The Orenda

The Orenda is a 2013 historical novel by Canadian professor and writer Joseph Boyden. Set in the early 17th century, in a region of North America that would later become Canada, it follows a trio of characters who each belong to different nations: Bird, a warrior in the Wyandot tribe; Snow Falls, an Iroquois girl; and Christophe, a Jesuit missionary from France. The novel experiments with the different resonances and distinctions between these three individuals, showing how they each matter in the emergence of the future Canadian nation-state. In its intertwining of these narratives, Boyden’s story advances the argument that human communities ultimately flourish when they are welcoming to outsiders of different traditions, and that nationalism leads to violence and suffering.

The Orenda is split into three parts, each of which rotate between the three protagonists’ points of view. Part one begins in the aftermath of a battle in which Bird’s family is killed by the Iroquois Haudenosaunee tribe. Bird retaliates, and takes Snow Falls as a hostage after murdering her family members. However, rather than treat her as prisoner, he decides to raise her as his daughter. Snow Falls refuses to affirm a familial relationship to the man who killed her biological family. Meanwhile, Christophe is taken hostage and given the name Crow. He perceives the Wyandots as brutes and hopes to indoctrinate them with his Christian faith. Though Bird believes Christophe’s efforts will be futile, his partner, Gosling, cautions him that Christophe might find success converting some of the tribe.

Bird and Gosling arrange for Christophe to be killed the next time they cross paths with the Haudenosaunee. During a trek to meet the French colonists to conduct trade, Snow Falls ambushes Bird and cuts his pinky off, and inadvertently cuts off her own. After Snow Falls’ tribe raids Bird’s, he arranges to return Snow Falls to restore peace. The plan goes awry when a fight breaks out. Bird’s tribe defeats the Haudenosaunee, and Bird spares both Snow Falls and Christophe. The trio travel to New France and meet a leading French colonist, Samuel de Champlain. Bird obtains a gun, which he uses to fend off an attack from the Iroquois. Christophe saves Snow Falls from being sexually assaulted by a French guard.



Part two begins three years after the trio’s first meeting. Bird’s village is devastated by a plague which renders the survivors vulnerable to attack. Snow Falls prepares to enter puberty, and develops a spiritual friendship with the older Gosling. She develops feelings for a boy, Carries an Axe, who presents her with the remains of a raven as a token of goodwill. Christophe makes progress converting tribal members, and begins to bestow them with Christian names. He leverages a terrible drought to compel the villagers to pray for rain; when rain returns, it convinces more people to convert. However, Gosling’s spiritual medicines impede Christophe’s call to Christianity when she heals a sick woman in public. Bird adopts an orphaned boy and sends him to live with a group of priests. The village is hit with a second plague, and Bird sends Snow Falls and Carries an Axe to the colonists’ village to avoid getting sick. Meanwhile, the Haudenosaunee prepare to attack their home.

Part three begins at the colonists’ village. The group finds that it has also succumbed to plague. Christophe insists that everyone join him to preach at a nearby village. As they approach, Snow Falls witnesses the Haudenosaunee torturing its inhabitants, and realizes that she is no longer one of them. The Haudenosaunee captures all except Snow Falls and Carries an Axe; the duo returns and rescues them. Snow Falls and Bird ask for guns and men from Christophe and the other colonists, but they are unable to afford helping them. Snow Falls is raped by a convert named Aaron and becomes pregnant. She marries Carry an Axe and they agree to consider the child his own, regardless of its true biological father. The group travels to the colonists’ village to survive the remaining winter, and Aaron commits suicide soon thereafter.

The novel’s conclusion takes place early the next winter. Snow Falls has a baby daughter just before the Haudenosaunee raid the colonists’ village. This time, their attackers prevail. Carries an Axe dies along with his father. Snow Falls is administered euthanasia by a fearful missionary who has experienced the Haudenosaunee’s torture. In turn, her daughter is adopted by the Haudenosaunee. Christophe is tortured and ultimately killed. Bird escapes with Gosling and some other villagers. They make their way to an island, where Bird arranges a funeral for Snow Falls. Gosling gives birth to twins and prepares to lead her surviving friends to the home of her people, the Anishnaabe. The Orenda’s ambivalent ending suggests that there were no clear wins or losses in the chaos of warring North American peoples, but offers hope that its survivors might create a more peaceful and culturally inclusive world.