Moon of the Turning Leaves
Moon of the Turning Leaves
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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and death.
The Lasting Violence of White Supremacy
In Moon of the Turning Leaves, the collapse of modern civilization does not erase the legacy of racism; instead, it strips it down to its most brutal and explicit form. Through the militia known as the Disciples, Waubgeshig Rice argues that white supremacy is a lasting colonial logic grounded in violent conquest. The Disciples’ ideology of racial purity, resource hoarding, and absolute domination stands in contrast to the Anishinaabe values of community and balance. By juxtaposing these two communities and value systems, Rice highlights the violent legacy and underpinnings of white supremacy, arguing that they are antithetical to human community and wellbeing.
The origins and ideology of the Disciples, as explained by their reluctant former member Zhaabdiis, are rooted in pre-collapse white supremacist movements. Zhaabdiis recounts that the group began as a whites-only militia in Michigan that was growing through online networks even before the blackout. Their mission, articulated by their leader, was to “recapture the original heroic spirit of the white man and reclaim the land for themselves” (241). Their goal is not a new response to a changed world but the continuation of a racist agenda and a new evolution of colonialist violence. Their symbol—a slanted cross representing a rifle, painted on abandoned buildings—marks their territory and signifies their faith in violence as the ultimate authority. By establishing the Disciples as an organized, ideologically driven force, the novel frames their violence as the logical outcome of a pre-existing racist worldview.
The Disciples’ ideology manifests in dehumanizing language and targeted violence. During the ambush at the cottage, their leader taunts the Anishinaabe captives with racist slurs like “injuns” and “squaw” (212, 217), reducing them to stereotypes to justify their subjugation. He also threatens the women in the group with sexual violence, establishing the militia’s willingness to subject others by any means. This verbal degradation is a prelude to physical violence, creating a clear link between their supremacist beliefs and their actions. They view the Anishinaabe characters as obstacles or resources to be used and exploited. Their intent is not just to rob the walkers; they wish to dominate them, making their capture an act of racialized power that echoes historical colonial encounters.
Furthermore, the Disciples’ violence extends beyond any single target, threatening anyone who does not conform to their group. The scout Holden boasts of having “cleared out” a peaceful, non-Indigenous settlement simply to claim its resources, revealing that their vision of a reclaimed world has no room for outsiders of any kind. This act demonstrates that their ultimate goal is control through terror, a reflection of colonialist narratives. Their internal brutality is just as stark; when Zhaabdiis declares his allegiance to his Anishinaabe kin, the sergeant executes him without hesitation for being a “turncoat.” The Disciples represent a regression to a feudal, violent order where power is maintained through absolute loyalty and the elimination of all perceived threats. Their motives and actions, juxtaposed with the communal values of the Anishinaabe people in the novel, offer a scathing commentary on white supremacy while also highlighting the limits of their worldview and ethos.
The Reversal of Colonial Displacement
The journey south in Moon of the Turning Leaves is more than a search for resources; it is a deliberate act of decolonization, framed as a spiritual and political reversal of historical displacement. For generations, the Anishinaabe were geographically and culturally isolated from their ancestral territories, but in the wake of the apocalypse, governmental and societal restrictions and prejudices disappear. The community’s decision to leave their home, where they settled after generations of colonialist displacement, for Wiigwaaswaatigoong, the “place where the birch trees grow” (44), transforms their struggle for survival into a decolonial pilgrimage. By reclaiming their homeland, the community rejects a colonialist, racist legacy of containment and moves toward a sovereign future rooted in a restored connection to the land.
The impetus for the journey is a conscious rejection of the colonial reservation system and its ecological unsustainability. In a community meeting, Walter articulates this historical grievance, stating that their people were “pushed up here” from their original lands by the big lakes (25). He argues that the time has come “to undo what’s been done to us. It’s time to go back home” (26). This speech establishes the mission as a planned corrective to a historical injustice. The community’s precarious existence at Shki-dnakiiwin, where the fish stocks are dwindling, reinforces Walter’s point that the northern environment was never their chosen home. The journey south is an assertion of agency, a choice to return to a place of ancestral abundance rather than continue to manage scarcity in a place of exile.
The destination itself symbolizes this restoration of identity and sovereignty to the community. The north shore of the Great Lakes is a spiritual and cultural origin point for the Anishinaabe people. Upon their arrival, local leader Ogimaa explains the history of the island, noting how colonial authorities gave the island to the Anishinaabe then took it away when they wanted the resources, pushing the Anishinaabe communities to towns along the shore. By settling on the island after the blackout, the community has directly reclaimed what was taken. When Evan’s group arrives, the community and environment they find fulfill the promise of their oral histories and dreams, providing a secure, resource-rich home that contrasts with the isolated northern reserve they came from. Joining the community there becomes a reclamation of their rights and their identity as “fishing people” connected to the great waters.
The journey’s success is affirmed in the novel’s Epilogue, which depicts a thriving community 11 years later. A 12-year-old Waawaaskone, who has no memory of their former community up north, picks blueberries on the shore with her grandmother, Nicole. Their peaceful existence confirms the permanence of their new home. When Nicole tells her granddaughter, “We’ll always be here” (301), she solidifies the reversal of displacement. At the end of the novel, the Anishinaabe are no longer a people in transit or in exile but are firmly re-rooted in their ancestral homeland, securing a future for the generations to come.
Adapting to the Environment Rather Than Mastering It
In Moon of the Turning Leaves, Rice develops a fundamental tension between two opposing worldviews: the Anishinaabe communities’ sustainable, adaptive relationship with the land and the failed colonial world’s attempts to master and exploit it. The novel consistently argues that long-term survival is achieved through a deep, respectful partnership with nature, based in traditional knowledge and an awareness of ecological balance. The novel’s depiction of the physical collapse of cities and infrastructure is a dramatic backdrop for the quiet resurgence of land-based Indigenous wisdom, and the success of those communities that adopt it illustrates its effectiveness as a path toward survival.
The community’s decision to migrate south is born from this adaptive philosophy. Walter recognizes that they are over-fishing the lake at their settlement, Shki-dnakiiwin, and warns that they are “upsetting that balance” (25). He reminds them that their ancestors moved with the seasons, a practice that prevented the depletion of any single area. His assertion that “Anishinaabek were meant to move” directly challenges the static existence imposed by the reservation system (24), framing their journey as a return to a more harmonious and sustainable way of life. This proactive decision to relocate, based on thoughtful environmental awareness, contrasts with the reactive chaos that consumed the cities after the blackout, where inhabitants were trapped by their dependence on a failed infrastructure.
The walkers’ journey illustrates the advantages of this perspective through their success, which is largely due to their land-based knowledge and understanding of the environment. For weeks, they sustain themselves entirely by hunting, foraging for berries, and harvesting medicines like sumac. Nangohns, who was raised almost entirely after the collapse, embodies this legacy. Her expertise with a bow and her intimate knowledge of the bush are a way of being that is essential to the group’s survival. Her ability to thrive in the wild stands in contrast to the desolate ruins of Gibson. The city, with its stripped-bare stores and decaying buildings, is a monument to a system that relied on unsustainable supply chains and control over the environment. Its reclamation by nature—with trees bursting through foundations and grass overgrowing roads—is a visual argument for the failure of the mastery-based approach.
With the thriving Anishinaabe communities of Saswin and the island, Rice offers successful models of long-term adaptation. These settlements are self-sufficient societies with gardens, renewable energy sources like water and wind turbines, and established social structures. They are built in partnership with the land, not in opposition to it. Rice juxtaposes this portrait with the Disciples, a militia whose goal is to “reclaim the land for themselves” through violence and control (241), representing the old world’s destructive logic. The novel posits that survival is about cultivating relationships—with the environment, with community, and with the knowledge passed down by ancestors.
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