Two brothers enter a beaver lodge to hunt. Unaware that a Cree war party has attacked their camp, they become trapped when the Cree set the lodge on fire. Facing suffocation, the older brother leads an escape through an underwater passage, pulling his younger sibling to safety. Despite freezing conditions, they survive, highlighting their resilience during times of conflict.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Conflict with Authority: The brothers face aggression from the Cree, who represent an oppressive force threatening their lives.
Trials and Tribulations: The brothers endure significant challenges, including escaping the burning lodge and surviving the freezing conditions.
Cunning and Deception: The brothers use their knowledge of the beaver lodge’s structure to outwit the Cree and escape through the underwater passage.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
There were two young brothers who went in under a beaver lodge. They were waiting there listening to detect the beaver. While they were there, a party of Cree came and killed the people at the camp. The young men did not find it out, but the Cree saw them and came to the hole which they had cut in the beaver lodge and brought a quantity of dry wood which they pushed in and set on fire. The men inside were in great distress, and could hardly breathe on account of smoke. They were about to die and there was nothing they could do to help themselves. They plunged into the water, for they knew that down stream there was a hole which had been cut through the ice. The older brother succeeded in reaching the hole and came out.
► Continue reading…
I suppose he did not do it without some reason. [Interpolated by the narrator to explain that the man had supernatural help in escaping.] His younger brother was behind him, for the older brother had said, “Keep right behind me.” He felt for his brother and caught him by the foot just as he was passing the opening. They both got out safely and went away and hid. The clothes they had on, being wet, froze. They were nearly frozen to death, but escaped.
There were no white people here at that time. They had a hard time because of the Cree who were always killing them. This happened when they had breechcloths of skin.
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