Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

At the press conference, Maggie speaks about the importance of the land to her band: One cannot own the land, but rather one belongs to the land. A reporter notices a human bone sticking out of the ground and screams. Other reporters quickly discover other human bones. As they crowd Maggie, the Member of Parliament quickly gets into her car and drives away, wishing Maggie luck and offering to give her a good deal on a Saturn.

As Maggie faces the media hounding her about why there are human bones on this Indigenous land, Nanabush roars up on his motorcycle, picks her up, and drives away. She is incredibly relieved and happy to see him. At her house, Nanabush confesses. Grinning ominously, he describes taking the bones from the museum and seeding them all around the 300 acres. As he gleefully adds that it will take a long time for people to discover all the bones he planted, Maggie learns that not only did he take bones from Indigenous peoples, but also ancient Egyptian and even Homo Erectus bones.

Maggie gets extremely angry. She punches Nanabush in the chest, knocking him down. When he gets up and tries to smooth things over, she kicks him in the groin and tells him he has 30 minutes to vacate the Reserve before she calls the police. Nanabush realizes that his plan has been a failure and rides away.

After Virgil and Dakota take Wayne to the clinic, Virgil walks into the woods by the railroad track and finds Nanabush lying on his rock: “He looked […] worn, beaten and exhausted” (323). Virgil is not sure he should be there alone with him, Nanabush is for the first time forthcoming and willing to talk. Nanabush explains that he was hurt by a member of Virgil’s family—though he doesn’t tell Virgil whether he means Maggie or Lillian. Virgil asks about the setting sun petroglyph in the rock—does it mean Nanabush was going to take his mother west, to the land of the dead? Nanabush explains that his intention was actually to take Maggie to the Setting Sun motel. Then, after rolling the big, flat rock over, Nanabush shows Virgil another set of petroglyphs that are thousands of years old—Nanabush put them there centuries ago. When Virgil asks what they mean, Nanabush deflects, saying he was bored and fooling around.

Nanabush knows it is time for him to leave Otter Lake and get out of Maggie’s life. Nanabush asks Virgil if he would like a ride home. Virgil, though reluctant, says yes: Since Dakota and Maggie have already ridden on the motorcycle, he should too. They take the back roads because Nanabush is afraid the police are looking for him. Virgil thoroughly enjoys the ride, saying he wants a motorcycle too.

Nanabush takes off his helmet and Virgil sees that he has transformed from the white John into an Indigenous man with flowing black hair and brown eyes—the face of Nanabush himself. Virgil warns that the road Nanabush wants to take is a dead end into the lake, but Nanabush answers that there are no dead ends, only people who find dead ends. Nanabush was worried there was no reason for him to exist, but now he realizes there is a whole new world out there.

Two weeks later, Maggie, Wayne, Virgil, and Dakota are eating supper at Maggie’s house. No one talks about Nanabush. Maggie has decided to live more simply—to accept whatever the day brings and quit trying to make everything right for everybody: “John, if nothing else, had taught her chaos was to be expected and nobody can really plan for it” (340). Wayne is recuperating from his fight with Nanabush. He is enjoying life on the mainland and feels ready to date—maybe the nurse who took care of him after he was injured. Dakota and Virgil practice Wayne’s new martial art; Wayne has been teaching them his skills, though Dakota is better at it than Virgil. Virgil finished his essay, though he remains unsure whether he’ll pass eighth grade. Dakota has been reading about Nanabush, trying to distinguish tales that she thinks are truly characteristic of him from those that are made up.

Seventeen years later, Michael, an aging member of the debate society, dies. For the last 17 years, he has proclaimed that he saw something incredible on Otter Lake: a motorcycle riding the waves, popping a wheelie, catching up and passing him, and then disappearing. Only three people in the village believed him.