2 quotes from the story showing How Frenchie's family being gone cause him to change?

Frenchie feels disconnected and impermanent:

I was nicknamed Frenchie as much for my name as for my people—the Metis. I came from a long line of hunters, trappers, and voyageurs. But now, with most of the rivers cut into pieces and lakes left as grey sludge puckers on the landscape, my own history seemed like a myth along the lines of dragons.