Lost In The Barrens

Farley Mowat’s tale of adventure in the Arctic centers around Jamie, a teenage boy from Toronto who moves to Manitoba to live with his uncle, a trapper by trade. The year is 1931 and Jamie’s parents have just been killed in a car accident.  Since his parents’ death, Jamie’s uncle Angus has been supporting him financially, helping him pay his boarding school tuition. But when the fur trade begins to decline, Uncle Angus is no longer able to maintain the support, forcing Jamie to leave the larger town of St. George’s and return to his uncle’s home. While there, Jamie meets a First Nations (Cree tribe) boy about his age named Awasin, who happens to be the chief’s son. The chief is wary of the traders with whom he does business.  He thinks one of them has been cheating him. Awasin’s father asks the two boys to accompany him as he sets out to confront the trader he suspects of cheating. There is insufficient room in the chief’s canoe for the two boys and all the gear, so they are left behind.

Not long after the chief’s departure, a neighboring tribe called the Chipewyan approach the Cree camp asking for help. The summer hunting season was not as fruitful as they had hoped, and the Chipewyan encampment was on the verge of starvation. Awasin’s mother is wary of the Chipewyans, thinking they could be merely looking for a handout. She sends Awasin and Jamie to the Chipewyan camp to determine if their claims are true. The two boys head out, accompanied by Chipewyan leader Denikazi. Denikazi however, has misunderstood the boys’ intentions, thinking they are to accompany him on a hunting expedition in the barrens. Their quest to hunt deer for the coming winter proves futile, so Denikazi suggests the two boys guard the camp with younger tribe members while they continue the hunt. The only warning Denikazi gives to the boys before departing is to abandon the camp and flee if they run into any Eskimos. It turns out the two tribes are deathly afraid of the Eskimos. Some say the area of land they inhabit is “…nothing but a God-forsaken place, the worst place on earth.”

Waiting with the two Chipewyan boys proves less exciting than Jamie imagined. Eventually, he decides to go exploring. Awasin is hesitant at first, but eventually decides to join his friend. The two set out to see the stone house they had heard about from one of the Chipewyan boys. They slip into a nearby whirlpool while exploring the property around the house and barely escape with their lives. With their canoe now badly damaged, the boys salvage what they can from the wreckage and set out on foot. The only way out of the area is by canoe, so the boys find themselves lost and stranded in the barrens. Meanwhile, the two Chipewyans eventually realize Jamie and Awasin are gone and begin a search for them. But they are forced to abandon the search when they catch sight of an Eskimo kayak.



Awasin and Jamie, stuck in the barrens without their canoe, decide to continue on foot in the direction Denikazi’s hunting party had traveled. They hope to meet up with the hunting party and travel back to the Chipewyan camp with them.  One of Denikazi’s men sees in the distance what he believes to be an Eskimo hunting party. The group makes a hasty exit trying to avoid a confrontation with their feared enemy.  In the process, they inadvertently pass by Jamie and Awasin’s camp in the night, never knowing the boys were lost and looking for them.

The two boys continue on alone. Because the winter is upon them, they must wait until the summer months when the snow melts to start the journey back to the Chipewyan camp. As such, their first challenge is finding suitable shelter to wait out the winter months, and adequate food to keep them alive. They are eventually able to build a log cabin that becomes a quite comfortable home for them. At one point, the boys decide to try to brave the winter snow and make their way back home. They are derailed yet again when they become snow blind and must wait out the rest of the winter months in an igloo lest they freeze to death.

An Eskimo boy eventually discovers them and takes Jamie and Awasin to his camp. Here, they learn the real truth behind the rumors that the Eskimos are dangerous. It turns out the Eskimos are just as afraid of the Cree as the Cree are of them. Aided by their new friends, the boys are eventually able to return home where they make plans to return to Uncle Angus’ cabin the following summer.