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Niska woke Elijah up from his memories, and started to talk about her own story to distract him, she talked about her father, who was a leader of a clan. Her life is all peaceful until more came. In order to trade with the wemistikoshiw, they overhunted the animals in the forest, causing the clan to starve in the winter. During this winter, a wife in the clan cooked her dead husband’s dead body to feed her and her children. Niska’s father executed the woman because she got a disease that makes her to eat more human flesh, though the white Canadians hears this and arrests him. The clan fell apart and most people were forced to live in the reserve, where they were obliged to speak in English and treated harshly. Not willing to lose their identity. Niska and her mother ran away from the reserve and went to live in the forest. After Niska finishes recounting her story of her childhood, the story shifts to another piece of Xavier’s memory which takes place before he goes to the war: one time, he and Elijah went to the forest to hunt, as they finished hunting suddenly a fire broke out, they escaped the fire and went back, Xavier felt relieved but found out that his friend was excited by this event.

 Although the first part of the story merely talks about the childhood experience of Niska, it still reflects the Native people’s position in Canada. In the first chapter, when Niska arrives at a wemistikoshiw town she was stared at and avoided because of her appearance. When Niska’s father was arrested, the white Canadians did not even listen to his protest and executed him without holding a court, also from the way Natives are treated in the hospital, it can be seen that they are regarded as second class people or even third class. This fact predicts how Xavier and Elijah are going to be treated in the army. The second part does not seem important at first, but it might also be a prediction of what is going to happen in the future, when facing the same fire, all Xavier could think about was to escape and survive, conversely Elijah finds the situation exciting and does not want to leave, the fire symbolizes the war, as Xavier wants the war to end and does not want to kill anyone, Elijah actually enjoys the battles and finds the action of killing exciting.

I learnt a lot more about Natives in these chapters, reading the story from the point of view of a Native is very new and different experience. Although I have read other novels concerning the mistreatment of Natives, I’ve never read one in a Native’s perspective. From Niska’s point of view, the white candaians are just people who destroyed her home and killed her father.  The fact that the author did not directly express Niska’s feeling toward the white Canadian did not weaken the effect but strengthened it. I am attracted to Niska after reading this part, I find her brave and strong, and she sticks to her belief and is very persistent. When her father died, she did not cry as other girls would have down and instead comforted her mother, her environment makes her mature and sophiscated for she knows what is happening although nobody told her. Moreover, after she is sent  to the reserve she does not obey the nurses like the other children do, she subconsciously know what is the real meaning of obedience and is determined to keep her identity, her bravery is shown in her disobedience, therefore she is my favourite character in the whole story.