The Storyteller Trilogy (71 page)

Aqamdax allowed her eyes to meet Chakliux’s, a long look of joy and welcome. She called Biter to her, then waited as the others passed, greeted them as they greeted her, though Red Leaf said nothing, only walked by, her hands cradled over her belly.

Aqamdax joined Ligige’, last in line. “I am glad you chose to come, Aunt,” she told her, “but even with Sok and Chakliux, we have only five strong men to hunt for us.”

“Ah, child,” Ligige’ told her, “Perhaps we have only five hunters, but how many villages have two storytellers? You and Chakliux will help us forget our bellies. Your stories will give us strength for what we must endure, and remind us that life is sacred and the earth is good.”

P
ERHAPS THE GREATEST GIFT
that any novel can bestow is when, under the guise of entertainment, it allows the reader to defy the boundaries of time and space and live the lives of its characters. This transliteration of the reader’s inner vision offers an incredible possibility: a mind open to new understanding.

When we step away from ourselves and see through the eyes of another, we are blessed not only with a vision different than our own but also with a more accurate portrait of ourselves, of our political and social environs, and the preconceptions that color our thinking.

While I make no claim that
Song of the River
will be able to do that for its readers, during the research and writing of this novel I found that I developed a better understanding of the human weaknesses which precipitate war, the prejudices we use for justification and the devastation that can be brought about by hatred.

Even when war is reduced to the fundamental level of intervillage conflict, traditions of prejudice and mythologies of superiority are used to justify elitist and even vastly deviant behavior. In both primitive and complex societies, material comfort has a tendency to camouflage the most destructive of social ills, not those that deny us wealth and leisure but those which strike at the most basic and vital level of our existence: our souls, our consciences—the very things which make us human.

Although there is general consensus that the ancestors of the present-day Aleut people lived on the Aleutian Archipelago thousands of years ago, archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnologists disagree as to the identity of the descendants of the Denali Complex people, those users of microblades who also lived in Alaska thousands of years ago.

Though novelists are allowed freedoms not given to scientific researchers, please be assured that my speculation has been tempered by research into many North American and Asian aboriginal cultures, both prehistoric and historic, including Aleut, Diuktai, Nenana, Denali, Denbigh, Yup’ik, Athabascan, Cree, Eyak, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl, Nootka, Koryak, Even, Chukchi, Itelmen, and Yakut.

I have long believed that one of the best ways to learn about a people is through their language. In
Song of the River
, I include a number of Native words, most from the Aleut and Ahtna Athabaskan languages, with spellings as standardized in the
Aleut Dictionary
,
Unangam Tunudgusii
, compiled by Knut Bergsland, and the
Ahtna Athabaskan Dictionary
, compiled and edited by James Kari. Both dictionaries are published by the Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Those readers familiar with my first three novels—
Mother Earth Father Sky
,
My Sister the Moon
and
Brother Wind
—and the Aleut words used in those texts will notice minor changes in spelling. When I wrote
Mother Earth Father Sky
and its sequels, Bergsland’s fine dictionary (published in 1994) was not available to me, and so I used a variety of sources for Aleut words. Because I believe Bergsland’s dictionary is and will continue to be lauded as the definitive lexicon of the Aleut language, I use his spellings in
Song of the River
.

My decision to use an Athabascan language for the River People was not merely by whim, but because Athabascan peoples of Alaska evolved a riparian culture and also hunt caribou, bear and various smaller animals and birds.

The Athabascan language family is comprised of some thirty-five languages spoken in Alaska, Canada and the southwestern and western United States. At the time of the publication of this novel, fewer than one hundred people, most over the age of fifty, speak Ahtna Athabascan, though there are more than one thousand people living who are of Ahtna descent.

Through
Song of the River
and my other novels, I hope to engender an awareness of the treasure inherent in North American Native languages, and to that end, I ask that the reader accept the Native words in this novel, not with irritation or in resignation, but with contemplative wonder and joy.

The riddles in this novel are based on the riddles of one of the northernmost Athabascan peoples, the Koyukon. Each riddle, however, is an original, none copied from any known Koyukon riddle, in recognition and respect of ownership rights.

(For those readers who are admirers of the oddities and possibilities of language: in Chakliux’s riddle as presented in chapter eight [“Look! What do I see? It runs far, singing, and Sok’s is the first to fill its mouth with meat.” Answer: Sok’s spear], the Ahtna word for a bone-tipped, birch-shafted caribou or bear spear is
c’izaeggi
, from the root
zaek
, much similar to
zaek’
, which means “voice” or “spit,” and also to the word
zaa
, which means “mouth.” In addition to posing a riddle, Chakliux is also making a pun, thus giving an added dimension to the unraveling.)

Two last comments: many Athabascan hunters will not use dogs to take bears. They consider such hunting an insult to the bear. Second, please do not confuse the disdain some of my characters carry for fishskin baskets to be a reflection of my own preferences. These references are meant only to illustrate the small prejudices that color our lives. Fishskin baskets, examples of which may be seen in many of Alaska’s fine museums, are incredible examples of the beauty, variety and ingenuity of items produced by Native peoples.

AQAMDAX
(Aleut) Cloudberry,
Rubus chamaemorus
. (See Pharmacognosia.)

AYAGAX
(Aleut) Wife.

BABICHE
(English—probably anglicized from the Cree word
assababish
, a diminutive of
assabab
, “thread”) Lacing made from rawhide.

BITAALA'
(Ahtna Athabascan) A foot-long organ located between the stomach and liver in the black bear. Among the Ahtna, it is considered taboo for anyone except the elders to eat the bitaala’.

CEN
(Ahtna Athabascan) Tundra.

CET’AENI
(Ahtna Athabascan) Creatures of ancient Ahtna legend. They are tailed and live in trees and caves.

CHAGAK
(Aleut) Obsidian, red cedar.

CHAKLIUX
(Ahtna Athabascan, as recorded by Pinart in 1872) Sea otter.

CHIGDAX
(Aleut) A waterproof, watertight parka made of sea lion or bear intestines, esophagus of seal or sea lion, or the tongue of a whale. The hood had a drawstring, and the sleeves were tied at the wrist for sea travel. These knee-length garments were often decorated with feathers and bits of colored esophagus.

CHUHNUSIX
(Aleut) Wild geranium,
Geranium erianthum
. (See Pharmacognosia.)

CILT’OGHO
(Ahtna Athabascan) A container hollowed out of birch and used to carry water.

DAES
(Ahtna Athabascan) Shallow, a shallow portion of a lake or stream.

DATS’ENI
(Ahtna Athabascan) Waterfowl.

DZUUGGI
(Ahtna Athabascan) A favored child who receives special training, especially in oral traditions, from infancy.

GGUZAAKK
(Koyukon Athabascan) A thrush,
Hylocichla minima
,
H. ustulata
and
H. guttata
. These birds sing an intricately beautiful song that the Koyukon people traditionally believe to indicate the presence of an unknown person or spirit.

GHADEN
(Ahtna Athabascan) Another person.

HII
(Aleut) An exclamation of surprise or disgust.

IITIKAALUX
(Atkan Aleut) Cow parsnip, wild celery,
Heracleum lanatum
. (See Pharmacognosia.)

IQYAX(s.)
(Aleut) A skin-covered, wooden-framed boat. A kayak.

K’OS
(Ahtna Athabascan) Cloud.

KUKAX
(Aleut) Grandmother.

LIGIGE’
(Ahtna Athabascan) The soapberry or dog berry,
Shepherdia canadensis
. (See Pharmacognosia.)

NAYUX
(Aleut) A float made of a seal skin or seal bladder filled with air.

QIGNAX
(Aleut) Fire or light resulting from a fire.

QUNG
(Aleut) Hump, humpback.

SAEL
(Ahtna Athabascan) A container made of bark.

SAX
(Aleut) A long, hoodless parka made of feathered bird skins.

SIXSIQAX
(Aleut) Wormwood,
Artemisia unalaskensis
. (See Pharmacognosia.)

SHUGANAN
(Ancient word of uncertain origin) Exact meaning unsure, relating to an ancient people.

SOK
(Ahtna Athabascan) Raven call.

TIKAANI
(Ahtna Athabascan) Wolf.

TIKIYAASDE
(Ahtna Athabascan) Menstruation hut.

TSAANI
(Ahtna Athabascan) Grizzly bear,
Ursus arctos
.

TS’ES
(Ahtna Athabascan) Rock, stone.

TUTAQAGIISIX
(Aleut) Hearing.

ULAX(s.) ULAS(pl.)
(Aleut) A semisubterranean dwelling raftered with driftwood and covered with thatching and sod.

YAA
(Ahtna Athabascan) Sky.

YAYKAAS
(Ahtna Athabaskan) Literally, “flashing sky.” The aurora borealis.

YEHL
(Tlingit) Raven.

The words in this glossary are defined and listed according to their use in
Song of the River
. Readers interested in pronunciation guides may write to the author at: P.O. Box 6, Pickford, MI 49774.

P
LANTS LISTED IN THIS
pharmacognosia are
not
recommended for use, but are cited only as a supplement to the novel. Many poisonous plants resemble helpful plants, and even some of the most benign can be harmful if used in excess. The wisest way to harvest wild vegetation for use as medicine, food or dyes is in the company of an expert. Plants are listed in alphabetical order according to the names used in
Song of the River.

ALDER
,
Alnus crispa
: A small tree with grayish bark. Medium green leaves have toothed edges, rounded bases and pointed tops. Flower clusters resemble miniature pinecones. The cambium or inner layer of bark is dried (fresh bark will irritate the stomach) and used to make tea said to reduce high fever. It is also used as an astringent and a gargle for sore throats. The bark is used to make brown dye.

BEDSTRAW
: See Goose Grass, below.

BLUEBERRY
(bog blueberry),
Vaccinium uliginosum
:
A
low-branching, extremely hardy shrub. Leaves are medium green with rounded tips. Small, round blue-black berries ripen in August. Berries are choice for food, fresh or dried, and are high in iron.

CARIBOU LEAVES
(wormwood, silverleaf),
Artemisia tilesii
: This perennial plant attains a height of two to three feet on a single stem. The hairy, lobed leaves are silver underneath and a darker green on top. A spike of small clustered flowers grows at the top of the stem in late summer. Fresh leaves are used to make a tea that is said to purify the blood and stop internal bleeding, and to wash cuts and sore eyes. The leaves are heated and layered over arthritic joints to ease pain. Caution: caribou leaves may be toxic in large doses.

CHUHNUSIX (wild geranium, cranebill),
Geranium erianthum
: A perennial with dark green palmated leaves and purplish flowers. It grows to a little over two feet in height. Dried leaves are steeped for tea that is used as a gargle for sore throats and a wash to dry seeping wounds.

CLOUDBERRY
(salmonberry),
Rubus chamaemorus
: Not to be confused with the larger shrublike salmonberry,
Rubus spectabilis
, this small plant grows to about six inches in height and bears a single white flower and a salmon-colored berry shaped like a raspberry. The green leaves are serrated and have five main lobes. The berries are edible but not as flavorful as raspberries, and are high in vitamin C. The juice from the berries is said to be a remedy for hives.

FIVE-LEAVES GRASS
(cinquefoil),
Potentilla tormentilla
; (marsh fivefinger),
Potentilla palustris
: These potentillas have five-fingered palmate leaves, and root at the joints. Plants of the
Potentilla
genus have yellow flowers—except
palustris,
which has purple blooms. They branch out from the root with flowers at the end of eighteen- to twenty-inch stems.
Palustris
leaves are used for tea (nonmedicinal).
Tormentilla
root is boiled and applied as a poultice to skin eruptions and shingles. It is said to be useful as a tonic for the lungs, for fevers and as a gargle for gum and mouth sores.