Summary
The group treks onward. They detect two Recruiters on the hunt and run practically all day, with the twins carrying Minerva. By dusk they detect an old barn in the distance and decide to camp there, since making a fire would be too risky. The barn has a ladder leading up to a loft filled with soft hay, where the group decides to bed down. Yet Minerva refuses to go up to the loft, instead insisting on sleeping in the middle of the barn floor. At night the group understands why. The Recruiters pull up in their vans and Minerva is able to quickly smile and signal to the group to stay quiet before the agents take her away. In the morning the group realizes that Minerva hid the ladder in the middle of the night because she knew the Recruiters were coming. They throw hay to the ground to cushion their landing.
The group packs up Minerva’s leftover belongings, among which they marvel at jingles she fabricated from can lids. Miig says they will head north. But French refuses, saying he will instead go after Minerva, who was taken southward. The group decides to try to find the Indigenous resistance movement in Espanola, so as to get information about which school the Recruiters may have taken Minerva to. On the way, they find markings in a tree from their written language, and believe they may be getting closer. One day, Rose asks French to go look for mushrooms with her. They walk through the forest for an hour until joyfully finding a brook with real water and fish. There they hold each other and kiss.
At night French again wakes up to a crash and yelling outside of his tent. He points his gun but someone takes his rifle away and points a gun at him. People with their faces covered by red bandanas and sunglasses round the group up and force them to sit down together. Miig indicates to French that this is the resistance group they have been looking for and French tells the strangers they need help. But the men and women suggest they may be snitches. French replies that on the contrary, they have killed snitches. One woman jogs away and returns with a Native Elder who is familiar to both Miig and French. Miig greets the man, who says they must be treated as guests and not prisoners. He invites the group to breakfast.
The group follows the resistance members for half an hour through the bush until they arrive at a cave carved into the hill. French is very anxious about everything that could go wrong as they walk into the cave. There they see tents and impressive makeshift homes. They also see children reading from a book under the watchful eyes of an older woman. At the back of the cave, they come onto an open valley where the resistance members are growing sweetgrass. And they also see a sweat lodge, where the Council members are just finishing up a ceremony. French is taken aback by the sweat lodge and the mention of the Council. As the men emerge from the lodge, he recognizes his father, Jean, who is older and missing a leg. The two hug and cry in an intense reunion.
Miig and Jean make introductions as the groups share water in a circle. Jean explains that they have formed a Council from former members and newer integrants. They also share the information they have about Minerva, gleaned from a “man on the inside.” The Recruiters took Minerva to School #47E. She was compliant and even jovial, humming throughout the journey. The Recruiters, who found Minerva “spooky,” cut her hair and shaved her skin. She refused to answer questions. When the Cardinals fastened wires to Minerva’s neural connectors and the probes reached into her body, Minerva began to sing with all of her heart.
She “called on her blood memory, her teachings, her ancestors,” and “pull[ed] every dream from her own marrow and into her song.” Minerva has always dreamt in her Native language, and she has collected the dreams in language and song to use in this moment. In the face of Minerva’s powerful song filled with these dreams, the probes malfunctioned, the wires sparked, the computers fried and a fire spread to the whole building, burning it down. When the Council’s man arrived, Indigenous people were camped around the site without fear. As the wind shifted, blowing smoke their way, they cupped their hands and pulled the air over their heads and faces, “making prayers out of ashes and smoke.”
That night, the group chooses to sleep outside in the clearing on the other end of the cave. French visits his father. In his father’s living space, he sees his mother’s framed ID card, bearing her name, Mary E. Dusome, and the date of issue: April 2049. French begins to tell his father what happened to Mitch, but Jean says there will be time to talk about all of that soon. French returns to the group’s camp and they begin to ask Miig what the plan is. But Miig says they are on the right path, that they are no longer in their territory, and they will meet with the Council tomorrow to figure out what’s next.
Rose invites French to her tent and tells him that Miig is worried about him. French has changed, and now that he has found his father they may lose him. Rose tells French that she won’t ask him to stay. They kiss and lay down in bed together. They wake up to the sound of Miig’s singing. He is by the fire, smudging himself and reciting prayers. When he finishes, he invites French to come closer and they speak. French asks Miig if he is okay, and Miig explains that he is simply tired of missing Isaac. French responds that they will get Minerva and shut the schools down.
Analysis
After the Recruiters take Minerva, the group finds improvised jingles that she made our of can lids. These jingles used to hang from women’s dresses to make noise during powwows. But currently, the only way to survive is to remain as silent as possible. Yet Minerva made the jingles to hold on to her beloved culture. They also symbolize the hope of a future in which they will once again be able to fully practice their culture and to dance and make noise joyfully. Even if Minerva does not get the opportunity to see this future, she is nourishing this hope for future generations. As Chi-Boy remarks: “Sometimes you risk everything for a life worth living, even if you’re not the one that’ll be alive to live it.”
Throughout these sections of the novel, a central theme is French’s coming of age. In some ways, French still feels that he is an awkward, skinny, anxious boy. Sometimes he is hot-headed, arrogant, and over-eager to prove himself. But he also feels himself coming into his power in a new leadership role.
Dimaline explores the themes of leadership and responsibility through the relationship between Miig and French. Back at the Four Winds Resort, French felt resentful of the decision-making power that Miig holds over the group. He resented that Miig forced him to discuss what he saw from the pine tree in private. But once Miig explained that what he saw was the construction of a new school—and once he shares the moral of his coming-to story—French no longer envies Miig’s role.
This is because he comes to understand that leadership comes with a great burden of responsibility. It was French who put forth the decision to go after Minerva rather than continue the trek north. And because he is now participating in shaping the path of the group, he feels a heightened sense of duty to protect the other members of his group. This burden is such that he feels constantly anxious and unable to sleep.
At the same time as he begins to feel more like a man, French’s reunion with his father enables him to once again feel like a boy. With Miig’s group, he has increasingly assumed the role of protector. He has endless duties to perform and he is always watching out for the others. But reuniting with his father unlocks French’s childhood memories of feeling protected. He realizes that he hasn’t been able to feel this sense of comfort for years. In essence, he realizes that one of the greatest things he has lost is his own childhood.
This block of sections includes one of the most powerful moments in the novel: the description of Minerva’s defeat of the Recruiters and their marrow-harvesting operation. That she does so through an Anishnaabe song highlights the power of language and the importance of the preservation of cultural traditions. Through Minerva’s miracle, Dimaline suggests that language and song are much more than a mere means of communication. They are carriers of cultural memory and ancestral wisdom, capable of confronting oppression and bringing down a “broken system.”
In The Marrow Thieves, dreams are essential for surviving with one’s mind, heart, and soul intact. For this reason, the Recruiters extract dreams from the bone marrow of Native people. But Minerva taps into the knowledge of her ancestors in order to channel her dreams into language and song. In this way, her dreams resist extraction and the Recruiters’ procedure fails.
