Salt (11 page)

and his family, will he and I be able to play

a song together on our whistles?

That's what he hopes for,

the question I see

in his eyes:

Are you still my friend?

Last night Father said,
There will be

more settlers. Everyone who is here now will invite

friends and relatives from the places they came from themselves.

Soon there will be more of them than us, and they will tell us where

we can and cannot live.
Is it already too late to prevent that?

I listen to the river, to the fire at the center of our circle,

two coyotes howling back and forth, and people

talking softly as they make a wiikiaami.

I keep listening until I find my own

music, and then I lift

the whistle

to my mouth and play.

Father joins in on his fiddle; James

adds a tune that moves in and out of ours. We send

our music out into the darkening sky

and let the river carry it.

NOW THE SUGAR MAPLE

Now the sugar maple

draws water through deep roots

up into branches.

Deer come to lick a wound

scraped into bark,

taste the tree's sap seeping out.

More deer gather.

As they once led us to salt,

now they show us

how to find this small sweet taste,

moving up and out

into new buds, each branch

offering to sky

a gift of light and shadow.

 

NOTES

Form

Salt

Names

GLOSSARY OF MIAMI (MYAAMIA) WORDS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BONUS MATERIALS

NOTES

Form

Anikwa's poems are shaped like patterns of Miami ribbon work, a traditional art form created by sewing different colors of ribbons in patterns layered on top of each other to form diamond and triangle shapes. James's poems began as an image of the stripes on an American flag. As I discovered the two voices, the pulse-like shape of Anikwa's poems wove through the horizontal lines of James's poems, and the two voices created something new that held the story as it opened out.

Poems about salt are placed throughout the story to allow readers to pause between one event and another.

Salt

People and animals everywhere need salt. In 1812, it was used in food preservation as well as being eaten for flavor and health. The poems about salt tell how it was formed, discovered, and used in the place known as Myaamionki, the land of the Miami.

Names

As far as I know, these are not the names of real people, living now or in the past. I am grateful to Miami friends who helped me name the fictional characters; we agreed that it was best not to try to follow the complex traditions of Miami naming, and that some of the characters would be known by English translations of their Miami names.

*
Suggested by tribal members who speak each of these languages

GLOSSARY OF MIAMI (MYAAMIA) WORDS

To listen to these words (and many more) spoken by Miami speakers, go to the online Miami dictionary:
myaamiadictionary.org

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I've been learning about this history for over twenty years, and could never thank everyone who has helped me discover and write the story, but I will mention some people and organizations without whom the book could not have been written.

Friends in the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Miami Nation of Indiana have always been helpful and encouraging. Special thanks to George Ironstrack, Laura Nagy, Scott Shoemaker, George Strack, Dani Tippmann, and all the children, parents, grandparents, teachers, and counselors at the Miami Language and Culture camps. Warm gratitude to Catherine Nagy for her suggestion to “end it with music.”

Mih
Å 
i-neewe to the Myaamia Center (
myaamiacenter.org
), at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio—a source of maps, language, and historical and cultural information.

I thank the children I knew in Telida, Alaska, in the early 1980s, adults now, who answered such questions as “How long can you leave a rabbit in a snare?” My friendship with their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents also finds a place in this story.

Thanks to Reta Sands and Howard Kimewon, who suggested names for the Ottawa and Ojibwe characters.

A number of scholars generously offered their expertise. I thank Ted Bartlett, chemist; Tim McCoy, geologist; and Daryl Baldwin, David Costa, and Chad Thompson, linguists.

I found helpful historical resources at the Allen County Public Library; the IPFW Helmke Library; the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society; the Eteljorg Museum; and OYATE. Special thanks to historians John Beatty, Todd Pelfrey, Stuart Rafert, Clifford Scott, Peggy Seigel, and Eric Vosteen.

Although I have not named the historical figures who were important in the events this story portrays, I would like to acknowledge one person whose name often came up in my research. Angeline Chapeteau Peltier was a peacemaker in her time, and an inspiration and comfort to me as I imagined my story.

I am grateful for financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Foundation.

Thank you to the Authors Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, especially the Indiana listserve and the Fort Wayne writers group.

Karen Baldwin, Monica Edinger, Carol Roberts, and Margaret Steen offered helpful comments, as did young readers Julia Beatty, Zachary Herbert, and Clark and Harrison Webster. Thank you.

Thanks to Ketu Oladuwa, Sox Sperry, and Lisa Tsetse, who have shared a profound interest in this story for many years. To other friends who encourage me in so many ways: you know who you are—I appreciate you.

Many thanks to my editor, Frances Foster: what a privilege to work together on this, our seventh book. I also appreciate Susan Dobinick, Karla Reganold, Jay Colvin, and others at FSG and Macmillan, and Ginger Knowlton at Curtis Brown.

I have a large and rather amazing extended family—thanks, everyone! And a big thank-you to Chad, Lloyd, and Glen, whose suggestions are always thoughtful, specific, and helpful. I couldn't be luckier.

A CONVERSATION WITH
HELEN FROST

How did you come to write this book?

When I moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, twenty-five years ago, I was interested in the history of this place where three rivers meet. I learned that about two hundred years ago, there was a huge transition, in a very short time, from when it was a Myaamia (Miami) community to when it was a military fort, then a frontier town, and then an American city. As was true throughout the North American continent, such change did not happen easily. History books are full of war stories of that time, and
sometimes that is all we learn about.

I was interested in the relationships among people of different groups, and I found much evidence of friendship and intermarriage woven with the stories of fighting. I thought about what it may have been like for children who were friends when these changes were taking place. As I learned more, I looked for a way to tell the story I imagined.

What sparked your interest in the War of 1812?

The events that occurred in Kekionga/Fort Wayne in the late summer of 1812 sparked my interest, and then as I tried to understand the larger context of what happened here, I learned more about the War of 1812.

What sort of research did you do while writing
Salt
?

I walked along the rivers.

I went to the library.

I read journals of military men and pacifists from the early 1800s.

I waded through the difficult stories, and learned what I could from people whose points of view are different from my own.

I visited museums.

I listened to Myaamia elders, historians, and storytellers.

I attended Myaamia cultural events and academic conferences.

I thought about how I came to know my Native American friends and considered why cross-cultural friendships have been easier for me as an adult than they were when I was a child.

I learned who to ask for help when I got stuck.

How did you decide on the poetry structure for this book?

I wrote the story in several different ways before finding the poetic form that allowed the two voices to ring clear and weave together as the story took shape.

What would you like readers to take away from
Salt
?

When we learn history, we sometimes think the outcome was inevitable, but it was not. This part of our history could certainly have turned out differently. What if everyone had refused to be led by fear, and had treated one another with respect?