the sign of the beaver

Title: The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Genre: Historical Fiction

Annotation: A friendship between two young boys is forged in the vast wilderness of Maine during the latter part of the eighteenth century.

Review: Imagine celebrating your thirteenth birthday all alone amidst the wilds of colonial Maine, charged with protecting your family's homestead while they are on route to join you. Matt finds himself in just this situation when his father leaves him to retrieve Matt's mother and siblings from Quincy, Massachusetts. After a chance encounter with a unscrupulous white man who steals Matt's firearm, his only means of obtaining meat and his sole means of defense, the young boy might not have survived his six-month ordeal had it not been for the kindness of a local Penobscot Indian Chief, Saknis, and his grandson, Attean. These two Native Americans first come to the aid of Matt after he is swarmed by bees and sprains his ankle. Then, as payment for their help, Matt agrees to teach the English language to Attean. Sankis hopes that his grandson will learn enough of the white man's words to understand the treaties into which they are entering. However, throughout the course of their lessons, Attean ends up teaching Matt how to be self-sufficient in the forest. Their friendship continues to develop until the boys are threatened by a mother bear, which they must kill in self-defense. This act precipitates Matt's deeper enculturation into the native way of life when he is invited to the Indian settlement to celebrate the killing of the bear. Attean is then sent on a vision quest by his grandfather to find his spirit or manitou. This experience changes Attean, who is growing into a man. Eventually, the Native Americans decide to leave their home in Maine and head westward, away from the encroaching colonialism of the white man, to continue their hunter/gather way of life. This turn of events means that Matt will lose his boyhood friend, Attean, and be left to face the coming winter alone since his family's trek back to the homestead from Quincy was obviously delayed.

Set about five years after the end of the French and Indian War, we find out that Attean's mother and father were both killed by white men during this battle. The story also illustrates some of the cultural conflict between Judeo-Christian white colonists and Native Americans. For example, in one passage, Attean questions Matt about the white man's tendency to take ownership of the Indian's ancestral hunting grounds: "How can man own land? Land same as air. Land for all people to live on. For beaver and deer. Does deer own land?" The travesties committed against native peoples by white settlers are immense, and, in many ways, Speare does not go far enough in her criticism or condemnation of colonialism in North America. Yet, one interesting literary device is her use of the story between Matt and Attean to uncover the racism and the ethnocentrism in Robinson Crusoe, another adventure tale involving settlers and "savages." As Matt so astutely observed, "He remembered Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday. He and Attean had sure enough turned that story right about. Whenever they went a few steps from the cabin, it was the brown savage who strode ahead, leading the way, knowing just what to do and doing it quickly and skillfully. And Matt, a puny sort of Robinson Crusoe, tagged along behind, grateful for the smallest sign that he could do anything right."