Dawn Land

by Joseph Bruchac

Overview

About ten thousand years ago in the northeast, the Abenaki– People of the Dawn Land – created a thriving community in social and ecological balance with nature and with each other. One of the finest sons of the People is Young Hunter, who dedicates himself to becoming a pure hunter. But a shadow is crossing over this place, threatening his beloved homeland, and Young Hunter is called to its defense. The deep-seeing one of his village, Bear Talker, tells him that the change will be brought by beings of great power, with cold hearts and a terrible hunger, and Young Hunter has been chosen to fight them. "This young one will do things for the people," Bear Talker thought. "If he survives...if he survives." 
  
Not knowing what the threat is, Young Hunter embarks, with his faithful dogs, on a journey that will take him to new lands and test his resolve in unforeseen ways. Given a special weapon called the Long Thrower, he must learn the secret of its power by studying with the deep seer Medicine Plant. A woman apart, she is a fine example of the importance of women in Native society. 
 
More than an action-packed saga of a dangerous journey, Dawn Land is a dramatic illumination of the highly developed value system of these pre-contact native people. Its unforgettable story enriches the reader with a greater understanding of the lifeways of native peoples, lifeways that survive to this day because they are built on maintaining balance and harmony with nature.  
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682754689
Publisher:	Fulcrum Publishing
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Edition description:	Second edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

About the Author

A citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation, Joseph Bruchac has authored over 170 books in numerous genres and his poems, fiction, and essays have appeared in hundreds of publications from American Poetry Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Parabola, and National Geographic to Junior Scholastic and Highlights for Children. His ground-breaking book Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), which uses traditional Native American stories to teach about science, has sold over a million copies and been adopted in schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE
Before Dawn
Ketah, Nodah. Listen, hearme. So it begins.
He built the fire before the sun rose. He sat naked in front of it, watching the glow of the stones within its heart. There were thirteen stones, one for each of the villages of the People of the Dawn Land. Behind him was the door of the lodge, open to the east. Beside him was the knife he had napped from the hillside flint the day before, using the one implement he carried with him for his task. That one tool, a piece of deer antler the length of the span from stretched-out thumb to the end of his middle finger, rested in the hollow of a tree near the flint hill place a look away. He had brought nothing with him to this place that was not his own or of his own making. That which was most his own, that which he would soon offer strongly as the Only People taught, was his body.
Behind him, the door of the lodge was open. The lodge was small, the height of a man’s waist. It was shaped like the sky dome. The twelve peeled willow saplings that formed its frame were those he had cut and peeled the afternoon before, sharpened and pressed into the soft earth, tied together with the thin tough roots of the woodbine and the grapevine, which grew here in profusion. In the forest around this clearing at the stream’s edge, the grapevines were draped with fruit. It was good as he sat, waiting for the stones to grow hot enough, to think of the animal people eating those grapes, to think of the partridge and the jay, the raccoon and the fox and the deer, coming to this place to eat those grapes. But he did not think of eating grapes himself. He thought of not eating. He thought of the stones growing red and then white with heat. He thought of the task before him, the beginning within the sweat lodge. It would be dark within the lodge. The lodge was covered well with the bark of the dead elm, which had fallen by the stream near the base of the hill, taken down by a long-past storm. Within the lodge there were two smells. One was from the dead bark of the elm, its pungent sweet- ness. The other smell was of earth, the earth he sifted between his fingers as he smoothed the ground, as he dug the hole in the center where the stones would be placed.
Facing the direction where the Sky Walker or the Day Traveler, the great sun, would first show his bright face, and watching the fire turn the wood into sand, he thought of his task, of the honor to be one of the young men allowed to hunt for the people in the strongest way.
 

Table of Contents

PART ONE
MOON OF CHANGING LEAVES
Chapter One .. Before Dawn 3
Chapter Two .. Bear Talker 11
Chapter Three ,. Sweetgrass Woman 21
Chapter Four .. The Long Thrower 28
Chapter Five ;. The Village 35
Chapter Six ,. Muskrat 43
Chapter Seven ,. Agwedjiman 54
Chapter Eight ,. Fire Keeper 62
Chapter Nine ,. Comes Flying 71
 
PART TWO
MOON OF FALLING LEAVES
Chapter Ten ,. The Crooked Knife 81
Chapter Eleven ,. Red Hawk, Blue Hawk 89
Chapter Twelve ,. Medicine Plant 99
Chapter Thirteen ,. Weasel Tail 106
Chapter Fourteen,. The Cliff Trail 117
Chapter Fifteen ,. The Small Spears 125
 
PART THREE
MOON OF FROST
Chapter Sixteen .. The Wolf 139
Chapter Seventeen .. The River Trail 143
Chapter Eighteen ,. The Track 148
Chapter Nineteen .. The Lake Trail 159
Chapter Twenty .. The Faithful Dogs 166
Chapter Twenty-One .. The Dugout 173
Chapter Twenty-Two,. The Guardian's Rock 178
Chapter Twenty-Three .. The Two Dreams 185
Chapter Twenty-Four .. Their Dog 192
Chapter Twenty-Five,. The New Land 200
Chapter Twenty-Six,. Blood 208
Chapter Twenty-Seven ,. Fires 212
Chapter Twenty-Eight,. Fire Hunters 222
Chapter Twenty-Nine ,. Torn-Dress Woman 232
Chapter Thirty• Redbird 238
 
PART FOUR
MOON OF LONG NIGHTS
Chapter Thirty-One ,. The Walled Village 249
Chapter Thirty-Two,. The Long Lodges 259
Chapter Thirty-Three ,. Snow Snake 271
Chapter Thirty-Four,. Helpers 280
Chapter Thirty-Five .. Holds the Stone 289
Chapter Thirty-Six,. The New Man 300
Chapter Thirty-Seven ,. Dawn 307

Editorial Reviews

Author Joseph Bruchac was selected as one of twenty three Academy of American Poets 2023 Poet Laureate Fellows.

“To be Indigenous is to be of the land. Authentic and reverent, Dawn Land is an Indigenous story that transports us not just beyond our imagination, but to the land itself. It's the story of us all.” —Anton Treuer, author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask and Where Wolves Don't Die

“Within this beautiful story are wonders and terrors equal to anything I’ve read. There are certainly thrills, but running through it is the wisdom, heart, and philosophy of a worldview intent on harmony, and it is a glorious thing. Intensely moving and inspiring.” — Jim Terry, author of Come Home, Indio

“...a compelling story, lyrically told.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“An Outstanding work in its genre, Dawn Land should be popular with both general and young adult readers.” —Library Journal

“The words of Dawn Land flow with strength and intensity. ...I don’t think I’ve been so thorougly engrossed in a writer’s world since I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings some 20 years ago.” —BookPage

“...an exquisite book that succeeds both as a novel and as a retelling of old legends.” —San Francisco Review of Books

“Bruchac...draws on an imaginative mix of Native American tradition and historical facts to craft this lyrical first novel...” —Publishers Weekly

“To read Dawn Land is to enter another reality: mysterious, terrible, magically beautiful. A spell envelops the reader like a dream. Only a writer of Joseph Bruchac’s powers, his ancestral heritage and background, could create Dawn Land and the unforgettable characters and events that haunt a reader long after his remarkable story is told.” —Linda Lay Shuler, author of She who Remembers and Voice of the Eagle

“Mythically stunning. When you open Dawn Land you set foot on sacred ground. The Story occurs in ‘ceremonial time,’ and the people and places are at once alien, and so hauntingly familiar they beckon like a warm fire on a cold winter night. Joseph Bruchac sings to his readers. Listen carefully. His voice echoes the timeless teachings of a thousand tribal elders. Irresistible.” —Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, authors of People of the Earth and People of the River

“Richly Imagined, original, and evocative, Joseph Bruchac’s Dawn Land is a valuable addition to the library of fictional re-creations of pre-contact Native American life.”
—Michael Dorris, author of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and Morning Girl

“Joseph Bruchac’s Dawn Land is a story like a song, a lyrical mixing of the physical and the legendary.” —Roger Zelazny, author of Eye of Cat and two-time Hugo Award winner
 

From the Publisher

Young Hunter, the hero of Native American storyteller Bruchac's first novel, Dawn Land, returns in this slightly disappointing sequel. It is two years since the young warrior saved his tribe, the Only People, by defeating the Ancient Ones, evil giants who crave human flesh. The intervening moons have been so idyllic for Young Hunter and his people that he has begun to forget details of the encounter with the monsters and, indeed, has doubts that it ever happened at all. Now, however, new evil from a dimly remembered past approaches to threaten the Only People once again. Walking Hill, a woolly mammoth wounded by humans as the last Ice Age retreated, has sworn revenge for the loss of his family and for his painful spear wounds. Worse yet, the only Ancient One not killed by Young Hunter revives, determined to avenge the death of his kind. Warned by dreams, the brave young Native must once more defend the Only People. Meanwhile, taking impassive note of the conflict is the river Kwanitewk (aka Connecticut). The story is at its best when it incorporates actual myths from the oral tradition of the Abenaki (from whom Bruchac is descended). The narrative lacks the momentum of Dawn Land, however, so readers familiar with that novel may feel let down, while those new to the series may be confused by allusions to earlier events. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With his first novel, Abenaki storyteller Bruchac has joined the multitude who spin out prehistoric coming-of-age stories, but he's done so with a difference and with great skill. While most (Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's Reindeer Moon , LJ 1//87; Linda Lay Shuler's She Who Remembers , LJ 2/15/88) tell the story of a young girl, Bruchac focuses on the male rite of passage. On a quest to bring meat to his people, Young Hunter is bitten by a snake. Returning to his village, he relates his experiences to the oldest Talker, who sees that Young Hunter was chosen by the snake to protect the Only People from approaching danger. Bruchac seamlessly weaves ancient myths into his compelling tale of the young boy and his encounters with an earlier form of being, thought to be extinct, that threatens the survival of the human race. An outstanding work in its genre, Dawn Land should be popular with both general and young adult readers.-- Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati Technical Coll.

Library Journal