Moon of the Crusted Snow

The next morning, the satellite television is still out. Evan sleeps in a bit, then goes to greet his children. He notices that the cell phone service is down—not an uncommon occurrence on the reservation, where the infrastructure is relatively new and shabby and modern conveniences often fail. The children are excited that he has brought home another moose; both are eager to grow old enough to join their father on a hunt. As Nicole gets Maiingan ready for school, Evan reflects on how the infrastructure improvements mean his children will have more life opportunities than he did.

Evan goes outside to work on the moose. His good friend Isaiah soon arrives. They joke around, and Isaiah goes with Evan to finish processing the moose.

Two days have passed without satellite or cell service. Evan goes to visit his parents, Dan and Patricia, bearing some bags of moose meat. His parents still live in the house Evan grew up in. Dan puts Evan to work, helping him scrape down a moose hide. Afterward, they smoke cigarettes together in comfortable silence, until Dan suggests Evan take the moose meat in to Patricia.

Patricia is happy to see her son, but she is frustrated the internet is not working. She asks Evan to take a look at her computer. He reassures his mother that these things happen on the reservation; however, he is beginning to become uneasy. Television, internet, and cell service going out all at once seems too much of a coincidence. Evan promises Patricia that he, Nicole, and the kids will be over for dinner; Patricia is making a moose roast and Nicole will bring pies.

Back outside, Dan opens up to Evan about a dream he had. This is uncharacteristic of his father, and Evan listens intently. In the dream, Dan saw the orange glow of a big fire in the distance, beyond a hill. On the other side of the hill, Dan saw Evan, Isaiah, and other members of the reservation, all in hunting gear, watching the fire. They all looked skinny, weak, and hungry. Dan realized they had started the fire to draw out moose. He jolted awake upon seeing the fear in Evan’s gaunt face.

Evan tries to dismiss the dream with a joke, though his father’s dream makes him nervous. Laughing, they go back inside.

Nicole jolts awake the next morning, realizing it is freezing inside the house. The power has gone out. The kitchen clock reads 7:30 a.m., barely enough time for Maiingan to get to school on time. Evan wakes up soon after, complaining about the cold. Nicole notes the nervousness in Evan’s voice when she tells him that the power is out. She reassures him that they just need to put more wood in the stove. Evan relaxes a bit and goes downstairs to stoke the fire.

Their home, like other more modern, prefabricated homes on the reservation, relies heavily on electricity. Older homes rely on wood stoves and propane—less technologically up to date, but more reliable during winter months, when deliveries of supplies can be scarce due to the weather. The hydroelectric lines from the nearby dam now provide the reservation with a reliable source of electricity, but the reservation still has backup diesel generators for emergencies. Tribal leadership decided that this winter would be the last one when they would pay for diesel delivery. As Evan checks the furnace, Nicole curiously checks the phone. The telephone lines are still out. She decides to wait until later to tell Evan about the dead phone.

Nicole's cousin, Tammy, knocks on the door. She is the school receptionist. She has come by to tell them there will be no school today due to the power and internet outage. Evan is disturbed that the telephone lines are down, but he jokes to Tammy, “If you’re the moccasin telegraph, where’s your moccasins then?” (31). He comments that he does not remember the last time all the utilities were out at once. Tammy, who is 15 years older than Evan, comments that they should feel lucky; in her day, they did not have any of these modern conveniences. She leaves after hugging Nangohns and inviting Evan and Nicole to play poker.

Evan goes outside to chop more wood for the furnace. People on the reservation gather wood throughout the year to stock up for winter. Evan has “five firm walls of wood piled neatly into ten cords waiting to be split” (32). Evan’s younger brother, Cam, arrives as Evan splits logs, curious about the power situation. Cam lives with his girlfriend, Sydney, and their son, Jordan, in the duplex buildings that were built for hydro workers. Cam is chronically unemployed and spends his time at home playing video games. Evan does not approve of his lifestyle. Cam has not yet “landed on his feet in adulthood” like Evan (34). Evan asks him to help split wood, and Cam reluctantly agrees.

Isaiah wakes Evan up early the next morning; even though it’s Saturday, the chief has called an emergency meeting at the band (community) office. Evan quickly gets dressed and gets in Isaiah’s truck, chiding his friend about the country music he likes to listen to. Isaiah fires back, “This music is about real pain and struggle. It’s our people’s music” (37).

The band office is a high brick building on the outskirts of town. Evan sees Dan, who is the head of the public works department, smoking a cigarette with Terry Meegis, the chief. Terry greets Evan and Isaiah in Ojibwe: “Mino gizheb niniwag. Aaniish na?” (38). Evan notices that Terry looks tired. The chief for all of Evan’s life, Terry is “a reassuring constant in band life” (38).

Terry fills them in on the situation. They have no idea what is going on with the cell phones, television, or electricity. There has been no communication with the hydroelectric plant. He and the tribal council have decided to fire up the emergency electric generator to prevent the townspeople from panicking before they can fully assess the situation. He figures that they can hold out through the next week without anyone panicking. Evan and Isaiah seem worried, so Terry reassures them that this sort of thing happens all the time on the reservation. They had been planning on testing the diesel generators anyway, so this is a good opportunity to do so. Evan is relieved at the reassurance of his elders.

Terry has instructed Joanne, Evan’s coworker and Tyler’s mother, who also works for the band administration, to print out fliers explaining this situation to the community, and he wants Evan and Isaiah to distribute them. If the power does not come on over the weekend, Terry will call a community meeting. Evan and Isaiah drive to the “single-storey building that housed the band office, the school, and the health centre,” where Joanne is waiting with the fliers (40). The flier instructs the community to conserve power and tells them to await the next update on Monday.

Evan and Nicole drop the children off with Evan’s parents so they can go play poker with Tammy. On the way, Evan berates Vinnie Jones, whose house is blazing with light. Most other houses on the reservation have only one or two lights on.

Evan and Nicole are greeted by Tammy’s husband, Will. They join them at the table, where a large bottle of rye whiskey is waiting, along with bottles of Coke and ginger ale. The reservation is supposed to be a dry community; a series of tragedies nearly two decades ago caused tribal leadership to ban alcohol. Youth suicide rates had spiked, as had the abuse of inhalants. The tipping point came when 16-year-old Justin Meegis murdered his grandmother and committed suicide while under the influence of alcohol after a minor argument. However, years later, tribe members smuggle in alcohol and stockpile it for nights like these.

Evan, Nicole, Tammy, and Will all drink but try to “ignore all the sadness and despair that had come to their families because of alcohol,” instead indulging “to have fun, relax, and forget” (45). They ignore the deck of cards and stay up drinking and talking until Will passes out and Nicole must maneuver Evan to bed. They wake up hung over, Evan feeling “his usual morning-after emotions of guilt and defiance” (45). They go back to Dan and Patricia’s to pick up the kids.

The next day, a blizzard strikes the village. Evan and the other band maintenance employees are immediately on the clock, plowing roads and performing other necessary tasks. Looking outside, Maiingan sees the approaching headlights of a maintenance truck. He asks Nicole if it is his dad; Nicole does not know, but she tells him to wave anyway.

Nicole has made a big pot of moose stew for the maintenance workers to enjoy whenever they need a rest. This is part of the Anishinaabe spirit of community; it has helped them survive in this harsh landscape, far from their homelands in the south.

Nicole finishes reading a children’s book, Jidmoo Miinwaa Goongwaas, to Nangohns. She reassures her daughter that everything will be fine and then goes to the basement to stoke the furnace.