Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

Going On

They can see the light in the Hoffs’ house when they come around the bend in the river. Maklak and Minuk stop to stare at the school. They can’t seem to decide what to do next. The village dogs are barking, and in a few minutes Teksik comes out of her ena. She screams a little when she sees us. She strokes Maklak’s face and cries with them.

Maklak and Minuk tell Teksik that the rest of their family and Mellgar’s family are dead. Teksik’s husband and some other men come from the qasgiq and take the sled and dogs away. Teksik gives them fish and boiled water for tea while they tell her what happened.

Teksik is happy that Minuk didn’t die. The glad way Teksik looks at Minuk reminds her of the way Mamma smiled sometimes, and that makes Minuk want to cry. Maklak falls asleep before he’s had anything to eat. He must have been very tired.

Teksik says that after they left, the influenza epidemic struck the village. Most of them have died. Everyone thought that maybe Mellgar and Minuk’s families had escaped because they left the village early. All the babies in the village are gone. Even Cakayak’s baby brother with the spiky hair and Teksik’s baby girl. And many, many old people. Two boys in the school died, and Miss Danfort is also very sick.

Kasruq, the village orphan, is still alive. He came to Teksik’s to say that he and Teksik’s husband will go to Minuk’s camp to bury their family. Minuk knows that Kasruq will be the one to ask for her now. When he comes back from the camp, he says nothing about what he found, but he brings all of Minuk’s mother’s clothes and all the other things Minuk had put in bags. He looks at her sympathetically to show her that he’s sorry for her loss. Minuk knows that he once lost everyone as well.

The spring leaves are starting to peek out, and the water in the river is running free of ice before Miss Danfort is on her feet again. The soldiers at St. Michael are sent along the river to make coffins and bury the dead. In all eight villages above Minuk’s village, only sixty people are left alive. Below Minuk’s village, it’s much the same.

No one has been able to hunt or fish during the epidemic, so the soldiers bring food to the survivors: pilot bread, corned beef, bacon and beans, canned milk, sugar, and tea. Minuk’s village eats nothing but white people’s food all spring.

The Hoffs are getting ready to move into another village closer to the mouth of the river. They were not successful in our part of the country, and after Helper Jack’s death, they have no heart to keep trying. They want to go to a bigger place, since our village is now so small.

Mrs. Hoff said that Mr. Hoff didn’t know whether they should leave or go. He stood the Bible up on its spine and let it fall over and open by itself. It landed on a page that read, “a King of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.” So, they decided that meant they should leave the village. Minuk thinks it’s like the way a shaman would see what spirits want to do by looking at the insides of a fish. But Mr. Hoff would have said that was a heathen superstition.

Mr. Hoff gives them a copy of the picture he took of all the village women the night of the Mask Dance. They can hardly bear to look at it, with all the laughing and happy faces now gone. Three of the boys at school had shown themselves to be very likely helpers, so they’re going with the Hoffs. The rest will go back to their villages. Miss Oakes is going to a Bethel school to teach. Miss Danfort is going back to Maryland to try to get her strength back.

Before she leaves, Miss Danfort tells Minuk that she wants her to come with her. Minuk’s clever, and not only at learning languages. She learns everything very quickly. Minuk should go to school, and Miss Danfort is willing to pay to send Minuk to the same school she went to.

Minuk imagines going to Maryland. She’d see the telephone and the bicycle and wear high-buttoned shoes. Would she have to wear corsets? There’d be steamboats and trains, cows and pigs, and houses crowded with things. For a minute, it sounds wonderful to be in a place without sickness or sadness or memories or hunger. Then, she laughs. How could she leave? There’s so much to do at home.

All the girls and women who were left in the village have been very busy, sewing for those whose mothers or aunties or Grandma’s had died. They’ve been weaving the grass bags and mats and baskets for summer fishing. They had to put their heads together to try to remember how to do the things that needed to be done. They wish they had all listened harder and learned more.

But the village is also surprised to see how those who had been quiet and unassuming before the sickness stepped forward. Teksik’s husband is often the one who stands in the men’s house and talks to everyone about what they must do. He says that the elders used to say that the smallpox epidemic was terrible, and those who were left had to carry on and show the Yup’ik ways to the young. Now, they must do the same. When he talks, Minuk can see Grandpa sitting on one of the benches, nodding his head in agreement. She can feel how he’d smile and praise everyone and would expect them never to be discouraged.

So of course, Minuk cannot go to Maryland with Miss Danfort. She must stay here, and be a good woman.