Wildfire!

Im a thirteen-year-old-half-breed, a mongrel, according to my moms father. Hes full-blooded Kootenai Indian and I am only half-Indian. My dads heritage is a mix of Scot, Irish, French and Ger-man. So maybe the old man is right, I am a mongrel, like most Americans, a mix of nationalities. But, with him, its not a simple fact. It was spoken with disgust and loathing ten years ago and my mother died because of it. My older brother Chris and I hate him. For ten years, no one heard from the old man and we were ne with that. Then a letter shows up saying he wants me to spend the summer with him. Dad said my mother would have wanted her youngest son to know her people. I fought against it and lost in the end. I always do when its what Mom would have wanted. So Im stuck on the Kootenai-Salish Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana. All I have to do is nd his stash of booze and Ill be on my way home. TRISHA DAVIS lived in Montana during the wildre season of 2000 and worked at the Perma re camp. She now shares a homestead lifestyle in south-central Alaska with her husband, Chuck, and a Great Pyrenees named Chato. www.deadfallmtn.com