Hokolesqua, High Sachem of the Shaawanaki, carried a clay tray in his hands as he walked into the shrine atop his uncle’s burial mound. The calabash lamp it supported alongside the offering of fruit, venison, and Inu’naabe blood flickered with almost enough brightness to illuminate the shrine’s inside. The heat it gave off, though faint, was enough to melt the light dusting of early snow on the cougar-skin mantle he wore on his shoulders.

He laid the tray on the altar at the far e...