Keeper'n Me

Garnet realizes the importance of land. Keeper tells him that “the Indian problem is really a land problem” (223). The reserve system was made to benefit the whites and not the Indigenous tribes. Indigenous people still claim their land because they want to protect their connection to it. Garnet learns that land is sacred and central to the Indigenous worldview.

Garnet decides to travel across the lake and spends four days living in the land alone. He was born on the other side of the lake where the family’s traditional land is and where his grandfather used to trap. Garnet enjoys nature’s “beautiful silence” that connects people to themselves and to life. He goes to his birth place to find home. Before leaving, Keeper gives him instructions on how to pray with a “tobacco offering” to the land. With this prayer, Garnet will give thanks for everything that the land offers and remind himself to be humble and respectful. Traveling across the lake early in the morning, Garnet feels like flying.

Keeper did the same when he was young, following Harold’s advice. Each morning, Keeper saw two