["Grey feathers"--encounter with aged Algonquins from Kitigan Zibi]

The author explores the symbolic efficiency of strangeness she experienced when meeting those people whom, as a child, she learned to consider as the strangest of strangers: the American Indians. The author identifies three signifiers on which Algonquins build their individual and collective identities: the patronymic, the accomplishments of the elders and the earth. These three signifiers were key to developing ties that connect the present with the past, while still emphasizing the differences that ensure cultural symbolism and, therefore, their distinction from the White man's world.