Two Old Women: Book Review

One day, I was browsing the bookshelves of my local library looking for something interesting to read. There’s one particular shelf in an adult section of the library that I like to browse all the time, and it’s one that has books of myth, folklore, and fairytales.

I eventually found a book that I had never heard of or read before; Two Old Women.

Two Old Women is a book written by Velma Wallis. It is an Alaskan legend of the Gwich’in people that Wallis’s mother told her after they had finished collecting firewood (p. xi). According to Wallis, her mother had told her this story because of an earlier conversation they had while collecting firewood (p. X.) Wallis was amazed by the fact that her mother still collected her own firewood despite being in her early fifties, and despite the work being physically difficult for her (p. xii) According to Wallis, the elders amongst her people would work until they couldn’t move or until they died (p. xii). After talking about these things, her mother decided to tell this story to Wallis for the first time, and Wallis later wrote it down and had it published (p. xi-xii).

The story is about two old women named Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak. When the winter becomes harsh, and food becomes scarce, the chief eventually decides to abandon the two old women to reserve resources, and no one in the tribe protests. Now that they are abandoned, Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak must work together to catch game, make shelter, and make fires to survive the harsh winter seasons.

I really enjoyed this book. It has themes of courage, friendship, and not underestimating people because of their old age.

When Ch’idzigyaak is in distress after being abandoned, Sa’ encourages her by telling her that if they should die, they should die trying. They work together to set up rabbit snares and collect firewood. Despite the occasional aches and pains they get from working hard to survive, they keep going. After working hard, they eventually talk and learn more about each other. In the beginning of the story, they were only neighbors. But later on, they become friends.

Another thing I enjoyed about this book is the fact that this tale’s main characters are elders. In most stories I’ve read lately, the main characters are either children or young adults, so this was interesting to me.

I would recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in folktales and legends, especially if they are interested in stories from the Athabaskan people.

***

More Thoughts on the Story (Spoilers)

Note: If you would like to read the story yourself, and do not want to be spoiled, read no further.

One other thing I liked about this story was how the main characters forgave the people that hurt them, but they still set boundaries with them. When their people abandoned them, both old women were very angry about this. However, Ch’idzigyaak seemed to be hurt the most by this betrayal, because her own daughter never spoke up for her.

Eventually, the chief sends an elder, Daagoo, and a few young men to see if they could find out what happened to the old women. The chief feels guilty for abandoning Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak, and he hopes that they are still alive.

When the men find them, Daagoo explains that the chief wishes for them to come back to their tribe. However, the women tell them that while they would be willing to help their people survive by giving them some of the provisions they stored up, they would not speak to anyone else other than Daagoo and the chief because they couldn’t trust their tribe after what they had done. They did not wish for anyone to come to their camp besides Daagoo and the chief.

Their tribe, who are referred to as The People in the story, agree to these terms and they respect the old women’s space.

After some time has passed, the women eventually allow the rest of their people to visit their camp, and Ch’idzigyaak reunites with her daughter and grandson. She forgives her daughter because she understands she was worried about her grandson’s safety, and realizes that her daughter might have saved her and Sa’s life, because she gave them babiche before leaving them behind. 

However, while the two old women do forgive The People, they keep some distance between themselves and the rest of the tribe, in part because they enjoy their independence.

Now, the women didn’t necessarily have to help The People. After all, they abandoned them and left them to die in the cold. However, Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak were willing to have compassion on them because they knew they were suffering from hunger. They were especially concerned for the children of the tribe, and Ch’idzigyaak was concerned for her grandson, so the women helped them.

I liked that the two old women were willing to help The People, but also decided to maintain some distance from them by remaining in their own camp. I feel like that can be an important lesson on setting boundaries for your own wellbeing, especially when trust is broken. The boundaries that a person sets can vary depending on the situation. For some, it’s best to cut off people completely, and for others it’s best to have brief contact with someone, but not too much.

Since the two old women cared for their tribe, they offered to give them some food. But because their trust in The People was broken, and because they feared The People would try to take all of their provisions if they lived amongst them, they thought it best to stay in their camp a bit further away from their tribe’s camp.

If someone breaks your trust, it’s not wrong to get some distance from them, even if they become remorseful and apologize later.

Another thing I found interesting was that the old women were discarded for their old age, and because they were no longer deemed useful to the tribe. The two old women had helped their tribe in their youth. However, the service they did for the tribe for many years didn’t matter once the harsh winters came. Once the women started to complain of aches and pains, and they stopped helping the tribe, the chief and the council decided it was best to abandon them.

The two old women do admit to each other that they had made the mistake of complaining too much while others suffered from hunger. Of course, that did not excuse The People’s actions.

I feel like this story shows a sad truth for what happens to some people, whether old or young. Sometimes no matter how many contributions a person makes for their community, the people they trust will discard them when things get rough. In tough times, some people may abandon their friends if they feel like they are an inconvenience.

However, as the two old women demonstrated, we should not let betrayal or other people’s doubts make us give up on ourselves.

After being left behind, Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak decide they need to prove to The People and to themselves that their old age can’t prevent them from being strong despite everything. They find out they have strength they didn’t know they had, and are able to survive together.

When their tribe finds out they survived on their own, they have more respect for the two old women, as well as the other elders. The People realize that their elders have much more wisdom and resourcefulness than they realized.

It seems one of the main messages of the story is that people shouldn’t be too quick to discard their elders or their wisdom. While old age doesn’t always mean a person will have more knowledge, it can be true in some cases.

Also, something else that could be taken away from this story is that one should not give up. I suppose one could say that if we should die, we should die trying. In the end, you may find that you have more strength and courage than you thought you had.