BOOK 3
1832
Moon of Strawberries
June
18
The Trembling Lands
Redbird thought, Our land by the Rock River was so good to us, and now see what we have come to.
Only starving people tried to make food from cattail seeds and the inner bark of slippery elm and willow trees.
With a small steel knife Redbird cut cattails, dropping them into a basket she carried over her arm. It would take thousands of the tiny seeds, painstakingly picked from the white fuzz and then ground into meal, to make a little bread that must be shared among five people.
Redbird moved slowly, pushing her swollen belly before her. As much as her back and her feet hurt, she was determined to spend every day out foraging until the baby was born. For the baby's sake she had to eat as much as she could, but she did not want to take that extra portion from the rest of her family without contributing as much as she could to the common supply.