Second, Marlene said.

Moved and seconded, Kate said. The motion is to table until the next board meeting Ms. Anahonak‘s motion to commission an outside audit on the Niniltna Health Clinic. All in favor?

Everyone except Ulanie raised their hands.

Opposed? Ulanie raised her hand.

The motion is carried, Kate said. Any more new business? No? Then this board meeting is adjourned. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Ulanie, hold up for a moment, would you?

There was an infinitesimal pause in the general decamping, but after a few curious looks the board filed out.

Kate watched them go, one by one. Nine people, representing three hundred more. Good people, for the most part, reasonably intelligent, reasonably well informed on tribal matters and Alaska Native issues. At the same time, the weight of their need for leadership was crushing. Emaa had known this better than anyone else. Emaa had led them better than anyone else. Kate felt that at her best she was only an also-ran.

She thought of the investigation into Dewayne Gammons, which had evolved into an investigation into Rick Allen, which she was still convinced was somehow connected to the death of Lyda Blue. It was a finite puzzle and she had solved two-thirds of it by asking the right questions of the right people. Even if she never figured out what had happened to Lyda, she had found many of the right answers.

Life on the NNA board should be so simple.

She looked at Ulanie, who had remained in her seat, her mouth still in that sour purse.

Ulanie, Kate said, what were you doing at the Suulutaq Mine on July sixth? Whatever she had expected, it wasn‘t this, and Ulanie paled visibly.

You were with the superintendent, Vern Truax. You looked pretty cozy. Want to tell me what that was about?

Ulanie found her voice. You were spying on me? Who do you think you are? Where do you get off, spying on me?

Kate shook her head. I wasn‘t spying on you, Ulanie. Believe me when I tell you I have better things to do than follow you around. I was at the Suulutaq on business. Which kind of underscores my point. She leaned forward and caught the other woman‘s gaze, holding it with her own. Ulanie, hear me. This conversation has nothing to do with you and me or any disagreements we might have about running this organization. The Niniltna Native Association must speak with one voice. The Suulutaq Mine is changing the Park right now, while we‘re sitting here, and it will continue to change it in ways we don‘t expect and cannot anticipate. Our way of life is in the process of being fractured into a thousand pieces, and we‘re barely beginning to reassemble those pieces into something new, something the shape of which we can‘t even see from here.

Ulanie bridled. I don‘t see what that has to do with my visiting the mine. Mr. Truax has made the board welcome there any time we care to visit. She gave Kate a defiant stare. That‘s all I was doing. Visiting.