The Orenda Quotes
"The weight these men give their dreams will be the end of them."
"The tickle of dryness at the back of my throat at this moment, the feeling of a bad headache coming."
"If I live through this day I will always remember."
"A man should feel happy on the day that will be his last."
"I record in my journal that each longhouse is the length and width of a small ship."
"The Huron are, as Champlain so duly noted a number of years ago, the key traders in a very large geography."
"This childlike comprehension of the world will be both my greatest test and a wonderful tool."
"I will die here for You if this is what is requested of me."
"These beings, while certainly human, exist on a plane far lower than even Europe’s lowest caste."
"The terror consumed me those first hours as I huddled behind that same clump of willow."
"The brutality these people are so willing to show their enemies astounds me."
"I desperately hope that no ill intention exists in Bird’s loins."
"I am the western door of the five nations of my people."
"I can hear your voice asking it, Father. Do I grow up to become a deer? Or do I grow up to become a wolf?"
"I must watch him closely, and never leave him alone again with the girl."
"This Crow doesn’t bring that, although some claim he promises them everything they could ever want if only they just kneel down and reach their arms up to him."
"To look after the sick in hospital, to bow to and clean the feet of a sick man covered in sores, these would seem simple indeed."
"I can paddle with my group and spend the summer trading and my world will again feel almost normal."
"We will not use bows tonight. Tonight we will go in with knives, clubs, and spears. In this way we’ll finish them."
"I watch in the dusk as the enemy, in ones and twos, slips out of the forest and down to their canoes."
"The rain sings on the water of the creek and I’m crashing into it and launching myself upon the man in the stern before he even knows I’m there."
"The beginning cold drops of rain hit my naked back and cause me to shiver."
"I can see in her posture that she’s confused, and I’m surprised she doesn’t realize it’s because he dare not disobey me."
"Our trade with the Iron People has brought us oddities that have now become necessities."
"And despite the absence of rainfall and the fish having left us, I finally feel a sense of peace that I haven’t known in a long time."
"The urge to stand and bolt comes over me, but I tell myself I only need to get to the riverbank to find what I need."
"I saw You, Lord, when I drowned that night. I saw You come down to me and felt Your hand take mine."
"This sprawling bit of the old world in the new is our foothold, the womb that will birth the next great civilization."
"Our Fathers are held in great esteem in France. It is neither hunger nor want that brings them to this country."
"Despite the British doing everything they could to dislodge us from this place and you people that we love."
"But we French have proved ourselves strongest. The evidence is that we are still here."
"The Great Voice wants us to be as the oak tree. But there is an enemy to the Great Voice, far stronger even than your hated Iroquois."
"Our patience is paying off, is it not? How many have we baptized?"
"I can accept him as a substitute, but this doesn’t mean I won’t one day end his life, as he did yours."
"I’m too strong for the illness. It ran from me screaming when I was still a young child."
"Fox signals for me to look up from the tall grass in which we hide."
"All that’s preventing them from crossing this field and claiming their victory is our own group of five."
"Fox and I know that once they meet up with the lead two, the five will make a desperate charge."
"In that second, the air filling my chest, the blood pounding in my skull, I feel young again."
"Fox’s much larger man kneels on top of him, hitting him in the face with his free hand."
"This will be the first big trading mission in many summers, my love."
"The sicknesses were especially cruel to the ones who appeared strongest."
"Many boys wanting to become men will have to prove themselves this summer."
"Our front three clash with the five, the shouting and clacking of sticks filling my ears."
"The elder’s talk crests up higher than it has all evening, as if he’s finally found his head."
"The Great Voice tells you that the medicine in your body, when it leaves your body behind, does not dwell in one place."
"You will have a beautiful house, beautiful possessions, good-tasting food."
"Fear it! Fear that which burns inside the earth."
"I’d like a tattoo of the porcupine quill patterns that you sew."
"I watch myself open my arms and this makes the wind pick up."
"I sprinkle ash from the fire into the sockets and see how the claws clench like fists."
"I scoop the guts in my hands and decide now they need to become ash."
"We hurt one another because we’ve been hurt."
"You’ve found an idyllic world in which to spend your days."
"We must band together as one if we are to continue dominating the Haudenosaunee."
"The Crow makes it all sound like summer evenings."
"But to gain so much, imagine what we must give up."
"Eat well, for you will need your strength tonight."
"I see that your canoe is leaking. Let me caulk it for you."
"I had nothing to do with killing your family."
"We’ve travelled very far this summer and it’s been a good one."
"I pulled out my three prisoners’ fingernails myself."
"It’s no surprise that the one whose song is weak is also the youngest."
"I didn’t want to be excited. I simply didn’t."
"He’s grown as fast as you. Indeed, he’ll have to go back to the forest."
"The food’s very good. It is much appreciated."
"I’ve been having this discussion for many seasons."
"Remember the words of the great leader Champlain."
"Your courage and your fortitude do not go unnoticed."
"These two are the bravest men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting."
"We need to build up the stone wall bases at least to the height of a man."
"Nothing poisons camaraderie and obedience faster than your cheap brandy."
"The best defense is the courage of women and men."
"The scent of strong, cheap brandy burns my nostrils."
"We're on the brink of being overrun by a great Iroquois war party."
"Who's responsible for brewing this devil's piss?"
"The soldiers and more donnés arrived two days ago."
"The governor decided he could spare only this many."
"We race as fast as we can to the water, pain shooting through me with each stride."
"So be it," Christophe says. "There are many still here who will need to be comforted."
"You can't walk," he says, "but I imagine you still remember how to swim."
"I tell this story now to my Iroquois captor, Tekakwitha, because I can see it infuriates him."
"I promised You I wouldn’t cry out no matter what they did to me."
"I smile at each man who came and whispered a prayer for his soul."
"We have our family who still lives, and we have the longhouse to recline in."
"We will know by next summer that it's most sensible to head north."
"Life goes on despite so much of it around us having so brutally expired."
"What’s happened in the past can’t stay in the past for the same reason the future is always just a breath away."
"Orenda can’t be lost, just misplaced. The past and the future are present."