Part 1, Chapter V and VI Summary

In Chapter V: The Tomahawks are Being Sharpened, their twelfth winter in America, that of 1861-1862, is the most severe that Karl and Kristina have experienced. Though they are only in their thirties, years of hard work make them much older than their years. When Samuel Nojd, the old hunter, tells Kristina that hunger is so bad for the Indians this winter that they are eating their own children, she feels white Christians must accumulate a heavy burden before God for the way they treat the Sioux. Nojd and Karl argue about the price of sheepskins since Karl wants a higher price because Nojd's dogs killed them on Karl's land, but Nojd objects that Karl's land was stolen from the Indians. Kristina sees the truth in each man's words as white intruders drove the Indians...