Lost In The Barrens

Awasin is one of two protagonists in Lost in the Barrens. He is a literary leader archetype, displaying knowledge, an understanding of resources and the environment, and an ability to command obedience. Like many leader archetypes, he is plagued by caution that derives from his understanding that Jamie is his responsibility and his burden.

Awasin is also plagued by superstitions that he partly believes and partly fights in Jamie’s presence, keenly aware of how his Cree worldview appears to his friend. Nevertheless, he is loyal to his people, Denikazi’s Denésuliné people, and the Inuit people, as well as Jamie and his father. Awasin values the First Nations’ understanding of nature while also valuing the Western contribution to wilderness survival.

Awasin is the son of the Cree chief, Alphonse Meewasin, and his wife, Marie Meewasin. The Cree camp is located directly north of Macnair Lake, and Awasin and Jamie become fast friends, owing to the friendship between their fathers.

Awasin is thoughtful and prepared, knowledgeable, and keenly aware of nature’s bounty and brutality. He is cautious and slow to make decisions and action, taking his time in thinking through layers of legacy, knowledge and facts before arriving at decisions. Physically, he is lean and tall with black hair to his shoulders and dark, black eye. He deeply respects his family, legacy, and customs, and he understands his place within the Cree, within nature, and in his relationship with Jamie. Where Jamie is sentimental, Awasin is practical and a foil to his friend’s more emotional temperament.

Angus Macnair is Jamie’s uncle. He is a static character who offers Jamie a starting point from which to launch his northern adventures. Angus is a huge white man with a red beard and hair. He has been living in a cabin on Macnair Lake for many years, relying on selling his furs in a town called The Pas. He partners with the Cree chief, Alphonse, on hunting expeditions and is friendly with the Cree, in whose territory he traps and hunts. Angus is devoted to his family. When his sibling dies in a car crash in Toronto, Angus spends the next seven years funding his nephew Jamie’s education at a boarding school. After his income drops and he can no longer afford the boarding school, Angus brings Jamie to remote northern Canada, where he teaches him to hunt, trap, chop wood, and survive as a frontiersman. His loyalty and dedication have provided the orphaned Jamie a family, a future, and friendships in the Canadian plains.

Alphonse is husband to Marie Meewasin and father to Awasin. He is the leader of the Woodland Cree Indians of remote northern Canada. Alphonse partners with Angus. When Alphonse suspects the merchants who buy from the Cree are shorting them, he accepts Angus’s offer to accompany him to The Pas to sell their furs for a fair price. Alphonse leaves his son in charge of the Cree, under the mentorship of his brother Solomon, and departs.

Marie is Alphonse’s wife and Awasin’s mother. She is described as, “fat and jovial” and is full of life (6). She is a principled and kind woman who takes Jamie into her home upon Angus’s departure south with her husband. While the men are away, she keeps the boys busy with chores, demonstrating the magnitude of her workload and her value in the camp. Marie is a moral woman who advises her son Awasin when the Denésuliné come asking for food and help: “[N]o one of our race has ever refused food to those who starve!” (8). When the boys at last return to the camp, she alternates between embracing and scolding them, again demonstrating her kind but practical personality.

Denikazi is the chief of the Kasmere Lake band of Denésuliné (referred to as Chipeweyan in the text). He is a middle-aged man, squat and strong with dark skin still bearing signs of smallpox scarring. The Cree call the Denésuliné “Deer Eaters” because of their dietary reliance on caribou. When his camp runs out of food, Denikazi travels south to the Cree to ask for ammunition for a hunt in the Barrens far to the north. Awasin, as acting chief, agrees as long as he can verify the truth of Denikazi’s claim in person. Denikazi does not take offense, and Awasin and Jamie travel north with him. However, Denikazi refuses to be slowed by the boys and leaves them far behind. Once they are traveling north toward deer, Denikazi’s primary goal is the deer meat his people desperately need, and he abandons the boys repeatedly on the journey rather than slowing for them. At last, Denikazi leaves the boys to hunt, during which time they escape on an adventure and are soon lost in the Barrens.

Denikazi is a deeply principled and moral leader, and he leads by example, putting himself in dangerous positions in order to feed and protect his people. When Jamie and Awasin are lost, Denikazi offers his life to the Cree for the loss of the boys. He launches several expeditions to hunt for the boys, all futile. He demonstrates a deep wealth of information about the environment, including animal and plant life, weather and the tribes that live in the area. His fatal flaw is his distrust of the Inuit, and the fear this spawns. On many occasions, Denikazi makes plans that are less than ideal in order to avoid the Inuit and flees south in the dead of night out of fear of the Inuit.