Tracks: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Nanapush hears wildlife rushing toward Fleur’s cabin, and soon after finds the cause to be the lumberjacks cutting down the homes of the animals. Fleur emerges, ready to fight for her land, but Nanapush tells her to let him figure out what’s going on first. No one will tell Nanapush the cause of the lumbering, but when he reaches the Agent’s office, he explains that the reason the land had been sold was because an offer had come in and the government must sell land on which the taxes are unpaid. Nanapush is confused, saying he watched the fees taken to town, but the Agent tells him that Nector and Margaret paid off only the Kashpaw allotment, not the Pillager land, because there was a late fee in addition to the taxes owed.

The Agent explains that the lumber company has started its operation on the far side of the lake so that the residents will have time to vacate. Nanapush accuses the Agent of pocketing much of the cost paid for the land, and he’s asked to leave the office.

On his way back to Matchimanito, Nanapush considers the deep scars in the land from the lumbering company. He sees the road back to the cabin as being the road of the dead for the trees, and for all that live beneath the trees. He knows that Nector had listened carefully to his advice, and acted with foresight and shrewdness, qualities that will benefit him if he takes on the life of a politician. Nanapush loses himself in his thoughts as he approaches the untouched wilderness surrounding Fleur’s cabin. Lulu approaches him, looking for candies, but finds none. She leads him to Fleur.

Nanapush realizes that Eli must already know the truth, but shares what he’s learned anyway. Nanapush then says that, after this, the three never lived together again. It is revealed that Lulu won’t visit Fleur now, because she’s angry her mother sent her away. When Nanapush finishes telling Fleur about the sale of her land, a man’s cry is heard across the lake, followed by the snap and crash of a tree falling. Fleur doesn’t respond.

Eli suggests that Fleur could live on the Kashpaw land if she will marry him. She remains silent, purposefully sorting stones, putting them into the pockets of her skirt, and Lulu helps her. Eli promises to earn money to buy some of her land back, but begs Fleur not to blame Nector. Fleur chooses a flat boulder and walks into the lake holding it.

Eli dives in after her to try to save her, but Fleur struggles against him. Eli drags her back to land, unconscious. Nanapush tells Lulu to go fetch blankets, and announces that this is the third time Fleur has drowned. Eli and Nanapush revive her, but Nanapush steps away when she opens her eyes, to avoid responsibility for bringing her back to life. They feel the ground beneath them shake, and know it is the lake monster causing it. Fleur cries that Nector will take her place as a curse. Fleur remains on the ground, facing west and keeping her eyes on Eli, and she shines her wolfish grin on him. He runs away from her to the lumber camp, where he takes work in the hopes of earning money to buy back Fleur’s land.

Nanapush wraps Fleur in the blanket, telling her to close her eyes, and she falls asleep. They remain on the shore while the lumber wagons retreat, and Nanapush asks Fleur if she will curse him next. Fleur says she will not, but that she will curse the lumber bankers, officials, and Morrisseys. Nanapush and Fleur are quiet for a long time, until Lulu says something silly in her sleep, and the two of them laugh together. Margaret arrives, and Fleur tells Nanapush to go to her. Fleur says that Margaret has saved her life twice and taken it twice, so now all debts are even. Fleur tells Nanapush she still owes him as her father, so she won’t harm Margaret for his sake, but that she will never go to Kashpaw land.

Nanapush moves to Margaret’s house, but he is never able to believe the best of her again or to love her as fully, after she saved only the Kashpaw land. Nanapush continues to visit Matchimanito in the following weeks, and is there when the surveyors find Napoleon’s body. Napoleon is surrounded by natural objects that Nanapush assumes Fleur put there, but she doesn’t even get a chance to defend herself. The Morrisseys and Lazarres have already spread the rumor that Fleur drowned Napoleon and stole his tongue, allowing her to walk without leaving tracks. The ghost of Napoleon supposedly returns to speak to Clarence and accuses Fleur, proof to Clarence of what happened.

Moses says that the spirit of the lost Pillager baby had been watching over the land, and that Napoleon had wandered under the umbrella’s shadow. The tribe’s policeman demands an investigation into Napoleon’s death, and begins spying on the tribe members to try and overhear what happened.

One day Nanapush goes into the confessional to play a trick on the policeman. The priest is suspicious, but Nanapush goes on to say that the keeper of the law in the village, since returning from Paris, sometimes masturbates in the grass thinking of a certain street. The priest assigns him a punishment for divulging this information, and tells Nanapush he can’t talk for the rest of the afternoon. Nanapush complies until sundown, when he begins talking nonstop.

The lumber companies continue to harvest the trees, and many of their workers die in unusual accidents, but this doesn’t deter them. Fleur seems to be flourishing in the woods despite the approaching threats, and Nanapush wonders if she is still in her right mind, trailed now by cats the way Moses is on his island.

Nanapush tells Lulu that Fleur sent her away because she could not protect Lulu from all these threats, including herself. After sending Lulu off to the government school, Fleur returns to Matchimanito to live alone. Margaret spends her time gathering berries and making preserves for Nector, who she fears will suffer the effects of Fleur’s curse at any moment.

Nanapush goes to visit Fleur, walking around the lake the long way, despite the threatening weather. As he approaches her cabin, he hears the hum of many voices, both animal and human spirit. He sees all of his past relatives—his wives, his children, and his father, who obscures the trail of the other spirits. He sees his mother and sister and his first love. Nanapush knows that Fleur has resisted the call of these ghosts and so he does, too.

The weather gets very still as Nanapush sees Fleur standing in the door of her cabin, and he knows Moses is also nearby. With the lumberjacks close behind, Eli among them, Eli tries to talk Fleur into evacuating her house so they can cut down the last of the trees. He says they have a wagon waiting for her, and he’ll pack it himself.

Nanapush hears the wind building and the voices of the dead gamblers from Argus in the woods. Nanapush warns the lumberjacks to go, but they hold their positions. Then a tree crashes down, out of sight. Another tree topples, and Fleur grins at the nervous men. One man tries to escape, but a tree bars his path. Several others climb into their wagons, but more trees fall, trapping them in place. Nanapush realizes all the trees have been sawed through at the base.

The wind picks up and knocks down all the trees. Then Fleur wheels out a cart from behind her cabin. The cart contains her weed-wrapped stones from the lake, roots, rags, her umbrella, and the grave markers of her ancestors. She and Nanapush leave quickly. Fleur asks Nanapush for his blessing to go off at the fork in the road, and he gives it to her reluctantly, asking her to stay. Fleur heads south, toward civilization.

After this, Margaret and Nanapush attempt to get Lulu back from the government school. Nector goes to Oklahoma. In their attempts to battle the government over Lulu, Nanapush sees that they are now a tribe of paper, trees pressed into the service of the government. Nanapush becomes a bureaucrat so he can better fight to get Lulu back. Margaret and Nanapush go to Lulu’s school to retrieve her in 1924. Lulu is changed from her time, but she still has the angry grin that matches Fleur’s. Lulu runs to them, and they brace themselves like trees in the wind.