Weasel

Though Nathan is the main character, the primary conflict doesn’t involve Nathan but Ezra and Weasel. Ezra and Weasel were a part of the campaign to “remove” the Shawnees from Ohio. Feeling remorse over his violent, lethal actions, Ezra denounced the brutal policies and the people who perpetuate them and benefit from them. About Ezra, Weasel says, “[H]e was ashamed of his white man’s blood, ashamed of what the white man, what we, had done. I wasn’t about to listen to that!” (53). Ezra has a conscience, and Weasel punished him by taking his tongue and killing his pregnant Shawnee wife, Gives-light-as-she-walks. The violence turned Ezra into a loner. Embracing the lifestyle and identity of a Shawnee, he lives by himself in a wigwam. Yet Ezra isn’t apathetic. He continues to look out for the Fowlers. He rescues Pa from the trap and helps Nathan and Molly in various ways. Ezra functions as a protector or guardian angel. When the Fowlers need help, he’s often there. When Nathan discovers Weasel’s dead body, Ezra arrives to help Nathan bury it.

The nuances of Ezra’s identity, however, make the book somewhat problematic. Ezra was a white settler and carried out the lethal policies of the government, but then he became a Shawnee and married a Shawnee woman. The transformation suggests absolution—as if becoming a Shawnee negates the violence and pain that he inflicted on the tribe. More so, since Ezra is a white person, the alliance between him and the Fowlers is merely another bond between white people. Thus, using Ezra’s character as a representative of the Shawnee tribe keeps whiteness at the forefront of the narrative. At the same time, Gives-light-as-she-walks married him and wanted to start a family with him, and Ezra genuinely embraced the culture of the Shawnees. In this interpretation, the whiteness of Ezra’s character is less important than his choices. He wanted to be a Shawnee, and they embraced him, so he’s a Shawnee.

Weasel and Ezra worked together for the United States Army, “removing” the Shawnees. Yet Weasel can’t stop killing, and it has become a fundamental part of his identity, with Pa saying, “[W]hen a man’s been killing his whole life, something happens inside him, and he can’t see any other way” (17). By turning on the settlers, Weasel transgressed the lethal norms and lost his place in white society. In a sense, Weasel has displaced and dehumanized himself. His choices have turned him into an animal—a weasel. The book reinforces his lack of humanity by never giving him a proper human name. Pa says, “Like a weasel, he hunts by night and sleeps by day, and he kills not because he’s hungry, but for the sheer sport of it” (16). What motivates Weasel is sowing brutality. Violence and death are central to his being. Aside from the Shawnees, the settlers, and Gives-light-as-she-walks, Weasel kills Miz Tizz and some of the chickens. When Weasel kidnaps Nathan, Nathan speculates that Weasel will cut his throat.

Nathan doesn’t directly kill Weasel, but Weasel’s interaction with Nathan arguably leads to Weasel’s death. Nathan observes, “It seemed he was right put out about the fact that in ‘twenty years of fightin’ Injuns,’ he hadn’t got shot once, but here ‘some squirt of a boy’ had made him shoot himself in his own leg” (50). His leg presumably worsened, and he didn’t have anyone to rely on, so he had no way to get food or water, which likely caused his death. If Weasel hadn’t kidnapped Nathan, he wouldn’t have shot himself. More so, if Weasel hadn’t harmed Ezra and taken Pa’s gun, then he wouldn’t have united Ezra, Pa, Nathan, and Molly. In a sinister way, Weasel is an organizing character. His villainy brings the central characters together, and DeFelice names the book after him.

Pa is Nathan and Molly’s father, and his disappearance serves as an inciting incident. Until Ezra comes and brings them to Pa, Nathan and Molly don’t know where he is or if he’s alive. Once Pa recovers, he returns as a fatherly, mentor-type figure. He routinely dispenses pragmatic wisdom, and his dialogue bolsters the theme of Fraught Morals in a Lethal Status Quo. About early life with Nathan and Molly in Ohio, Pa says, “They were good years. We were happy. We didn’t think much about the Shawnees and how they got pushed out to make room for us. It was just the way of things” (79). Pa admits that he and his family benefited from the violent, lethal norms that had deadly, traumatic consequences for the Indigenous people native to the area.

At the same time, Pa distances himself and his family from the destructive conditions. Nathan asks Pa why white settlers call the Indigenous people “savages,” and Pa replies, “[A]s long as folks thought of the Shawnees as savages, they didn’t have to think of them as people” (42). Pa thinks of the Shawnees as human, and though he benefits from the violent policies, he doesn’t perpetuate them. He and Mama help Gives-light-as-she-walks and Ezra, and Pa continually pushes Nathan to embrace principles and not yield to his desire to kill Weasel. Though Pa uses stock phrases like “man of the house” (6), he’s not an agent of standard masculinity, asking Nathan, “Where did you ever learn that pulling a trigger is what makes a man brave?” (92). Pa is tough, but he’s not severe. He has a great time at the dance and fiddle contest. He dances with several women, which suggests that he could remarry.

Mama died of a fever before the story begins, but memories of Mama and some of her things play a critical role in the narrative. Molly brings Mama’s medicine bag to Ezra’s wigwam, and Ezra utilizes the medicine to help heal Pa. Even though she’s gone, Mama helps her husband through the medicine bag. She also provides a firm example of putting principles into practice. Like Pa, Mama didn’t believe that the Shawnees were inhuman, and Mama showed her compassion when she made Pa give Ezra and Gives-light-as-she-walks, who was pregnant, a ride in the wagon.

More so, Mama’s beliefs subverted traditional gendered scripts. About Mama, Nathan notes, “She said menfolk were always going off and getting themselves hurt, and someone had to know how to care for them” (23-24). Mama’s quip portrays men as careless and incompetent and women as reliable. From Mama’s perspective, men need women; they’re the dependent gender.

Molly is nine years old, and she’s Nathan’s younger sister. While Nathan is reserved, Molly is expressive. She openly cries about their missing father, emphatically greets Nathan when he returns from Weasel’s house, and builds an emotional attachment to Ezra. She doesn’t want Ezra to be alone, and her letter encourages him to join the Shawnees in Kansas. Molly provides the story with unfiltered feelings, and she is Nathan’s sidekick. Without Molly, Nathan would be alone, and self-reliance would loom larger.