Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

Miss Danfort

A few days after the men tell Mr. Hoff that he’s no longer welcome and the village women will no longer work for his wife, Miss Danfort sends David to the men’s house with a message for Minuk’s grandfather: will he please let her speak to him about something important?

Grandpa goes to the clinic, for he’s courteous and won’t make Miss Danfort wait. He reports back and says that Miss Danfort asks if Minuk will work for her. She says Minuk can speak and understand enough English to help her. Miss Danfort says her job is to cure diseases, not to civilize people or change their beliefs. She is a member of the Hoffs’ church, but she’s not doing church business in her clinic. She only wants people to become more healthy.

Minuk’s breath stops in her throat. She waits with everyone else to hear what Grandpa will say. He continues to say that white men have good medicine. He says they can cure many things which have yet to be cured by a shaman. He says Yup’ik women can become shamans, so it’s not against customs for Minuk to work for the nurse and learn what she knows. Therefore, all of the men in the qasgiq have agreed that Minuk may work for the nurse.

Minuk drops her head to show acceptance, but she wants to laugh and cry and shout all at the same time. She is so pleased that Miss Danfort has asked for her, and please she’ll be learning something new and speaking English, and peeking in the schoolroom to learn enough to finish a book.

Miss Danfort has a big, thick book called the United States Dispensatory, which lists all the medicines and what they’re used for. Minuk wishes she could read it. People come from every village along the river to see her. The visitors often stay in Grandma’s house or in the qasgiq. Some people even think that she knows more than the shaman.

Mrs. Hoff is still very angry about what happened in the men’s house. She says that they shouldn’t let anyone come to the clinic who isn’t a member of the church. Her demands go nowhere, though, because people still come to visit Miss Danfort.

Miss Danfort brought with her a big box of eyeglasses. Minuk loves to look through them. Some of them make everything look smudged while others make everything look far away, and some are in-between. Mr. Hoff wears eyeglasses to read with, and so does Miss Oakes. But no one in the village has ever had any eyeglasses.

Pretty soon, all the old people in the village are wearing eyeglasses, and they’re pleased that they can see well enough again to sew or do fine carving. Maklak thinks eyeglasses are the most interesting, so he wants a pair badly. He goes to Miss Danfort and tells her in great seriousness that he can’t see anything anymore and needs glasses.

Miss Danfort gives him a pair. He wears them for a whole day, proud as anything. He peers at everybody like some funny kind of owl, until he finds out that the wires hurt the backs of his ears, the glasses slip down his nose, and the nose pieces pinch. He brings them back to Miss Danfort and says he can see again. Miss Danfort explains that one has to really need glasses to ignore the discomfort.

Grandma has a blue film growing over her eyes, which makes it hard for her to see in bright sunlight. Miss Danfort says it is a cataract and a doctor can take it off. She recommends that in summer, Grandma goes to the doctor at the Nulato hospital up along the Yukon River. Grandma smiles and nods. But Minuk knows that when summer comes, Grandma will never go all the way to the hospital.

When someone comes to see her, Miss Danfort listens to the sound of their chest and taps on it with her fingers. She says she can tell if someone has tuberculosis. If they’re sick, the taps sound like a thick sound on the person’s chest. All the chest taps sound the same to Minuk, so she knows she wouldn’t be a very good nurse.

A lot of people come with toothaches. Miss Danfort uses a pair of forceps to grab the bad tooth and twists and tips it until the tooth comes out. Minuk hates helping her pull out teeth because it makes a horrible sucking sound. It must hurt terribly, because the people who are having teeth taken out pull so hard on the armrests of the chair that the arms get wobbly and Mr. Hoff has to nail them down every few days.

Miss Danfort also helps sew the scalp of a man who cut his head badly. There is so much blood. She helps Teksik deliver her new baby, because the baby was turned around backwards and wouldn’t come out. Miss Danfort turns the baby around with long pincer-like things, and the baby comes out fine.

Then, the shaman from Kalskag accidentally shoots himself with a gun, and asks to be brought to Miss Danfort. He says the shaman in another village caused the accident to happen with his spells and magic. By the way Miss Danfort scoffs, Minuk can tell that she doesn’t approve of shamans anymore than Mr. Hoff. But she helps the shaman who was shot regardless. The accident had broken the bone and left a hole filled with splinters of bone and shreds of cloth. Miss Danfort cleans the wounds with boiling water and antiseptic, and takes out all of the splinters of bone and cloth. Then she puts the ends of the bones together. Minuk is busy boiling bandages and handing Miss Danfort what she needs, so she doesn’t watch. But she feels queasy nonetheless.

Mr. and Mrs. Hoff are happier than Minuk has ever seen when the shaman came to the clinic. Mr. Hoff says it means the shaman can’t pretend anymore to have power. He thinks this is the end of shamanism.