The Gift of the Little People

I don’t recall seeing books when I was a little boy. But the old people, they grew up listening to stories. And so, every night, when the old people were done their evening prayers, they would sit and they would tell us stories too.

At the time of the spring thaw, the Rocky Cree fill their canoes with furs, eager to trade with the new visitors in mistiwāsahak (Hudson Bay). But not all of the new visitors are welcome.

When the canoes return home to the shores of the misinipī river, the Rocky Cree begin to collapse one by one, drenched in sweat and slowly slipping into delirium. Kākakiw struggles to help the sick as more and more people pass into the spirit world. Exhausted physically, emotionally, and spiritually, he seeks guidance through prayer.

Hope finally comes with a visitor in the night: one of the Little People, small beings who are just like us. If Kākakiw can journey to their home, he will be given the medicine his people need. All he has to do is paddle through a cliff of solid bedrock to get there.

To save his people from certain death, Kākakiw must overcome doubt to follow the traditional teachings of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak and trust in the gift of the Little People.

In this illustrated short story for all ages, celebrated Rocky Cree storyteller William Dumas shares a teaching about hope in the face of adversity. This book is a companion story to The Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak series.

William Dumas, a Rocky Cree Knowledge Keeper and storyteller, was born in South Indian Lake, Manitoba. He has been an educator all his life and is passionate about Cree language and culture. William Dumas knows firsthand the power that storytelling has to teach Indigenous youth where they have come from and where they are going. He lives in Thompson, Manitoba.

Rhian Brynjolson is a visual artist, illustrator, author, art educator, and science communicator. She has illustrated 15 children’s books and exhibited her work in diverse venues, including the Virtual Water Gallery online exhibit. Rhian lives and works in Treaty 3 Territory, in the boreal forest in eastern Manitoba. Find her work on social media @RhianBrynjolson and at www.rhianbrynjolson.com.

• Co-winner of the Manitowapow AwardWinner 2023
• First Nation Communities READLong-listed 2023
• Co-winner of the Manitowapow AwardWinner 
• McNally Robinson Book for Young People, Older CategoryShort-listed 2023