Sajo and the Beaver People by Grey Owl

First published: 1935; illustrated

Type of work: Adventure tale

Themes: Nature, animals, friendship, and family

Time of work: 1920’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: The Yellow Birch River wilderness in northern Ontario, Canada

Principal Characters:

• Sajo, an eleven-year-old girl, who raises pet beaver kittens and becomes heartbroken when her favorite is taken away
• Shapian, a responsible and loving elder brother, who takes Sajo to the city to rescue the sorely missed family beaver
• Gitchie Mee-Gwon, their father, who gives his children two beaver kittens for playmates
• Chikanee, Sajo’s favorite beaver, her constant companion, who is sold to a private zoo far away in the city
• Chilawee, Chikanee’s brother, a mischievous beaver, who is lonely after his brother is sold

The Story

One spring, Gitchie Mee-Gwon learns of some white trappers who are killing off all the beavers, and he sets out for his winter hunting grounds to protect his Little Brothers, as they are called by the Ojibway Indians. Although he finds the hunting grounds safe, he witnesses a fierce battle between an attacking otter and beaver parents. Two recently born kittens escape over the beaver dam, and Gitchie Mee-Gwon finds them floating near death in the Yellow Birch River.

Sajo is thrilled to receive the beaver kittens as a birthday present from her father. Shapian, who is fourteen and a young brave, is too old to show his excitement; in time, however, he too adopts one of the Little Brothers as his own close friend. Like all Ojibway Indians, Sajo and Shapian soon learn to understand the chattering language of their friends, whom they name Chikanee and Chilawee. They feed them sweet grasses and milk, build a home for them under their bunk bed, and make a diving hole in the middle of the cabin floor. By mid-summer, the beavers are romping with the children along the lake shore. Wherever the children go, the beavers go along. They become members of the family, free to run away, but intent on staying with those they love.

Later that summer, Sajo and Chilawee are heartbroken when a trader takes Chikanee in exchange for food supplies that the family needs. Gitchie Mee-Gwon must also travel far north to work for the trader to pay off the rest of his debts. Left alone at the cabin, the three family members are very unhappy. Chilawee goes on daily hunts for his brother Chikanee. Sajo tags along, listening to him call out in beaver words but never getting an answer. Without her Chikanee to hold and hug, she stops playing and laughing altogether. Shapian’s heart aches for his little sister.

Finally, Shapian decides that they must make the long canoe trip to the trading post to recover Chikanee. They are almost killed in a great forest fire, and they almost lose Chilawee. Then they arrive at Rabbit Portage, only to discover that Chikanee has been sold to a private zoo in the city for fifty dollars.

Without money, the children feel hopeless. With the help of a missionary, however, they are able to make the passage on boat and train to the city. Once there, an Irish policeman helps them find the zoo. Seeing the love of the children for the beavers, the zoo owner reunites the family.

After they all return home, Chief Stands First dances a Wabeno. This ritual dance records, in the tribal lore, the brave trip of Shapian and Sajo to reunite their family. A few weeks later, the family travels to the beaver pond and watches joyfully as Chikanee and Chilawee are reunited with their beaver family. They feel especially happy because the Wabeno ritual has also commanded that no Indians shall ever again hunt beaver in this sacred place.

Context

As a naturalist, Grey Owl finds, in Sajo and the Beaver People, the perfect way to share his love and extensive knowledge of life in the wilderness of northern Canada. Born in England, Archibald Stansfeld Belaney lived in northern Ontario with the Ojibway Indians and adopted the name Grey Owl. He married an Indian and had one daughter, Dawn, for whom he wrote Sajo and the Beaver People.

After several years, he gave up trapping and tried to establish a nature refuge for beavers. He began writing soon afterward, and all of his books were written in the last nine years of his life. His first story, “The Passing of the Last Frontier,” was published in 1929 in an English magazine called Country Life. Its huge success led to his first book in 1931, The Men of the Last Frontier. With these works, he became popular worldwide as a naturalist concerned with the conservation of the last frontiers. He began to lecture on conservation and served as a ranger in the Canadian national parks system. In three years, 1934 to 1936, he wrote his final three books about life in the wilderness: Pilgrims of the Wild (1934), Sajo and the Beaver People (1935), and Tales from an Empty Cabin (1936).

It is clear that Grey Owl’s stories about the frontier, wildlife, and Indians of northern Canada were part of his attempts to preserve the wilderness. His books were translated into French and German during his own lifetime. His style of extensive description places his work among the best accounts of life on the frontier. Although his depictions of animals, expressing the thoughts and emotions of humans, romanticizes life on the frontier, few knew more than Grey Owl about forest inhabitants, including the culture of the Ojibway Indians. It is likely that this romanticizing was part of his attempt to convince people of the need to preserve the wilderness.

Younger readers who have a special love of animals and nature will enjoy the beavers’ actions in Sajo and the Beaver People, and their story of separation and reunion has more than enough action and emotion to be captivating. From the descriptions of life in the wilderness, young readers will learn the ways of the forest, the beaver, and the Ojibway. Like Sajo, they will think of her beaver pets as beaver people.