THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE Series, by Louise Erdrich

I LOVE this series. It’s like the Native American equivalent of The Little House on the Prairie series I read as a kid. There are five books in the series as of this writing–The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons. The author has added her own black and white drawings scattered throughout. I have to say I liked the first two or three books best (I didn’t enjoy all the Little House books equally either), when Omakayas was younger; she’s the main character of the first couple stories and is in all of the books, although younger characters take center stage as Omakayas becomes an adult and more of a background character in the stories. But I’ve enjoyed all the stories so far.

Having been a gender-variant girl, part of what I love about this series is that it features some gender-variant characters, particularly Old Tallow and Two Strike. Old Tallow is described and portrayed in illustrations as a big, tall, strong, angular woman who’s gruff, a gifted hunter who lives alone with her dogs at the edge of the community and is quite self-sufficient, building canoes, shelters, etc. She makes herself big, warm fur coats patched together from furs tanned after her hunts. Old Tallow isn’t painted in a negative way; she’s a kind and well-respected member of the community who’s like family to Omakayas (an aunt-type figure) and she has a soft spot for Omakayas. Brave and wise, Old Tallow keeps quiet and to herself but steps up big-time when people need help. Two Strike is Omakayas’s cousin, like an adopted sister to her, an energetic and strong-willed girl who wants to be a hunter instead of doing women’s work. Two Strike loves hunting and fighting and is as capable, fierce, and tough as any boy her age, but she must prove her skill as a hunter before she is no longer forced to do women’s work.

Both of these interesting characters, Old Tallow and Two Strike, successfully buck the traditional gender-roles for women in their community. Old Tallow is already well-respected as a maverick when the first story begins, but Two Strike, who comes off as a bit proud and brash as a child, has to earn respect and the right to be left alone to be ‘different.’ Which she does. And then she’s just accepted for who she is and what she wants to be. It was refreshing to see how these characters were portrayed, the love they were shown–like, no big deal, this is how they were, who they were, what they did and liked, no hard time from anyone. Yes, this is fiction, and life back then may not have been as Pollyanna-ish in this regard, but I like to believe some cultures have, and do, accept gender-variance better than ours does.

As much as I enjoyed these two characters and the roles they play in the stories, I would like these books even if Old Tallow and Two Strike weren’t in them. I don’t even know where to begin! I loved Omakayas’s little brother Pinch, her mom and dad, her grandma, Omakayas’s twin sons, Chickadee and Makoons… learning about how her family lived off the land and went with the seasons. I appreciated the ingenuous ways they did things, how they coped each time they would be forced from their lands and waterways and had to travel and make yet another new home… You have to read these books. The Birchbark House deserves to become a classic, if it isn’t considered one already.