The Birchbark House

The book opens with a brief scene in which a group of French Canadian fur traders, or voyageurs, find a baby girl on an island. She is the only survivor of a smallpox outbreak that has recently killed the entirety of her village. Though she was clearly loved and well cared for while her family lived, the girl is now “whimpering and pitiful” (1). The voyageurs, fearing that the girl could carry the disease, decide to leave her behind on the island and paddle away in their canoes. One man thinks about his wife, Tallow, and reflects that she is fearless and would have rescued the baby.

This chapter establishes the basic traits and daily routines of the book’s main characters. We meet Omakayas, a seven-year-old Anishinabe girl living on an island on Lake Superior in 1847. She is helping her grandmother, Nokomis, to find a birch tree whose bark will cover their family’s summer home. As Nokomis prepares to strip the bark from the tree, she prays to its spirit:“‘Old Sister…we need your skin for our shelter’” (7). Together, Omakayas and Nokomis strip bark from the tree. According to their tradition, the women of the family—Omakayas, her Mama, her big sister