Rez Dogs

“It seems to me it’s not up to us. When a dog like that just appears and chooses you, it’s not your decision.”

Grandma Frances answers Malian’s question about whether Malsum can stay with them. This introduces the idea that the Wabanaki community show respect toward rez dogs and are on a kind of equal footing with them. There is no hierarchy between rez dogs and humans; the land belongs to both. If the dog lives with you, it’s their decision.

“Why are all those dogs tied to people like that? Don’t they have any lives of their own? How come they’re not allowed to run free?”

Malian said this to her parents when she was five. It was her first trip to Boston and she saw city dogs on leashes, something she had never seen on the reservation where dogs are free. This quote ties into the motif of freedom: Rez dogs are free, but Indigenous people living on reservations must fight for their freedom of expression. In the city white people are free, but their dogs are not. This quote also highlights city people and white people’s need for control.

“[N]o one else walking by […] maybe not even knowing the three of them were Indians—Dad in his suit, Mom in her best jeans, and Malian in her new Catholic school uniform, three rez dogs in the city. That was how she saw them back then and saw herself still.”

Malian remembers that on her first trip to Boston with her parents, the three of them ran down the street laughing and barking like rez dogs. They were joyfully celebrating their Indigenous heritage but looked just like everyone else in the city. This quote underscores the deep connection Malian feels to her Wabanaki roots despite living in Boston and attending a Catholic school.