I knew many things when I was eight I knew how to keep the sled dogs quiet while Father snuck up on caribou and to bring the team to him after a kill I knew the sun slept in the winter and woke in the summer And I knew that when the sun-warmed Arctic Ocean shrugged off its slumbering ice we would cross it to trade furs with the outsiders
I knew many things when I was eight I knew how to keep the sled dogs quiet while Father snuck up on caribou and to bring the team to him after a kill I knew the sun slept in the winter and woke in the summer And I knew that when the sun-warmed Arctic Ocean shrugged off its slumbering ice we would cross it to trade furs with the outsiders
But I did not know how to read the outsiders books It was not enough to hear them from my older sister Rosie I longed to read them for myself Although I begged like a hungry dog after scraps Father would not let me go to the outsiders school like Rosie He knew things about the school that I did not But my name is Olemaun that’s OO-lee-maun the stubborn stone that sharpens the half-moon ulu knife used by our women
But I did not know how to read the outsiders books It was not enough to hear them from my older sister Rosie I longed to read them for myself Although I begged like a hungry dog after scraps Father would not let me go to the outsiders school like Rosie He knew things about the school that I did not But my name is Olemaun that’s OO-lee-maun the stubborn stone that sharpens the half-moon ulu knife used by our women
