Bringing Back the Fire

Denise Altvater grew up on a remote reservation of the Wabanaki tribe in Maine. They were once known as the People of the Dawn, but now their fire was gone. Legend had it that there used to be seven fires on the East Coast. At the coming of the Europeans, two of the "fires" had packed up and moved west, "carrying the bundles" of the Wabanaki people with them for safekeeping.

There was certainly no "fire" left for Denise or her four sisters. They lived in a one-room house with their alcoholic mother; the girls slept in the attic. There were no paved roads leading to the huddle of houses nearly on top of each other. There was no running water. If the girls wanted to wash or drink, they had to lug water from across the Reservation and heat it on the stove. Their story was repeated over and over. One third to one half of Wabanaki ages 15-30 are abusers of alcohol or drugs; the average education stops at the 8th grade.

Eventually the girls were removed from the house and put into foster care off the reservation. The quality of their lives declined dramatically. They were mentally, emotionally, physically and sexually abused. Denise's little sister couldn't stand the cruelty and ran away. When she was returned to the foster family, she was forced to spend her days kneeling on a broom handle between the kitchen and living room; each time someone passed her they were required to pull her hair. She only got to move to crawl to the bathroom or eat table scraps. The girls were told again and again that they were "dirty Indians." Denise used to spend hours dreaming that someone would ride in on a white horse and save her.

Instead, when she turned 16, she returned to the reservation and became part of the cycle. She married an alcoholic, had a child, and became an alcoholic herself.

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