Tracks: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Eli arrives at Nanapush’s house with an offering of some provisions, in the hopes that Nanapush will take him in. Nanapush offers him some gopher stew, but Eli declines, sitting in silence. Nanapush looks through his mail, a new service provided to the reservation. Eli mutters to himself, and Nanapush tells Eli to tend to the fire. Eli pities himself aloud, and Nanapush tells him it might be better if he showed some remorse. Eli claims he was bewitched, but Nanapush warns him that Fleur will only think him weak if he uses that excuse.

Nanapush changes the subject to ask Eli what he will do with the cash he is offered for his land allotment, and Eli responds that he will spend it on liquor. Nanapush knows Eli is being dramatic, but he reminds him that if Eli sells his land, he’ll have nowhere to live.

Eli eats the gopher stew and grimaces at the foul taste. He tells Nanapush that he wishes Fleur were a member of the church, because then he could simply ask for forgiveness.

Nanapush reflects on how the Anishinabe land is slowly being whittled down and sold, and how few of the tribespeople can read the papers that they sign with only a thumbprint or an “x.” Nanapush had worked as a government interpreter as a young man, until he told an Indian not to sign a treaty that would concentrate the Ojibwe people, and he was fired. Nanapush knows that Eli cannot understand the tribe’s current situation or history in the way that he does. He invites Eli to sleep on his floor tonight, but says that he should return home as soon as possible to be sure his family has enough food. Eli says Fleur knows how to fish in the ice, and that she’s a good shot besides.

After six days of putting Eli up, Nanapush has had enough of Eli eating his cupboard bare. On the seventh day, Nanapush hands him his gun and Eli heads north. Nanapush checks his traps but finds nothing, and he ponders what he might do for food for the end of this long winter. He lies down and blackens his face with a piece of charcoal, and begins to pray. He has a vision of Eli’s tracks in the snow and knows that he is wandering around aimlessly. The sound of Nanapush’s prayer awakens Eli to the fact that the conditions are perfect for hunting moose. Eli returns to a spot where he had spotted some moose tracks and begins to follow a moose at a distance. Nanapush continues his song of prayer while Eli prepares his final approach.

Nanapush mentally reminds Eli not to startle the moose because its adrenaline would sour the meat. When the animal lies down to rest after eating, Eli shoots it dead. Eli turns over the animal and slices its belly. He eats a small piece of its liver for strength and buries another piece of it in the snow as an offering. He saves the rest for Nanapush. Eli butchers the animal and ties as many of the pieces of meat to his body as he can, burying the rest in the snow or hoisting it into the trees. Eli walks back slowly, aware that if he walks quickly and begins to sweat he will die of hypothermia. Nanapush beats a drum to the rhythm of Eli’s footsteps to call him back.

Nanapush meets Eli on his return, and removes the meat from his body—it has all frozen into Eli’s shape. Nanapush eats the liver Eli saved him, wraps him in a blanket, and places him near the stove to thaw. Nanapush prepares the kidneys and heart and feeds them to Eli and himself. Nanapush tells Eli he regards him as a son. Eli says that he knows he cannot stay away from Fleur. When he returned after the incident with Sophie, Fleur would not speak to him, touch him, or cook for him, and after three days of this, Eli finds himself more attracted to her than ever.

Eli tells Nanapush that one night Fleur slipped out of the cabin and Eli followed her to the lake. Fleur entered the icy water, but didn’t re-emerge. Eli jumped in to try to save her, but he couldn’t find her and gave up, falling asleep on the shore. When he woke up much later, Fleur emerged from the water. Eli is convinced that Fleur’s rejection of his advances is caused by her copulating with the lake monster Misshepeshu. Eli thinks Fleur is pregnant, but not by him.

Nanapush tells Eli that he is foolish and ungrateful. Nanapush says that Eli must start over with Fleur to win her back, this time by humbling himself to her. Eli falls asleep and wakes up refreshed, trekking out twice to bring the rest of the moose meat to Fleur and collapsing under the weight of his burden. Fleur insults him, but Nanapush tells him this is a good sign.

Nanapush says the rift between the people of the tribe grows after the incident between Eli and Sophie, expanding to include the differing opinions about money and settlements. Nanapush, Margaret, and Lulu go to church, where Father Damien is happy to finally see Nanapush. At church Nanapush thinks about how he is more grateful for the old Manitous than for the Christian God, and Lulu dozes.

After mass they head home in the dark, and realize that Boy Lazarre and Clarence Morrissey are following them in the snow. The Lazarre and Morrissey families have recently come together over a land agreement with the lumber company. The two men pass them and Nanapush has a bad feeling. He tries to convince Margaret to turn around and go to his cabin, but she wants to go on to her own.

Boy and Clarence then jump out to grapple with Margaret and Nanapush, and Lulu runs off. Margaret bites Boy Lazarre, giving him a wound that will later kill him. Clarence wrestles Nanapush to the ground and knocks him half conscious, throwing him in a wheelbarrow to take him to the Morrissey barn. Nanapush regains consciousness tied to the center pole of the barn, and he sees Margaret tied to a stall. Nanapush tells the men to let them go, and says he won’t tell his cousin Pukwan. Nanapush lies, saying he’ll sign the papers if they let them go.

Nanapush realizes that this is not just about land, but about Clarence wanting to humiliate Margaret in the same way that Eli has humiliated his sister Sophie. Nanapush tries to discourage them from assaulting Margaret by lying and saying that she is like his wife, so they’ll have to kill him, too, which will only further anger Pukwan. Clarence says that Pukwan has gone to fight in the war, but Nanapush says he’ll return looking for the money Nanapush owes him. Clarence says that Pukwan is in favor of the sell-off. Nanapush warns them that any harm done to Margaret will be punished by Fleur’s cursing of men who do her wrong. Clarence appears skeptical, but it’s clear Boy believes.

Margaret taunts the men, saying, “Come near…Let me teach you how to die!” Margaret then sings a shrill death song. Clarence knocks out Nanapush. When Nanapush wakes up, he sees that Boy has sliced off Margaret’s braids and now shaves the rest of her scalp, careful not to shed a drop of blood. The men stuff the braids into Nanapush’s mouth as a gag.

When they are finally freed, Margaret calls out for Lulu, but they find her safe, sitting with Nector at Margaret’s house. The kids ask where Margaret’s hair is and Nanapush pulls it from his pocket, ashamed that he wasn’t able to prevent the men from cutting it. Margaret is happy he saved the braids. Nector vows to get revenge with Eli, but Eli is tending to his traps in an attempt to reconcile with Fleur. Margaret doesn’t shame Nanapush, but when she sees her reflection in her mirror, she vows to take a knife to the men. Nanapush admits having the same thought, telling Nector he’ll have to work with him instead of with Eli, and that they’ll need to find an old Anishinabe way to get their revenge.

Nanapush thinks hard on how they’ll do it, eventually thinking of a plan when they return to Fleur’s cabin. Margaret tells Fleur what happened, and Fleur wordlessly shaves her own head in solidarity and then goes out hunting, not waiting “for night to cover her tracks.” Nanapush plans carefully, realizing he is now attracted to Margaret. “When I hunt,” he tells Nector, “I prefer to let my game catch itself.” He then reveals his plan to set snares which kill slowly and will allow Boy and Clarence to consider what they’ve done wrong. Nanapush cuts two of the end wires out of the church piano to use in the trap.

Fleur goes to town with her newly bald head, and Clarence and Boy run from her in fear. Fleur visits the Morrissey house, touching random items and sprinkling powder on the stove. Fleur then cuts off a hank of Clarence’s hair and chases Boy to the barn, where she cuts his hair, fingernails, and eyelashes into a square of flour sack. Afterward, Boy cries for days as an infection in the wound Margaret gave him climbs up his arm. Nanapush and Nector finally set the snare near Boy’s shack. They wait outside in the cold for hours, and Nector asks questions about the land and the associated fees. Finally, Clarence appears and steps right into the noose. His flailing legs just barely straddle the hole that’s been dug beneath the snare though, and so he remains precariously balanced and alive.

Nanapush and Nector reveal themselves to Clarence, but Nanapush can’t bring himself to kill him, and he and Nector walk away, leaving Clarence frozen in place. After Boy cuts Clarence from the tree, Clarence’s mouth droops on one side, a constant reminder of what happened. Nanapush buys Margaret a black hood that looks like a coal bucket, and they begin to warm to each other.

Father Damien asks if Nanapush and Margaret will marry, and Nanapush tries to shock him by saying they’re already having relations. Even so, Father Damien asks Nanapush to make a confession, and Nanapush isn’t shy with the details. Father Damien stops him and gives him his penance. Nanapush admits also to the attack on Clarence and tells the priest that he used the wire from the church’s piano to do it. Father Damien says the discord between the tribespeople must stop, and Nanapush offers to return the wire to him. At the trading post later, Nanapush and Fleur run into Boy, who, scared, steps backward into a row of traps set as demonstration, killing him.

Winter continues, but Nanapush’s traps remain empty, and they run out of moose meat. Margaret tries to convince Nanapush to live at her place because her cellar is full of preserved food, but Nanapush just tells her to go bring them back to his cabin. If she wants to continue their relationship, he says, she’ll need to feed him. Margaret points out the gaps in the log walls, and Nanapush tells her to stuff something in them. She then goes to open Nanapush’s third wife’s trunk, but he tries to stop her.

Margaret runs outside with some of the items in the trunk, and Nanapush hears tearing. He goes outside, ready to beat Margaret for her transgressions, but sees that it’s her own skirt she is ripping. Margaret threatens him and Nanapush insults Margaret’s bald head, but realizes right away that her lack of hair actually gives her power because of the way she saved him that night. Margaret leaves, and Nanapush doesn’t see her for weeks.

Nanapush becomes depressed in Margaret’s absence. He grows so weak he cannot stand, and has a dream he previously had at the time his family died. He imagines himself one tree among many, tall and strong, that topple at the firing of a single gunshot. Now, the tree weakens and bends toward the earth.

When the snow thaws, it’s Margaret who wakes Nanapush with a spoonful of berries. Lulu is there too, with a new pair of patent leather shoes tied to her belt because they’re too fancy to wear. Eli had trapped a family of minks and sold the furs for the shoes, flour, a blanket, and bullets. Nanapush tells them not to waste food on him, and flirts with Margaret. They all live in Nanapush’s cabin together until the weather turns.

Eli returns to Fleur and she accepts him back. People fish through the ice on the surface of Lake Matchimanito and hear cries of pleasure from within Fleur’s cabin, though no one ever emerges. The sounds of happiness bring hope to the people fishing on the lake.