DogSong
Novel
Simon & Schuster
1985
Hardback
177
Boy Gets Lost at Sea
Russel gets lost among the snowy sea
by Arctic Storyteller Cooper, Oct. 9th 2017
A boy named Russel and his friend’s dogs were out hunting seal when the wind and snow picked up and turned the piece of ice they were on without them noticing. The story was brought to my attention when Russel returned to the village. Russel was only 14 years of age when he left for the North.
I first witnessed this event when Russel got beck into the village. I asked him if he had caught any seal because that was what he was going to do in his original trip out to the sea. He told me no. So I asked him why.
He answered me in a way that I didn’t expect. He told me, “I was going hunting when I fell asleep at night with my dogs. I woke up and didn’t know I was going the wrong way because the wind had turned the ice I was sleeping on. I was going to go home but couldn’t because I didn’t know I was going the wrong way.
My dogs knew I was going the wrong way, but I thought I was right and didn’t pay much attention to the dogs. I finally, after 4 hours, gave up and let the dogs lead the way. They took off the opposite direction I was going in the first place. In a little while I saw the village. We made it back safely and now I’ve learned to trust the dogs way more.”
Russel is now back in the village and safe and tells me, “I believe I wouldn’t of survived without my dogs. They saved me and I would not be who I am today without them.” I interviewed the people of the village and they told me that he had gone seal hunting and hadn’t been gone for an unreasonable amount of time. They also said they had been having backed luck in the village and Russel had barely escaped death.
His dad said that, “Russel had been in a state of trying to find his identity and felt bringing home a seal would claim manhood for him. I believe Jesus Christ saved him just like he saved me, only physically, not spiritually.”
Russel has been recovering from the cold but would like to try it again when the winds die down and the ice is stronger. Currently he is saving his Muyals, their currency, for a compass