Week of August 10, 2014 – Review of “Two Old Women”

By Joan Whetzel

I recently re-read “Two Old Women” by Velma Wallis.  This little book (135 pages) tells a great Native American tale, based in Alaska, about a tribe facing hard times with little food and a hard winter fast approaching.  It was not unheard of that past generations would find it necessary to leave older tribe members behind when moving on to a new location in search for food. These chosen few were usually in ill health and considered close to death. This time, however, the two old women in question were not in ill health or close to death and were still contributing members of society – for the most part. Their “crime” was that the complained constantly. So the tribal council agreed that they must be left behind, for the good of the tribe, so that the small amount of available food could be stretched to feed the young and healthy members of the tribe.

Needless to say, this comes as quite a shock to the 2 old women and to the rest of the tribe. The tribe is afraid to speak up on behalf of the old women for fear of being left behind with them. They are also ashamed of not speaking up for them. None of them is completely without compassion, though. The tribe leaves them with a fire (the embers of which can be used to build future fires), their tent, the skins needed to use as a toboggan for transporting their meager supplies to a new campsite, a hatchet, and a bundle of babiche (raw moose hide strips that could be used for anything from rabbit traps to sewing hides together).

The old women first decide that they are not going to sit there and wait for death but try to survive on their own. In the process, they remember many of the survival skills they’d learned in their youth but had forgotten over time as the tribe slowly took over most of their jobs. They not only survive, they thrive beyond their wildest dreams.

A year later the tribe returns to the old campsite to find that the women had moved on. They go in search of the women to find that that as the tribe has continued to weaken from the lack of food and threadbare clothing, the old women have become stronger and had put away a large supply of food and clothing made of furs and animal skins. The tribe and the old women must work out a plan to reconcile their differences and work together again.

I loved this story the first time I read it. I love it even more now. It’s a reminder that when things get really tough that we all have choices.  We can pick up some new skills and resurrect some old skills, whatever it takes, as long as we keep on trying.