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The Blackout/Apocalypse
The community’s dwindling supply of traditional herbs (primarily sage and tobacco) represents First Nations people’s collective loss of their indigenous traditions. Burning plants and herbs is an important spiritual ritual for the Anishinaabe people. The book’s Anishinaabe community’s is headed by a spiritual leader (an aging woman named Aileen) who conducts sage rituals to bind the community together, honor nature, and bring good fortune to their leaders. Other community members, notably those who hunt (like Evan and his father, Dan) conduct tobacco rituals to thank “Mother Earth” for providing the community with sustenance. Burning such herbs honors the community’s close connection with the land, which is a hallmark of Anishinaabe culture.
Some characters embrace these ceremonies, while others have little patience for them. The mixed reactions to indigenous rituals in the story capture modern-day Anishinaabe people’s struggle to thrive in modern society while still preserving their indigenous traditions. And as the harsh winter progresses throughout the book, the herbs people burn—notably tobacco—dwindle in supply. The diminished availability (and, for some characters, the diminished importance) of these sacred ceremonial herbs represents the gradual death of First Nations people’s traditions as they’ve suffered centuries of hardship and oppression.
Sage and Tobacco Quotes in Moon of the Crusted Snow
The Moon of the Crusted Snow quotes below all refer to the symbol of Sage and Tobacco. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
When the ancestors of these Anishinaabe people were forced to settle in this unfamiliar land, distant from their traditional home near the Great Lakes, their culture withered under the pressure of the incomers’ Christianity. But people like Aileen […] had kept the old ways alive in secret. They whispered the stories and the language in each other’s ears, even when they were stolen from their families to endure forced and often violent assimilation at church-run residential schools far away from their homes. They had held out hope that one day their beautiful ways would be able to reemerge and flourish once again.
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Chapter 29
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She had been his surrogate grandmother, his go-to elder whenever he had questions about the old ways, and he had loved her. […] The smell of sage smudge lingered in his nose, and the travelling song her family had sung for her rang in his ears.
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Sage and Tobacco Symbol Timeline in Moon of the Crusted Snow
The timeline below shows where the symbol Sage and Tobacco appears in Moon of the Crusted Snow. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...be helpful in the winter. He pulls out a worn leather pouch and pinches some tobacco from it. He bounces the tobacco in his hand, makes a fist around it, and...
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Chapter 2
...land before his own first hunt as a child. He didn’t even know about the tobacco ritual back then—not until an elder told him about it many years later. Nicole emerges...
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Chapter 8
...90 years old, and she smiles sweetly as Evan pulls out a shell and some sage from her medicine bag. Aileen breaks some sage into the shell and lights it with...
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The sage ceremony was once banned by the Canadian government because of pressure by Christians settling in...
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Aileen takes the fan and disperses sage smoke around Evan’s body. Then, Evan walks clockwise around the room, fanning the shell to...
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Chapter 16
...that it might finally be a good time to quit, since he can’t get more tobacco anyway. Suddenly, Evan hears a snowmobile in the distance, and he instantly starts worrying. He...
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Chapter 17
Sage smoke billows high and weaves through the crowd in the meeting room; there are almost...
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Chapter 19
...at its size while Scott continues to gloat loudly. Dan frowns and pulls out some tobacco, giving it to Scott, so that Scott can make an offering in thanks for the...
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