Chapter 5 Summary

In 1789, a group of Russian hunters removed all of the males over the age of two from the island of Lapak, leaving the women to fend for themselves. The eldest woman on the island, known as the Old One, was ninety-one years old. She assembled a group of women to hunt a whale. The manged to catch a small whale and survive for a year.

When the ship, Tsar Ivan, arrived, the Old One sold her granddaughter, Cidaq, who was taken to Kodiak Island. The released Russian prisoners on the ship were being taken to the Seal Islands to work in the fur trade. One day a shaman named Lunmasaq arrived. He took an interest in Cidaq, who told him she planned to get her revenge against the Russians.

The man who purchased Cidaq, Yermak Rudenko, was being sent to Seal Island. He...