Stories from Siberia
First Fish, First People brings together writers from two continents and four countries whose traditional cultures are based on Pacific wild salmon: Ainu from Japan; Ulchi and Nyvkh from Siberia; Okanagan and Coast Salish from Canada; and Makah, Warm Springs, and Spokane from the United States remember the blessedness and mourn the loss of the wild salmon while alerting us to current environmental dangers and conditions. The text is enhanced by traditional designs from each nation and photographs, both contemporary and historical, as well as personal family pictures from the writers. Together, words and images offer a prayer that our precious remaining wild salmon will increase and flourish.
Educator Information
Contents
Sherman Alexie
The Powwow at the End of the World
That Place Where Ghosts of salmon Jump
Shigeru Kayano (translated by Jane Corddry Langill with Rie Taki)
Traditional Ainu Life: Living Off the Interest
Kamuy Yukar: Song of the Wife of Okikurmi
My Village Painted on the Face of the Sky
Shiro Kayano (translated by Jane Corddry Langill with Rie Taki)
Who Owns the Salmon?
Gloria Bird
Images of Salmon and You Kettle Falls on the Columbia, Circa 1937 Illusions
Mieko Chikappu (translated by Jane Corddry Langill with Rie Taki)
Salmon Coming Home in Search of Sacred Bliss
Elizabeth Woody
Tradition with a Big "T"
TWANAT, to follow behind the ancestors
Conversion
Nadyezhda Duvan (as told to and translated by Jan Van Ysslestyne)
The Ulchi World View
Temu - The God of the Waters and the Ritual to the Salmon
Ulchi Clan Creation Myths
The Anga Clan Legend
The Salmon Spirit
Nora Marks Dauenhauer
Five Slices of Salmon
1 Introduction
2 Trolling
3 Dryfish Camp
4 Raven, King Salmon and the Birds
5 How to Make Good Baked Salmon from the River (6. Salmon Egg Puller - $2.15 an Hour)
Ito Oda with Tomo Matsui (translated by Jane Corddry Langill with Rie Taki)
Travelling 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 (translated by Valerie Ajaja)
The Nyvkhs At the Source
Lee Maracle
Where Love Winds Itself Around Desire
Jeannette C. Armstrong
Unclean Tides: An Essay on Salmon and Relations
Shigeru Kayano (translated by Jane Corddry Langill with Rie Taki)
The Fox's Plea: An Ainu Fable
Additional Information
204 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 72 b&w illustrations
The first book written about Mongolian and Siberian shamanism by a shaman trained in that tradition.
A thorough introduction to Mongolian and Siberian shamanic beliefs and practices, which, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, were banned from being practiced.
Includes rituals for healing and divination techniques.In traditional Mongolian-Buryat culture, shamans play an important role maintaining the tegsh, the "balance" of the community. They counsel a path of moderation in one's actions and reverence for the natural world, which they view as mother to humanity. Mongolians believe that if natural resources are taken without thanking the spirits for what they have given, those resources will not be replaced. Unlike many other cultures whose shamanic traditions were undermined by modern civilization, shamans in the remote areas of southern Siberia and Mongolia are still the guardians of the environment, the community, and the natural order.
Riding Windhorses is the first book written on Mongolian and Siberian shamanism by a shaman trained in that tradition. A thorough introduction to Mongolian/Siberian shamanic beliefs and practices, it includes working knowledge of the basic rituals and various healing and divination techniques. Many of the rituals and beliefs described here have never been published and are the direct teachings of the author's own shaman mentors.