The Winter People

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, child death, and anti-Indigenous racism.

January 27, 1908

The day after finding the note near the closet, Sara goes outside to look for Gertie. She walks to where Auntie’s cabin had once stood on the property. She looks at the burned remains and wonders what is left of Auntie’s body there. She thinks that Martin called Auntie’s spirit back when he dug up her ring.

Sara recalls how Auntie helped Sara’s mother when she was pregnant. Her mother “believed Auntie was trying to poison her” (261). After her mother died, Auntie raised Sara, her sister Constance, and her brother Jacob. Eventually, Sara’s aunt Prudence convinced the townspeople that the “filthy heathen witch” (263) should not be allowed to stay in the home, so Sara’s father made her leave. Auntie swore he would pay for what he did.

Later, Jacob went out to talk to Auntie and didn’t return. The next morning, Sara’s father found Jacob hanging from the bar rafters. Sara told her father Jacob had gone to talk to Auntie. Her father went to Auntie’s cabin, shot Auntie, and burned the cabin down.