The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

Between 1913 and 1919, Agnes experiences disturbing phantom piano-playing motions in her hands while she organizes the papers of the late Father Hugo, her predecessor at the mission. She sends out fundraising letters to support the mission’s work, and among the donations, there is a battered piano that deeply unnerves her for reasons that she does not understand.

As time goes on, Agnes discovers her moments of greatest internal unity whenever she privately prays to God, as that is when Agnes and Father Damien become one entity. During these moments, she finds herself blending her Catholic worldview with aspects of Ojibwe culture, and she begins to “address the trinity as four and to include the spirit of each direction” (182).

One day, at the request of Margaret Kashpaw, Father Damien secretly baptizes Lulu, the newborn daughter of Fleur Pillager and Nanapush. Caught up in the throes of adoration as he holds a newborn for the first time, Damien develops a profound affection for Lulu. Later, as he writes up the baptism certificate, he makes a critical error in the paperwork. Distracted by his almost parental love for the baby, he signs the certificate by “add[ing] his own name, twice, mistakenly and along with Nanapush, as both priest and father” (184).

Later, a crisis engulfs the reservation when John James Mauser begins foreclosing on tribal lands that were used as collateral for debts. His company targets Fleur and Nanapush’s properties, among others. Father Damien writes many letters seeking legal help, but his protests against these land seizures prove futile. Soon, the valuable trees on Fleur’s land are cut and sent back to decorate the walls of Mauser’s stately home. The devastating loss of ancestral land enrages and devastates Fleur, who responds by exhuming her parents’ bones and wrapping them in red cloth as part of her ritual preparation for revenge.

Fleur resolves to seek out Mauser and exact a sly, complex form of vengeance for the theft of her tribal lands. During this period of time, the combination of land disputes, spiritual conflicts, and Fleur’s determination to confront Mauser creates an atmosphere of mounting tension and supernatural anticipation on the reservation.

At one point during the period spanning from 1920 to 1922, a feverish Agnes receives a mystical visitation from a talking black dog, a malevolent supernatural entity that demands that she surrender Lulu to its power. Agnes courageously bargains for the child’s life, offering her own soul in order to protect Fleur’s daughter. The dog states that Agnes’s lifetime is now “doubled” and vows to send her a “temptation.”

Soon after this spiritual encounter, Father Gregory Wekkle, a young assistant priest, arrives at the mission to work alongside Father Damien. Forced to share cramped living quarters, the two priests build a wall of books to divide their small cabin, but despite Agnes’s anxiety over this situation, her fear of discovery, and their religious vows of celibacy, a mutual attraction begins to develop between the two.

When the book wall collapses one night, Agnes and Gregory initiate physical contact, and when Gregory discovers that “Father Damien” is really a woman, he and Agnes become lovers, beginning a secret sexual relationship that torments Agnes with guilt over her multiple deceptions. During this period, Bernadette Morrissey makes a confession to Damien and reveals that Napoleon Morrissey sexually assaulted Mary Kashpaw. This revelation leads Agnes to suspect that Mary, not the Pillagers, was the one who murdered Napoleon. Burdened by the double weight of her forbidden love and her spiritual responsibilities, Agnes begins to buckle under the pressure.

Consumed by guilt and spiritual agony and always mindful of the visit from the black dog, Agnes requests Gregory’s transfer and refuses to leave with him when he begs her to abandon the priesthood and become his wife. Agnes declares that she is truly a priest. After Gregory’s departure, Agnes steals powerful drugs from the nuns’ dispensary and falls into a month-long healing sleep, in which she experiences mystical dreams that echo the tradition of shamanic journeying. During this time, Mary cares for her. When Agnes’s lack of stubble makes Mary realize that “Father Damien” is a woman, she prevents the nuns from learning Agnes’s secret. Lost in the throes of her dreaming, Agnes experiences a vision of a restorative sweat lodge with Nanapush that helps heal her fractured spirit and resolve her internal conflicts.

In 1922, Agnes designs and oversees the construction of a new stone church, having it built against a rock cliff at Little No Horse. She moves the old piano inside the completed structure, and for the first time since the flood destroyed her original piano and erased her memory of her own musical talent, she unlocks the keyboard and begins to play. Her musical talent returns fully, and her passionate performance draws an extraordinary audience of snakes that emerge from their dens beneath the church. While Sister Hildegarde flees in terror from the serpents, Mary Kashpaw remains present, unafraid of the mystical gathering.

The music helps Agnes recall all the suppressed memories of her past, including the existence of a hidden bank account containing the stolen money from the bank robbery that she survived years earlier. She uses these funds to purchase a new Steinway piano and commissions a custom-carved statue of the Virgin Mary. When the statue arrives, Father Damien and the nuns realize that the sculptor has chosen to make the figure ugly in appearance, save for its kind, compelling eyes. Deeply moved, Damien keeps the statue in the church despite Sister Hildegarde’s strong objections.

The incident with the snakes creates a powerful impression on the tribal community, as Ojibwe culture holds that snakes are wise spiritual beings. The community’s favorable response to the seeming miracle of the snakes leads to a wave of baptisms, as people interpret the event as a sign of Father Damien’s spiritual power. One day, standing in the empty church and surrounded by her serpentine congregation, Agnes delivers a sermon about divine love, embracing her unique position as a bridge between Catholic and Ojibwe spirituality.