Jimmy Bluefeather: A Novel (38 page)

Q:
How does
Jimmy Bluefeather
shed light on Alaska Native tradition and perception of family and place? How are they caught between times and places and how are they meshing them together?

A:
For thousands of years the Native peoples of the great canoe cultures of the northwest coast of North America lived extraordinary lives, traveling far, living large. They read the tides and stars and storms; they knew every plant, every track in the sand, every salmon stream and red cedar grove. In the novel I describe Keb and his cohort as being “liquid people” who wore the rain like a second skin. In just a couple hundred years (1780s—1980s) all that changed. The canoe culture is largely gone now, and with it some of the wisdom it engendered. Yet Keb still has it in his bones and blood, from his childhood. He was born just in time to live the last vestiges of it. I created Keb to bring the canoe culture back, to represent a piece of that past that lives on, despite all the distractions and trappings of modern civilization and runaway consumerism.

Q:
Of all the wisdom Keb shares, which predominant life lesson(s) would you like readers to take away?

A:
Don’t die before you’re dead. Most of your limitations are in your head. Dig deep and live young, even when you’re old. Find what you’re most passionate about (in Keb’s case, carving a canoe and traveling by canoe), and do it. Honor the past and where you came from without being blinded by ideology and too much money; stay open to new ideas and other ways of seeing and being, to what’s really true. Honor and caretake the elderly but surround yourself with young people. Be thankful. Live in gratitude. It’s seldom too late to be young again, to find the vibrant you that you might have stopped being long ago. Oh yes, and don’t let anybody take away your language, force you to wear tight shoes, or put too much sugar in your nagoonberry pie.