Mrs. Withstandley/ Miss Amendola

Reading

Answers to packet questions, pp. 14, 15

Questions:

1. It is wiser for Miyax to employ wolf strategies to subdue and punish Jello, rather than risk dangerous combat.

2. Miyax’s three most precious items are her ulo for hunting, needles to make shoes, and matches to start a fire.

3. Miyax believes the old Eskimos were scientists vecause they changed the wild Arctic into a home. They adjusted to nature, rather than depending upon scientific gadgetry.

4. Miyax is no longer afraid because she can hunt and fish and she has the wolf pack as friends and protectors.

5. Miyax concludes that Amaroq turned on Jello because he discovered that he had stolen meat from Miyax, whom he considered to be one of his pups.

6. Evidence that Miyax is heading south is provided by her sighting of the “forest” of willows that only grow south of Barrow.

7. The oil drums represent the approach of a foreign, complicated way of life that was different from the life Miyax was used to living as a lone Eskimo. A little later on, the barrels indicate the presence of hunters who are a danger to her wolf pack.

8. Miyax is grateful to the wolf pack because they offered her company, affection, and food when she was needy, and protected her from Jello and later the grizzly bear.

9. Without the predator wolves, the caribou might overpopulate the region; the lemmings would starve because the caribou would eat all of the grasses; the foxes would die off without their prey, the lemmings.

Question for discussion:

1. What do you think Miyax meant when she said, “Julie is gone…I am Miyax now.”

a. She is going to need her Eskimo skills on the tundra and “Miyax” is her Eskimo name.

b. It was like going back to seal camp.

c. Daniel and the others in Barrow called her Julie. She rejects this name because she believes that Miyax is stronger.