First Fish, First People

Salmon Tales of the North Pacific Rim

Edited by Judith Roche and Meg McHutchison

• $24.95 paperback (9780295977393) Add to Cart
• hardcover not available

• Published: 1998
• Subject Listing: Native American Studies
  Literature
• Bibliographic information: 200 pp., 72 duotone photos, line drawings
• Territorial rights: world rights except in Canada
• Published with: One Reel, Seattle
• Contents

The arc of land and water forming the North Pacific Rim is a cut lace work of rivers running to the great ocean. The salmon, sacred to people who lived along the pathways of its journey, once engorged these rivers, but no more. Twelve writers from cultures profoundly based on salmon were asked to write about "the fish of the gods" from both
a historical and a contemporary perspective.

These writers from two continents and four countries are Ainu from Japan, Nyvkh and Ulchi from Siberia, Okanagon and Coastal Salish from Canada, Makah, Warm Springs, and Spokane from the United States. Their writing remembers the blessedness and mourns the loss of the salmon while alerting us to current dangers and conditions.

The text is enhanced by glyphs - traditional designs from each Nation - and photographs, both contemporary and historical, as well as personal family pictures from the writers. These words and images offer a prayer that our precious remaining wild salmon will increase and flourish.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Preface
Introduction
Sherman Alexie
- The Powwow at the End of the World
- That Place Where Ghosts of Salmon Jump
Shigeru Kayano
- Traditional Ainu Life: Living Off the Interest
- Kamuy Yukar: My Village Painted on the Face of the Sky
Shiro Kayano
- Who Owns the Salmon?
Gloria Bird
- Images of Salmon and You
- Kettle Falls on the Columbia, Circa 1937
- Illusions
Mieko Chikappu
- Salmon Coming Home in Search of Sacred Bliss
Elizabeth Woody
- Tradition with a Big "T"
- TWANAT, to follow behind the ancestors
- Conversion
Nadyzhda Duvan
- The Ulchi World View
- Temu: The God of the Waters and the Ritual of the Salmon
- Ulchi Clan Creation Myths
- The Anga Clan Legend
- The Salmon Spirit
Nora Marks Danenhauer
- Five Slices of Salmon: Introduction, Trolling, Dryfish Camp, Raven King Salmon and the Birds, How to Make Good Baked Salmon from the River, Salmon Egg Puller: 2.15 an Hour
Ho Oda with Tomo Matsui
- Traveling by Dugout on the Chitose River and sending the Salmon Spirits Home: Memoir of an Ainu Woman
Sandra Osawa
- The Makah Indians
- The Politics of Taking Fish
Vladimir M. Sangi
- The Nyvkhs
- At the source
Lee Maracle
- Where Love Winds Itself around Desire
Jeannette Armstrong
- Unclean Tides: An Essay on Salmon and Relations
Shigeru Kayano
- The Fox's Plea: An Ainu Fable