Sees Behind Trees

Sees Behind Trees is a children’s novel by Michael Dorris, originally published in 1996. In addition to adult fiction and memoir, Dorris wrote multiple books for younger readers, including Guests (1994) and The Window (1997). His novel Morning Girl (1999) won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, while Sees Behind Trees is a School Library Journal Best Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, and a Book Links Best Book. As with most of Dorris’s writing, Sees Behind Trees focuses on Indigenous American characters, with Sees Behind Trees’s community being described as part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Dorris was an anthropologist and scholar of Indigenous American studies, and Sees Behind Trees frames his interests through a middle-grade lens, discussing growing up as an Indigenous American in the 16th century.

In Sees Behind Trees, Dorris explores themes of Mentorship and Intergenerational Learning, Maturity Achieved Through Responsibility and Empathy, and The Importance of Embracing People with Disabilities as the titular character, Sees Behind Trees (originally named Walnut), adjusts to life as a young adult in his community. Sees Behind Trees has limited eyesight but refines his other senses to “see” what others cannot. When an older member of the community, Gray Fire, enlists Sees Behind Trees’s help in navigating to a special location, Sees Behind Trees must mature and adapt faster than he expected.

This guide uses the Hyperion Books for Children hardcover of the novel, published in 1996.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of ableism, death, death by suicide, child sexual abuse, child abuse, racism, self-harm, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Sees Behind Trees begins with the mother of a boy named Walnut trying to teach him how to use a bow and arrow. Walnut cannot see the moss he is supposed to shoot with the arrow, but he needs to complete the task at the end of the summer for a coming-of-age ceremony. Walnut’s uncle, Brings the Deer, tries to console Walnut. Walnut’s friend, Frog, is good at shooting, and Walnut is afraid of embarrassing his family. Walnut’s mother changes his training, teaching him to listen and smell to “see” things around him.

At the coming-of-age ceremony, the weroance, an important person in the community, announces a new test: The boys are blindfolded and asked what they can “see” in the forest. Only Walnut succeeds, correctly “seeing” that Gray Fire, the weroance’s brother, is approaching the ceremony. The weroance declares him a young adult with the new name Sees Behind Trees, while the other boys proceed to the arrow test. Frog passes the test, receiving the name Three Chances because it took him three tries to pass the test, and he and his sister, Diver, are impressed by Sees Behind Trees’s skill. Diver asks Sees Behind Trees to find her needle, which she lost while sewing near the river. Sees Behind Trees asks for more information and deduces that the needle is stuck to Diver’s clothes, but she concludes that Sees Behind Trees has a mystical power.

Sees Behind Trees becomes overconfident, ignoring his parents and reacting poorly to his uncle’s jokes. He does not feel like an adult, so he goes to the weroance and asks for a task. When she does not have a task for him, Sees Behind Trees is embarrassed and visits Gray Fire. Gray Fire calls Sees Behind Trees’s skill a “trick,” which upsets him until Gray Fire tells Sees Behind Trees about his own past. Gray Fire was the fastest runner in the community, while his sister, Otter, was a great hunter. Gray Fire found a beautiful place in the forest and stayed too late, thinking that he could outrun night. His foot got stuck beneath some rocks, and had to cut off his toes to escape before being saved by Otter. Gray Fire could no longer run, and his limp is what allowed Sees Behind Trees to identify Gray Fire at the ceremony.

Gray Fire asks Sees Behind Trees to help him find the beautiful place with his skills since Gray Fire has never been able to find it again. Sees Behind Trees accepts, and his family is proud that a respected man like Gray Fire is taking him on a journey. They depart despite the beginning of a snowstorm, and Sees Behind Trees struggles to find the right path. Gray Fire teaches him about navigating with the body instead of the mind, teaching Sees Behind Trees to acknowledge his confusion. They encounter a family of strangers consisting of a man, Karna, a woman, Pitew, and their infant son, Checha. Though they do not speak the same language, they spend the evening talking and laughing.

In the morning, Sees Behind Trees hears the sound of the beautiful place and starts leading Gray Fire through the woods. Realizing that they are going in circles, Sees Behind Trees stops Gray Fire and notices that Gray Fire’s gait matches the sound of the beautiful place. They find the place, which is full of water, mist, and trees, and Gray Fire promptly runs down a ledge into a pond. Sees Behind Trees sees clearly for a moment, becoming hypnotized by his sudden vision, but he snaps out of the trance to find Gray Fire. Calling out, Sees Behind Trees climbs down the ledge carefully, wades into the pond, and finds a statue of a man with all 10 toes.

Sees Behind Trees accepts that Gray Fire is gone and starts the arduous process of climbing back up the ledge and out of the beautiful place. Though he stumbles and gets hurt as he tries to navigate the woods, Sees Behind Trees finds Karna and Pitew’s camp again. It is burned and empty, but Sees Behind Trees listens closely and finds Checha. He takes Checha with him and uses a technique that he learned from Gray Fire to get them home in two days.

At home, the weroance meets Sees Behind Trees and explains how she arranged the rocks to trap Gray Fire in the beautiful place; they were twins, and she was afraid of him leaving her. Gray Fire never recovered from his injuries, though, nor did he stop dreaming of the beautiful place, so her efforts were futile. Sees Behind Trees’s parents adopt Checha, renaming him Acorn, and the weroance declares herself Acorn’s grandmother. Sees Behind Trees plans to tell Acorn the story of he and Gray Fire’s journey one day, and they will journey to find Karna and Pitew.