I Heard the Owl Call My Name, a novel by Margaret Craven is a very interesting look into the lives of the Native Americans who live in the Canadian wilderness. Their village, Kingcome, is basically alone in this world, cut off from civilization by natural obstacles that can only be overcome with a great effort. .
It is with this same effort Craven conveys the sense of almost being in the presence of the tribe and its surroundings. Margaret Craven did an outstanding job giving me visual images of nature in great detail. For example, in the very first paragraph of chapter one, Craven describes in vivid detail the view of the inlet as Mark Brian first travels to the village. Craven is always careful to describe the environment, the mountains, sky, water and the trees. She also describes the animals that are found there. She writes of the "bald eagles fishing for herring" in chapter one and in chapter eleven she writes that ".the eagles and the robins returned to the village.wild geese called.the wise old crow cawed over the river". These ornate words and the way Craven puts then together, paints a good picture in the minds of the reader. Craven does this in or near the beginning of almost every chapter in the book.
These various details of wildlife and the physical surroundings help set the stage for the environment inside the village. The Indian people of Kingcome village were most aware of their place in this world. The Indians knew they were only a small cog in the big machine of nature. In chapter one page nineteen, the bishop describes to Mark that ".the myths are the village and the winds and the rains.the river.salmon.owl.even the mountain goat" are the village. All of this shows that the Indians, or at least the elders, knew their exact place in the scheme of things. This leads to the Indians' worship of natural things. Their former primitive religion, held the earth and Mother Nature in high regard.
