Was I evading the law? No, because I hadn’t committed a crime. Yes, because the law in this country has always functioned as a suppresser of Indigenous life. To be Cree and alive, one had, in both minor and major ways, to evade the law, to stay out of its crosshairs. This woman wanted to make me into a moving target. The history that obscured the terror of the abandoned school was the same history that deputized her, that imbued her with a degree of legal power I didn’t have, nor could I ever attain it if I wanted to. I didn’t want to live like a weapon.
