Boy to spy for her. Margaret stalks off, furious, and Nanapush wonders if Fleur might be weaving a spell to attract Eli, as well.

Fleur and Eli continue with their bold displays of affection until the whole reservation is talking. Boy Lazarre returns from the woods one day, speaking gibberish, and people assume that Fleur saw him watching and punished him. Margaret returns to Nanapush to demand he take her to Fleur’s cabin in his boat. Nanapush repairs his boat and he and Margaret set out at dawn. The water is cold, and Nanapush expresses trepidation because he is not a good swimmer. Margaret is resolved to make the journey, though, saying the lake monster can have her if he wants her so much. As Nanapush rows, Margaret must bail the water leaking into the boat the whole way to Fleur’s cabin.

Nanapush and Margaret repeatedly insult each other, but their interaction also grows flirtatious. Nanapush takes it too far and Margaret yanks his ears, sending him into a daze that lasts until Margaret returns from her visit to Fleur’s cabin. Margaret throws some tobacco into the fitful waters as an offering and they head back, bailing and praying to the Manitous and the Blessed Virgin in alternation. They return to Nanapush’s house and Margaret tells him that Fleur is clearly pregnant.

In the ensuing weeks, while Eli sets traps out on Pillager land, Margaret lays a trap of her own in her house, keeping the table well set until finally, in the winter, Pauline shows up while Nanapush is visiting. Pauline tells Margaret all that happened in Argus, though Nanapush is uncertain what is a lie, and notes that, for Pauline, lies almost become a kind of truth. Nanapush and Margaret spar again, making sexual innuendo that scares off Pauline before she’s done talking.

Pauline has recently become Bernadette’s assistant in preparing the dead for burial, and sometimes Pauline also sits with the dying, but Nanapush says he would rather die alone in the woods, like a dog, than have Pauline attend to him.

Pauline seems relieved to have finally shared her story. Margaret is happy to study all of the information, and is sure that Fleur’s child must not be Eli’s. She predicts the child will be born a demon of some sort, and that Eli will then return to Margaret.

One day Nector arrives home with a crippled heron that he says is a gift for Eli’s wife. Margaret takes issue with the designation, but Eli says that what he has with Fleur is as good as marriage, and mother and son fight. Margaret’s hope in keeping Eli close to her is driven by her need to be cared for in her old age, and Nector seems too drawn to the ways of the town to be reliable in this way. Margaret worries that she will not be able to boss Fleur around as she would like.

Fleur’s labor begins. Pauline runs to fetch Margaret, as she might be the grandmother. Nanapush paddles Margaret across the just-melting lake, as Margaret argues that she is not helping because of kinship, but only to see proof that the child is not Eli’s. Nanapush later tells Lulu that the appearance of the child provided no proof of her parentage, though. He informs Lulu that she was born on the day Pauline shot the reservation’s last bear, which was drunk on trader’s wine.

Eli and Nanapush wait outside the cabin for over a day, and hear nothing from inside. They make a fire and fail to eat from worry and courtesy, respectively. Finally, on the afternoon of the second day, they hear the sound of the Manitous in Fleur’s cries, and Nanapush speculates that perhaps the bear heard these calls as well. Eli, who has gotten drunk in his anxiety, slashes his arm and runs into the woods. Nanapush finally helps himself to some food, just as the bear shows up. Nanapush, weaponless, calls for help, but he only attracts the bear. Margaret marches up to the bear to intimidate it, but realizes she has no weapon either and returns inside, the bear following her.

Nanapush says he can only pass on what he hears happened in the house because he was not there. The bear rears on its hind legs and Fleur, filled with fear and power at the sight, gives birth. Pauline takes the gun down off the wall and shoots the bear point blank, but the lead of the shot only gives the bear strength, and the bear turns around and runs out of the house into the woods, leaving no trail, suggesting that it might have been a spirit bear. After this, it seems as though Fleur has died, but when the baby cries, Fleur opens her eyes and breathes again.

Father Damien appears the next day to secretly baptize the child, but Fleur hears what’s happening and takes the baby before it can be named. Left outside with the priest, Nanapush says to name the child Lulu Nanapush.