Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Content Warning: These Chapter Summaries & Analyses discuss potential child abuse and alcohol use that are described in the text. Additionally, to highlight racism and apathy toward Indigenous communities, Talaga reproduces offensive terms that non-Indigenous Canadians often use to describe Indigenous peoples.

Talaga begins by describing the Ojibwe legend about the giant Nanabijou, a powerful and benevolent god. Nanabijou cared deeply about the Ojibwe tribe, who lived in the Great Lakes area. He possessed a rock with “a shiny metal that twinkled like the starry sky” (1), which he gifted to the Ojibwe. This gift was silver. Nanabijou made the Ojibwe promise to not tell anyone else about the silver, especially the Europeans who had arrived in the area. If the Ojibwe kept their promise, then Nanabijou would always protect them. Unfortunately, a Oceti Sakowin man heard about the silver and tricked the Ojibwe into telling him where he could find it. He mined the silver and headed back to his people, but the Europeans caught him. Initially, the Oceti Sakowin man refused to tell the Europeans where he found the silver. However, the Europeans loosened the Oceti Sakowin man’s tongue with “firewater”—alcohol.