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Lisa,”
Narrator
Ka-tee-doux Gitk’a’ata,
How is it pronounced?
Early in the nineteenth century, Hudson’s Bay traders used Tsimshian guides to show them around, which is when the names began to get confusing. “Kitamaat” is a Tsimshian word that means people of the falling snow, and that was their name for the main Haisla village. So when the Hudson’s Bay traders asked their guides, “Hey, what’s that village called?” and the Tsimshian guides said, “Oh, that’s Kitamaat.” The name got stuck on the official records and the village has been called Kitamaat ever since, even though it really should be called Haisla. There are about four or five different
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Interesting that the village or town is named fromna misunderstanding and easily confused with a newer town similar sounding name different spelling.
At least I didn’t tell them about the dream:
First dream
He was only a year and a half younger than me and he was still such a baby.
Jimmy is 18 months younger than narrator
I turned back and saw him.
Narrator's first sighting experience.
Maybe dreaming about Jimmy standing on Monkey Beach is simply regret at missed opportunities. Maybe it means I’m feeling guilty about withholding secrets. It could be a death, sending, but those usually happen when you are awake.
I used to think that if I could talk to the spirit world, I’d get some answers. Ha bloody ha. I wish the dead would just come out and say what they mean instead of being so passive-aggressive about the whole thing.
Mom bought me wind chimes last year for my nineteenth birthday,
She is 20 now. Jimmy is 18 going on 19
I stood beside a ditch, looking down at a small, dark brown dog with white spots.
Second dream
at the red-haired man sitting cross-legged on the top of my dresser.
Now that I think back, the pattern of the little man’s visits seems unwelcomely obvious, but at the time, his arrivals and departures had no meaning.
The Greeks ironically called the Black Sea Euxinos: friendly to strangers. Those who know the ocean know it doesn’t make friends. Exitio est avidum mare nautis—the greedy sea is there to be a doom for sailors.
A.I.M. Higher—Join the American Indian Movement!
Rage scorched my face. I balled my fists up, held them in front of me and rammed into Frank.
She had forced us to read a book that said that the Indians on the northwest coast of British Columbia had killed and eaten people as religious sacrifices. My teacher had made us each read a paragraph out loud. When my turn came, I sat there shaking, absolutely furious.
Charlie Brown trees
Funny how that image has spread into multiple venacular
throw rocks in rivers. We scanned the ground for the serrated, broad leaves of thimbleberry and salmonberry shoots, q°alh’m.
“Well,” Dad had replied, “now we can buy a VHS.” We’d got Beta because he claimed the quality was way better, but now it looked like everyone was going VHS. Because it was vaguely embarrassing to admit we’d picked the wrong machine, we’d never made the switch.
At Kemano, there is a graveyard. Leave our house with its large, black-eyed windows staring out at the channel. Follow the path down to the beach. Follow the beach to the point, about a three-minute walk. Enter the trees, step over the fallen logs and watch out for the prickly, waist-high devil’s club.
Giving directions. Location. Seems important to Lisa, the narrator.
Realize that the plumpest berries are over the graves.
Tupperware is piled and squashed in the fridge, all loaded down with my favourite foods. Tradition. A human need to express sympathy with tangibles. Cards. Brownies. Our living room is crowded with flowers. Jimmy has a lot of friends.
oolichans
Didn't realize this was animal, fish
Silvery, slender oolichans are about as long as your hand and a little thicker than your thumb. They are part of the smelt family and are one of the tastiest fish on the planet.
wa-mux-a, the day winter shook out his cape, the snow fell in big flakes, but later the sun came out and melted them all away; that was winter going home.
“Who are you waving at?” Mick shouted over the engine. He was looking at me like I was nuts. “You can’t see them?” I said, lowering my arm.
Lisas first experience aside from her Dresser gremlin
In the past, most of the groups spoke different languages, so a trade language called Chinook was created, which combined the easiest-to-pronounce words in the languages into a pidgin, a patois.
Mick opened the pot and dumped the halibut back in the water. It spiraled into the darkness, its pale white belly flashing as it sank. “What’d you do that for?” I said. “It’s a magical thing,” Mick said. “You aren’t supposed to touch them if you don’t know how to handle them.” “It’s just a halibut.” “Do you know how it got in the pot?” I shook my head. “Then leave it alone. We got enough crabs anyway. Let’s get going.”
“They just died,” she said, her lips thinning. Which meant that she wanted me to stop asking what she called my nosy questions.
What adults think children should know and what knowledge they need to be "protected" from.
Mick's reveal in contrast to Glady's secret. The dream lisa hides from her parents (Gladys and Albert)
Lisamarie Michelle Hill,
Narrator's full name
Maybe, I consoled myself, they showed themselves only at night, which wasn’t too far away.
She wants to see the laughing ghosts
“I just don’t like the ghosts.” “Ghosts, huh?” “Don’t you believe in ghosts?” “Did you see them?” I shook my head. “I just heard them laughing.”
She is afraid again
She said that a long time ago, people were afraid to go up the Douglas Channel because this great big monster guarded the entrance. It was white and opened its huge mouth, making a roaring cry. The monster turned out to be just a huge flock of sea gulls feeding on herring. The flock would rise into the air and the monster’s mouth would open, then it would settle back on the water and the mouth would close.
A monster's myth debunked.
While everyone else was going around having fun, I had to sit at the front table and do math. I glared at my books.
Why is math the enemy of young children and some adults
Ma-ma-oo told Jimmy that feeding crows brought you good luck, so he tried it before a swim meet. It was the first time he won.
According to every True Story I’d ever read, sex led to misfortune.
“She’s just drunk. She won’t remember a thing tomorrow,” she said. I sat on her bed and hugged a pillow. “I can’t believe she says things like that. What a liar.” Tab gave me a pitying look. “Why do you listen to her?”
Rationalizing the abuse
The little man woke me near dawn, his eyes glittering and black.
“Your mom says some things are simple, and thinking just make them complicated.”
Contacting the dead, lesson one.
saw this plain headstone with nothing on it but the number 100 and a backwards F. Since it was simple to copy, I put my paper against it and rubbed my pencil across the surface. As I was standing in front of the class, I held up the paper and the light shone through it. 100F was really “Fool” backwards.
“You honkies want women to be like cookies, all sweet and dainty and easy to eat. But I’m fry bread, you bitch, and I’m proud of it.’”
datla, carefully slicing the salmon for smoking.
du’qua, stinging nettle,
she stopped in front of a plant as tall as her, with broad, smooth leaves that branched off the stalk like a tulip’s leaves. It was topped with tiny, white flowers.
She took the shovel and started digging a big hole around the plant. When she hit the root, she started digging with her hands. The root had a small dark bulb, but then it went stringy like a creamy yellow mop.
“Oxasuli,” she said. “Powerful medicine. Very dangerous. It can kill you, do you understand? You have to respect it.”
“The tobacco is for the tree spirits. You take something, you give something. I’m asking for protection.
The chief trees—the biggest, strongest, oldest ones—had a spirit, a little man with red hair.
“Guess you’re going to make canoes.” I laughed. “I don’t think so.” “No one makes them any more,” she said. “Easier to go out and buy a boat. Old ways don’t matter much now. Just hold you back.”
Same with jong, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaf. Ahma used to make them but we just buy them. No space or patience for the process.
