Rez Dogs

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 10 Summary: “Pictures”

Malian’s grandparents sit with Malian on the porch and look at their family photo album. Malian’s grandparents laugh when she comments on the handlebar mustaches that all the men have. Her grandfather explains that it was a way to look different from the stereotypes white people had of Indigenous people. Malian’s grandmother collects books about the Indigenous American nations, most of them written by white people. She tells Malian that she reads them to find out what white people think of them. Laughing, Grampa Roy says that one ethnologist wrote that “all of us Wabanakis are anal-retentive, whatever that means” (125).

Malian asks to see the pictures of her grandparents when they were her age. The school uniforms and serious expressions of the children in the old photos make Malian think of her own parents. She suddenly feels homesick, even though she FaceTimes with her parents daily. Just that morning Malian’s father had told her that she reminds him of the protagonist in a traditional story about an independent, brave, and kind woman called “the Woman Who Walks Alone” as a way of thanking her for helping her grandparents (128).

As Malian looks at the photos she thinks about how terrible it must have been for her grandparents, but Grampa Roy lightens the mood and says: “Can’t really say it was all bad. Made some of the best friends I ever had in that school” (130). Pictures of Malian’s father as a baby trigger stories of his birth. He was their “miracle baby” because he was conceived after the Indian Health Services thought they had sterilized Grandma Frances. Grandma explains to Malian about the involuntary sterilization that happened during free health “checkups” that were offered to Indigenous women to prevent them from having more children.

The next page in the album has a picture of Malian’s great-great-grampa Arthur Bowman taken at Penacook. Beside him is a dog that looks just like Malsum. Arthur’s dog, Wolf, disappeared when Arthur fought with the US army in France, where another dog who looked identical to Wolf showed up and stayed with him. On his return to Penacook after the war, Wolf was waiting for him. As Grandma Frances tells the story, Malsum walks over, puts his paws on Malian’s lap, and looks at the picture of Wolf before settling down to rest.

Chapter 11 Summary: “Sergeant Ed”

Malian hears someone calling from the mailbox, so she stops working on her school assignment and opens the door. Sergeant Ed, the tribal policeman, is standing by the mailbox smiling and scratching Malsum’s neck as Malsum sits happily beside him. Ed tells Malian to call him from her cell phone so they can talk while maintaining a safe distance. Malian asks if anything is wrong, and Ed explains that the state health service lady made a complaint about a “fierce dog.” Ed jokingly calls Malsum a “teddy bear” and comments on Malsum’s white spots over his eyes. Ed tells Malian the same thing her grandmother had said—that Malsum is a “four-eyed dog, sort of a medicine animal” (144). Before leaving Ed says: “If that real fierce dog ever shows up here again, you gimme a call, Okay?” (146).

Ed leaves to help the other tribal policeman at the roadblock set up to stop people from taking shortcuts through the reservation, which the state police are trying to allow.

Chapter 12 Summary: “Been There”

Before working on the garden, Malian and her grandparents watch newsfeeds about widespread protests for racial justice that have started around the country.

Malsum joins Malian and her grandparents in the garden where they plant asparagus, corn, beans, squash, and potatoes. They harvest rhubarb, lettuce, and radishes, and as they work Grandma reminisces about the time they could gather everything they needed from the woods and streams. The conversation moves onto the school assignment Malian is struggling with. She has to write “something that has to do with everything that’s going on right now” but she is stuck because “[n]othing like this has ever happened before” (155).

Grampa corrects her and points out that Indigenous Americans have been through this before. He tells Malian that the historical number of people that were in the US before Columbus is written as two or three million. In fact, there were “at least twenty times that many” (157), but the majority of them were killed by diseases such as measles, whooping cough, flu, and smallpox brought by the Pilgrims. Grampa grins and suggests that Malian writes “just Been There, Done That” (158).

Chapters 10-12 Analysis

The family pictures in the photo album give Malian and the reader further insight into the discrimination that Indigenous Americans have experienced for generations at the hands of white people, ranging from stereotyping all Indigenous people as “Sitting Bull” lookalikes to enforced sterilization programs. The skepticism and mistrust that Indigenous people justifiably have toward white people is indicated by Grandma Frances’s explanation for her large collection of books written by white people about Indigenous people: “Not because they got it right, but because you always want to know what they are thinking about us” (124). Grampa describes the injuries inflicted on him by nuns at his school: “Every knuckle on both my hands got broken” (130). His matter-of-fact tone reveals how routine abuse was and how accustomed Indigenous children were to the abuse.

The strong bond between Wabanaki people and the dogs who live with them is illustrated by Grandma’s story of Wolf, a mysterious rez dog who chose Malian’s great-great-grandfather and protected him, regardless of where he was in the world. The similarity of Malsum to old pictures of Wolf, coupled with Malsum’s interest and nodding approval in the story of Wolf’s legend, adds to Malsum’s mystical character.

Through Sergeant Ed, the novel underscores the divide between government agencies, such as the state police and the state health service, and the tribal police. The state police side with the non-resident, non-tribal people wanting to take shortcuts through the reservation, showing a lack of respect for the legal rights and tribal treaty of the Wabanaki people. Malsum accepts Ed and responds ferociously to the white government official; this suggests that the historical and current divide between tribal and white people is so deep that it transcends human boundaries. The novel also underscores the sense of community that exists on the reservation; the wellbeing of the Wabanaki community is paramount to the tribal police who are willing to counter government officials to protect their people.

Vegetables grown in Grampa and Grandma’s garden and their stories of foraging are symbolic of the Wabanaki spirit of resilience, self-sufficiency, and their ancestors’ connection to the land. Grampa connects his ancestral experience to the current pandemic sweeping the world. He reminds Malian that the original inhabitants of America were decimated by disease brought over by Columbus and his crews, new diseases that disproportionately affected Indigenous people. Grampa helps Malian make the connection—the fear and uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is a new experience for the majority of Americans, but the Indigenous population living in the US have “been though all this before” (155).