with our task, each of us slowly took our arrows out of our quivers and stuck them in the snow beside us, enabling easier access to the weapons. The Nippissing were working their way to an area that would leave them with only about fifty feet of open ground between us. They most likely assumed that we hadn’t seen them. This would give them a distinct advantage in surprising us as they could cover the ground before we could be ready ourselves. We still did not know how many there were, but we estimated at least four or five by the shadowy sightings.
We had planned it so the moose carcass would be between us and our attackers for cover. I glanced up and witnessed the first man run out of the woods. Quickly grabbing my bow, I loosed an arrow. The impact of the missile hitting the man in the hip could be heard in the cold silence. With a shrill yell he dropped down, reddening the snow around him. Immediately, two arrows hit the moose near where I was crouching with distinctive thuds. Makwa and Kàg had also gotten off arrows; Kàg’s entered the throat of a young hunter. The man could not scream but just knelt in the snow trying to pull the arrow out of his neck. This made the wound larger and allowed the blood to spurt with every beat of his heart.
In an instant they were on us like a pack of wolves, screaming and yelling. There were five more besides the two we had hit with our arrows. Makwa had been the closest to them as they reached us and three of them were trying to take the huge man down. Makwa was a big man and I only came to his shoulders in height. His bravery in battle was legendary, but if neither Kàg nor I could get to him the Nippissing would overpower him by sheer numbers.
The two remaining dogs, sensing that Makwa was in immediate danger, rushed the warrior nearest to them and dragged him down by burying their canine fangs into the man’s thighs. The dogs were snapping and growling like wolves and their prey was screaming and lashing out at them with a huge war club and knife.
Kàg and one of the Nippissing were swinging wildly at each other with their clubs, hitting glancing blows off each other. As I made my way toward Makwa, I encountered the last warrior that was between me and the main body of snarling dogs and screaming men. I could see the fear in my foe’s eyes as he ran toward me. He, like the rest of his party, were all young and probably had been battle tested against the Haudenosaunee in the last couple of years.
My first instinct was to try and kneecap him with my club. If I swung at his head, he would only block it, and I would be wide open for a return strike. I dropped to one knee in the soft snow and swung with all my might at his knees. He was quicker than I had expected and jumped over my swinging club. While he was in the air he twisted and swung his axe and caught me with a glancing blow on the right side of my head, knocking my hat off and lacerating my ear. When the Nippissing landed, he stumbled just enough that I could come down with my war club on the top of his right shoulder. I could feel the bone breaking underneath my weapon. He screamed like a mishi-pijiw (panther) and switched his axe to the other hand and swung again at me as I was closing in. I blocked his weapon with my left forearm and could feel a tingling in my wrist as I took the brunt of the force of the axe’s shaft. With a mighty scream, I swung my club and caught the young warrior full in the face. The man dropped and lay motionless at my feet.
I then turned my attention toward the sound of the dogs and Makwa. The animals had torn the pants completely off of their adversary. The man was fighting for his life and had cut the small dog on its withers with his bone knife. Men and animals were covered with blood, as was the snow around them. The beleaguered warrior finally broke free and ran back from where he had come.
Meanwhile, Makwa was in distress. He had a knife embedded in his shoulder and blood running down his face from a head wound. He was valiantly trying to fend off his attackers, but they had gotten the upper hand on him. Both of his attackers were bloodied. However, one had worked his way around Makwa and with all his might swung down on Makwa’s head with a large club made out of a huge tree knot. Makwa dropped to his knees and just as the Nippissing was swinging again, there was a blood-curdling scream as a massive spear tore into the back of the man. Without a sound, the remaining warrior took one look at Mònz and Wàgosh running toward the battle, and ran off with the speed of a frightened deer. The battle between Kàg and his foe ended with the entrance of Wàgosh and Mònz. Kàg’s adversary broke off the encounter and ran.
The three fleeing Nippissing grabbed the dead man with the arrow in his throat and also the warrior with the arrow in his thigh. They escaped to the tree line. I turned to look at the man I had battled with and all that remained was a pool of blood. I could see him in the distance staggering toward the tree line following the remnants of the group.
We didn’t disturb the body of the dead man that they left behind. We would leave him where he had fallen and his fellow warriors would come back for his body. Our group did not give chase, as these men had suffered enough, and we had to make our escape from their lands. Two of them had died and two were badly wounded, and the latter might not survive unless they could get them to their healer.
For us, we had suffered a huge loss. Makwa, my sister’s man, had fallen in battle. There would be great sorrow when we arrived back at our village with this news. With a journey home longer than the six days we took to get here, we would have to bury Makwa on the trail.
Neither Kàg nor his foe had suffered any wounds, but my ear was still bleeding from the axe blow. I put some willow pumice on it to keep out the poison and some jimsonweed to cover the wound and help it heal.
With not knowing how far the Nippissing had come from their winter homes, we were at a loss as to how long a time frame we had to finish our butchering. Our main fear was that they would return with a larger force and catch us here.
Having this in mind, we had to rush our job at hand. I had the twins tend to the wounded small dog using only willow to mend the injury. If we put jimsonweed on the wound, he would lick it and die from the poison of the herb. We would have to pull a toboggan with Makwa on it until we could bury him. The twins would have to take on extra duties now that we were short one warrior.
I told the boys that after they tended to the dogs they were to start a fire and roast some moose for us. I calculated that we had to get the big bull butchered, make the travois and toboggans, and be away from there by morning light. We would use mònzwegin (moose hide) and some woody vines to make binding for the carriers. Time was of the essence.
The farther away we got from this battle site the less stomach the Nippissing would have to follow us. But we knew they would not forget this intrusion and the losses they had suffered.
3
The Burial
WITH A LARGE FIRE snapping away, we proceeded to make the five toboggans that were needed for the trip back to our villages. Each of the four hunters had to pull a toboggan, plus the twins had to take turns with the other. The red dog and the white one pulled a travois. The small dog was not required to because of its wound. The travois poles were easy to strap on the dogs. Using moose hide, we fastened it across the two poles and then the load was tied down.
The twins now, besides tending the fire and cooking us some meat, also had to cut leather strips from the moose hide for the bindings, plus cut us lengths of the wild grape vines for added strength. The dogs were our sentries that night, as every one else had a job to do. They had been fed well, and even though they were content with full bellies, they were alert.
Kàg and I heated the green poles that had been cut for the toboggans in the fire. The poles had to be heated so one end could be bent without breaking. The front end of the sleds had to have an upward curve on them so they could be pulled without digging into the snow. Once they were heated enough and bent, Wàgosh and Mònz tied the poles with leather bindings and sat the framework that they had built on top. The leather was laid in small grooves to keep from interfering with the pulling of the toboggan. The poles were then
