Spirited (27 page)

The Way is called “achwahndowagan” in the language of the People.

The Way is called “love” in the language of my father.

The Way is called “Wusamequin” in the language of my spirit.

This Way changed the People. It gave us new hearts. Odina is my sister now. Keshkecho, as well. Wabun-Anung is my
nomasis
, my little grandmother.

During Harvest Moon, the Makiawisug made blankets for my first-born son, Phillip Wauntheet Monnitoow. Phillip Shining Spirit. Titania is his godmother.

A year and a half later, during Strawberry Moon, they made blankets for my daughter, Emily Mahkwa, which means Bear, in honor of her father’s spirit guide.

We live in the Land Beyond. Someday we will walk the Road of Stars. For now, we walk together, our family and our tribe. We call ourselves the Spirit People.

Let those who hear my story grow strong in their own spirits. Let those who hear my story grow strong in
achwahndowagan.

Let them become Warriors of the Heart, as my people and I have become.

Let them find True Love, as I have found.

That is my Way.

—Mahwah Stevens, Wife of Wusamequin, in the Land Beyond

This retelling of
Beauty and the Beast
is set during the French and Indian War, which lasted from 1756-1763. Fort William Henry was an actual British fort, but it was commanded in 1756 by Lt. Colonel George Monro. However, Lt. Colonel Monro never followed Mahwah back to Wusamequin’s village, nor massacred any of his people. Therefore, I have invented the character of Colonel Ramsland for the purposes of my story. Mohican, Delaware, Mohegan, and other neighboring tribes traditionally are grouped as “Algonquin” Native American tribes, and I have used a mixture of names from that cluster for my Native American characters. For this reason, I have referred to Wusamequin’s tribe as “the People of the River,” and not as “the pe ople who live alongside a river which ebbs and flows,” which is a more traditional way to refer to the Mohican people. However, the majority of names are Mohican, and the language they speak in
Spirited
is Mohican. The Makiawisug are the little people of the Mohegans.

I have also put my own twist on the beliefs of the Algonquins in the afterlife. Many tribes and clans had their own interpretations of the Land Beyond, although the Milky Way was referred to by many as the Road of Stars, walked by spirits and ancestors on their celestial journey.

My inspirations for this retelling were twofold: First, James Fenimore Cooper’s novel,
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757
, which was originally published in 1826. The second was the 1992 film by the same title, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. However, in both cases, the title is a misnomer: the Mohican Nation is alive and well, with over fifteen hundred enrolled members, over half of whom live on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin.

Nancy Holder
has published approximately sixty books and over two hundred short stories, essays, and articles. Her work has been translated into over two dozen languages, and has appeared on recommended lists in the
Los Angeles Times
, on amazon.com, and other bestseller lists. It has also appeared on recommended reading lists of the American Library Association, the American Reading Association, the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, and others. She has received four Bram Stoker Awards for her supernatural fiction. She has written many titles for Simon & Schuster, including dozens set in the
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and
Angel
universes. With Debbie Viguié, she cowrote the
Wicked
saga, about two feuding witch families in Seattle. She is also the author of
Pearl Harbor: 1941.
She lives in San Diego with her eight-year-old daughter, Belle, who is currently franchising lemonade stands in their neighborhood in order to raise money for innumerable animal causes. Contact Nancy at
www.nancyholder.com
. The Holder women are owned by their cats, David and Kittnen Snow, and their dog, Dot.

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