Totem Lost

by James Hadman

  Killer Whale Rider and I resumed our reading and writing lessons and as he became more proficient in Father’s strange tongue, he was a real help with the journal. For several summers, the entries were mainly oriented toward family and village news. The spirits didn’t bless us with more children, but our twins thrived. We enjoyed taking them around our country for sightseeing, fishing and hunting. True to his nature, Sea Abraham approached each outing as a contest he had to win.

  Somehow, my Arrow had become old when I wasn’t paying attention. Her muzzle was gray and she had trouble walking. One morning she didn’t come down for her breakfast and I found she had died in the night. I was heartbroken—she had been my constant companion for twelve summers.

  Two moons later Kushdaka also left me. We were camping with the twins when a family of otters swam past us. One of them raised up and whistled when it saw us. Kushdaka answered the whistle and swam out toward them. She and the other otters tumbled and splashed together and I was concerned that they might hurt her, but when she rose high in the water, looked back at me and whistled, I could tell she was saying goodbye. I knew she missed Arrow and I was happy she had found a new family.

  July 20, 1794: By the twins’ tenth summer unsettling rumors began arriving in Klawak, stories about huge canoes visiting Haida Gwaii. These craft were described as flying many wind-wings and having whitefaces riding on them. Those tales always mentioned that people who traded with those whitefaces were becoming wealthy.

  October 13, 1794: When Pearl Shell Woman, who had become the village shaman at Howkan after Sky Shaker died, came for a visit, she told us of a sinister event. Hunters had spotted birds flocking around a derelict Haida canoe that had washed ashore on an outer beach near Kaigani, a fishing camp not far from Howkan. It was full of dead bodies that were much decayed, but they appeared to have perished from an illness that had caused huge sores to erupt all over their bodies. When she heard this report, Pearl Shell Woman had ordered the bodies burned right in their awful death canoe.

  Even though these accounts seemed to be confirmation of the arrival of the whitefaces that Father had warned us about, we convinced one another that our responsibility was keeping our twins safe in Klawak, so we took no action.

  April 2, 1795: The strategy of avoidance failed us in the Halibut Moon of 1795. An agitated messenger sent by Pearl Shell Woman told of a winged canoe full of whitefaces anchored near Kaigani. Villagers were already trading with the strangers and gloating over the wealth they had gained. He also said that Pearl Shell Woman was asking us to come and help her deal with the dangerous invasion.

  April 3, 1795: The night following the messenger’s visit I had my soaring dream for the first time since my shaman training. I awoke in a state of panic as I fell from the sky. As before, the tall man with yellow hair, in his black cloak and black hat, had pointed a stick at me. I heard a loud noise, saw a puff of smoke, and then felt a blow to my chest. I awoke gasping for breath in the dark safety of my house. How could spirits I no longer controlled bring this awful dream to me again? Bear Claw, the shaman who had first forced that dream on me, was dead. I had no answers and I was terrified. When I told Killer Whale Rider about my dream, he was quiet at first. Then he put his arms around me.

  “This dream is your destiny, Wife,” he said. “You must go to meet this winged canoe. You must face the whitefaces. Only by doing this, will you discover why this dream is happening to you and how to make it end.”

  “I can’t leave you and the twins,” I said.

  “I’m going with you,” he said. “The twins will be fine staying here.”

  We left Klawak that afternoon amidst tearful farewells and admonitions to the twins to mind their grandmother. We made a swift trip to Howkan with a short overnight along the way.

  April 5, 1795: When we landed, Pearl Shell Woman hurried down the beach to meet us. What struck us was that the village seemed to be nearly deserted.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked.

  “They’ve all gone down to Kaigani to trade with the whitefaces on that big canoe,” she said, spitting on the beach. “Everyone wants to get rich.”

  “Have you seen it?” Killer Whale Rider asked.

  “Only from a distance,” she said. “After Copper Hair’s warning, I didn’t want to get close to such a dangerous thing. Raven’s Bones, that thing is huge. It has two masts that tower over everything. I wish Sky Shaker was alive to help us. She would know what to do.”

  “I wish she was too, but we’ll just have to figure out our own answers,” I said. “Do you remember the ‘falling’ dream I had when I was training to be a shaman?” She nodded. “I’ve had it again and my husband is telling me I have to go to the whiteface canoe to discover what the dream means. Only then will it stop.”

  “As I remember, that dream didn’t end well for you,” she said. “You must be very careful.”

  That evening while I was writing in the journal Killer Whale Rider was watching me.

  “Let me write this entry,” he said, and it was my turn to watch him carefully forming letters and words. When he finished he smiled at me and asked, “Can you read what I’ve written?”

  “You’ve written, ‘Abraham’s Copper Spirit will fulfill her destiny and her spirits will protect her from the evil whitefaces.’ I hope you’re correct.”

  April 6, 1795: The next morning, just after daybreak, we painted our faces as if going to war and boarded our big canoe. With eight well-armed paddlers, we headed down the channel toward Kaigani. Before long, we met happy villagers on their way home. They took obvious delight in showing us their new treasures and bragging about what good trades they had made.

  They had exchanged their otter skins for a variety of valuable goods—beautiful shiny beads, lengths of colourful fabric, thin copper wire and useful iron tools. My husband and our paddlers were all impressed. I was, too. The goods were very attractive. It was no surprise that the villagers were so pleased with what they had received from the whitefaces. Father had predicted that these invaders would bring seductive trade goods like these and our people would welcome them. Now I was watching this happen and didn’t know what we could do to stop it.

  When the whiteface canoe came into view, my heart sank. Just as Pearl Shell Woman had described, the thing had two towering masts and it was immense. The villagers were gathered around the massive black canoe like seagulls around a feeding whale and their canoes were tiny by comparison. We drew close enough for me to make out unusual letters on the bow and I used red face-paint to copy EURYDICE onto the blade of a spare paddle.

  The paddlers rested while we drifted and I studied the big canoe. The two thick masts towering over it had a tangle of lines falling from the top of them all the way down to the hull. A number of whitefaces were standing behind a waist-high railing protected by a tall web of netting extending high above the railing. They motioned for us to come closer. Killer Whale Rider and I exchanged glances and he nodded.

  “It is time, Wife.”

  I told the paddlers to approach the canoe and we did. As we came alongside, I had to crane my neck to look up toward the watching whitefaces

  “Raven’s Bones, the sides of this thing are so tall,” Killer Whale Rider said. How do people get aboard?” The answer appeared as two whitefaces dropped a piece of thick netting over the side and pointed toward it.

  “It looks like they want us to use that to climb up,” I said.

  “Do you want to?”

  “I don’t want to, but I have to do this. This is the first step to ridding myself of the dream. I have to find out if the whiteface demon I’ve seen in my dream is aboard this canoe.”

  “If that will rid you of the dream, we have no choice. Let’s board this thing.”

  Our paddlers took us close to the netting. We grabbed hold and climbed up the hull, clambered over the thick railing, and stood on a plank deck similar to t
he floors in our houses. My husband took my hand and we stood side by side, taking in all the strange sights.

  Smiling whitefaces holding trade goods like those the villagers had shown us pressed close around us. While they looked at us, we looked at them. We both wore full-length otter cloaks as well as our rain hats with clan designs. The whitefaces had hairy faces and were dressed in a variety of clothing of different colours. They were all quite young and dirty. Killer Whale Rider and I exchanged glances. We were not impressed.

  I widened my inspection to include more details of this massive canoe. I saw piles of valuable ropes coiled on the deck. More lines were draped on many pins that pierced wooden rails. These rails were fastened between the thick black ropes that ran all the way to the top of the towering masts. I poked Killer Whale Rider and said, “Look at all those pins with rope coils hanging from them. They look like they’re made of iron.”

  “Aiee! I think you’re right. There is so much iron on this canoe it takes my breath away. I see iron tools and that whiteface over there is leaning on the biggest iron blade I’ve ever seen.” He was getting more excited as he pointed toward the bow. “Look at that huge anchor. It’s made from iron, too.” We exchanged glances and he shook his head. “I’m having trouble taking all of this in.” He wasn’t the only one. I’m sure my mouth was open in awe as I saw one amazing thing after another.

  The whitefaces holding trade goods made it clear that they wanted to trade for our cloaks, but we refused. We were there to gather information, not trade goods. I continued examining the details of this strange craft.

  The deck of the canoe was higher in the stern than the level we were standing on. I looked up and saw a man standing with his hands on a wooden railing. He was dressed in black and wore a tall black hat with a wide brim that shadowed his face. Raven’s Bones! Could this be him, the demon from my awful dream? I squeezed Killer Whale Rider’s hand.

  “Look at the whiteface behind that railing. Can you tell if he has yellow hair?” I asked, pointing to him. “He’s dressed like the man in my dream. Do you think he could recognize me even if I’m not the eagle in my dream?”

  He looked up at him and said, “I don’t know about him recognizing you, but I can see yellow hair sticking out from under his hat.”

  “If he is the one, at least he’s not pointing a fire-stick at me like he does in my dream.”

  “He has one close at hand. It’s leaning against the railing next to him.” I hadn’t noticed it before, but it looked exactly like the one in my dream.

  “This is scaring me. He could pick it up and shoot me this very instant.”

  After I pointed to him, the yellow-haired demon waved at us. Then he climbed down from the raised stern and walked toward us. I was glad to see that he had left his fire-stick behind.

  When my husband put up a hand to keep him from getting too close to me, the demon stopped and removed his hat with a sweeping gesture. His long hair fell free and I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. It was bright yellow, an impossible hair colour for a human, but exactly as I had seen in my dream.

  “I think this hair ritual may be important,” my husband said. “Let’s take off our hats and see what he does next.” We did and when I shook out my full head of red hair, the demon put out his hand as if he wanted to touch it, but I stepped back from him.

  “From the look on his face, I think he recognizes you.”

  The yellow-haired demon wasn’t looking at me with recognition. His pale eyes were staring at me with hunger and I felt a chill. Without a word, he reached into his cloak and handed Killer Whale Rider a shiny disc, which he passed to me. My husband nodded his head and actually smiled at the demon who smiled back. The present hadn’t helped, I still felt threatened. My guardian spirits were screaming, warning me we were in danger, but they couldn’t tell me what the threat was.

  “I want to go back to the village right now. I have to think about how to deal with what we’ve seen,” I said, tucking the disc under my cloak. In spite of what I assumed were entreaties from the whitefaces, we motioned for our paddlers who were drifting nearby to return. Then we climbed back over the railing, scrambled down the net, boarded our canoe, and returned to Howkan.

  Back in the village, secure in the big house that Pearl Shell Woman had inherited from our beloved Sky Shaker, we sat by the fire. I handed the disc to Killer Whale Rider and explained to Pearl Shell Woman that the whiteface demon from my dream had given it to us. It was made from a shiny metal of a colour that we had never seen before. When he held it up, so it caught the firelight, we could make out a carving of an eagle with spread wings on one side. He suggested this might indicate that the demon knew who I was. I wasn’t convinced, but when he turned it over, what I saw took my breath away. On the opposite side was the head of a woman with long flowing hair like mine. When I saw that, I was certain the demon had recognized me. I didn’t know what his gift meant, but it frightened me.

  When we told her about the marvelous things we had seen aboard the whiteface canoe, Pearl Shell Woman spat in the fire, and then she said, “Nothing you have told me changes how I feel. Your father said the whitefaces would come with all this wealth you are describing. He warned that they would use it against us. This has already begun. You both know we have to make them leave our land.”

  She was right. In my legacy letter, Father had warned me that they would use valuable trade items to befriend us before they stole our lands. Now we had proof that they were starting to do just that. We discussed our options and decided the only way to put an end to this invasion was to make the evil demon and his canoe leave our land and never return. We had seen the fire-sticks Father warned us about, so I knew we wouldn’t stand a chance to drive them away if we tried to fight them.

  So how could we get rid of them? We decided to use the same technique Father had used to bribe Skull Breaker. Extravagant gifts had worked for him. We hoped they would work for us as well. To get them to leave, I would have to put aside my fears and risk facing the yellow-haired demon once more.

  Chapter Eleven

  April 7, 1795: The next morning Killer Whale Rider and I headed back to Kaigani and the whiteface canoe. This time we were alone and we paddled down there in a punishing rain. Our cargo was the largest bundle of prime sea otter skins we could carry in our small canoe. We hoped we had brought enough sea otter pelts to bribe them so they would agree to leave.

  Their canoe was anchored in the same place. Its dark hull looked even more sinister in the rain. Several village canoes were drifting nearby, waiting to trade. As we approached, one of the whitefaces waved us closer, so we secured our canoe to the netting next to another already tied there. Killer Whale Rider lifted our bundle of skins up to waiting arms and, like yesterday, we climbed the netting.

  This morning I noticed a difference right away. After we were aboard, it wasn’t just the demon, I could see obvious hunger in all the whitefaces’ eyes as they stared at my body. I wondered what had changed overnight and my question was answered when two village girls climbed out of a hole in the canoe’s deck. They were followed closely by two grinning whitefaces. When they saw us, at first the girls looked embarrassed, but they quickly recovered. One reached into her pouch and pulled out two strings of glistening beads.

  “Look at these. I didn’t have any goods to trade, but after I let them have me, I got a string from each of those men,” she said, tossing her hair.

  “It was fun,” her companion said, nodding and smiling. “The whitefaces were so eager and generous. Look at the presents they gave me for laying with them.” She pulled two lengths of cloth from her pouch, one a brilliant blue and the other a deep red. “As pretty as you are, you should get some excellent things if you’re nice to them,” she said with a smile. We watched the girls climb back over the rail and board their canoe. Killer Whale Rider looked at me and shook his head.

  I knew how he felt. I too
was shocked by this exchange. I had met both of these girls before and they were from good families. I was surprised that they were willing to have sex with these strangers. The beads and cloth they received were beautiful and valuable. But were the trade goods the girls received worth the price they paid? I didn’t think so. I decided that this was another reason to get these whitefaces to leave our land before they caused any more harm.

  More than ten whitefaces stood close, nearly surrounding us. Having them watch my every move with hungry eyes was making me very nervous. I wanted to complete our bribery plan and get off this evil whiteface canoe as soon as possible. I was pleased when I saw Killer Whale Rider showing our furs to the yellow-haired demon. They were smiling at one another, nodding their heads, and using sign language. I hoped they were nearing an agreement to leave in exchange for the furs, but my hopes were dashed.

  My husband smiled at me and said, “Your demon has a special cloak he wants to show me.” The demon spoke to one of the watching whitefaces who disappeared for a short time and returned carrying a long, dark-blue cloak that had shiny metal decorations coloured like the sun down the front and matching stripes on the sleeves. Killer Whale Rider’s eyes widened when he saw this garment. He nodded at the demon and quickly shrugged out of his otter skin cloak, letting it fall to the deck. While the demon held the blue garment, he slid his arms into its sleeves. He struggled for a moment to get it over his broad shoulders but when it was on, he turned and smiled at me. “How do I look?” he asked.

  “You look very handsome,” I said, and then he spun around, so I could admire him. My heart melted. This was the man I loved and if the cloak made him happy, I was glad for him. Both he and the demon were nodding and smiling. A whiteface scooped up the cloak and disappeared down a hole in the canoe’s deck with it. I presumed that was the conclusion of trading and turned to leave, but I was wrong. My chance for a quick departure vanished when the two of them began what became a lengthy negotiation over our bundle of furs. Finally, Killer Whale Rider looked at me and nodded.