I.

off to the far
side of the map,
she paddles her canoe
down the St. Croix, then
the Mississippi to Red Wing
to Winona, a long water route
from her home, when you have
your own womaness invested, it
is a long journey, no matter what
century you live in,

Arriving at her
rendezvous point
in Winona seven days
after she set out, she pulls
her weary canoe out of the
water, turns it tired-bottom up
under the salmon-colored clouds,

the ruckus upstream
is the Indians racing beside
the river on horseback chasing
spawning salmon.  As long as the
salmon keep coming, you have the
feeling that everything will be alright...

II.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 





the Rudder of Nome,
like all mushers that live
in communities along the
Yukon, uses her sled dogs
for transportation. She is hurt
hard by the collapse of the salmon
run. She relies heavily upon her sled
dogs to deliver insulin to diabetics who
depend on her and the dogs,

the dogsled race from
Anchorage to Nome, a
1,150-mile grueling journey,
had its beginning in 1925 when
dogsled teams were involved in a
life-saving effort when a deadly diphtheria
epidemic raged in Nome and there was no way
to get serum from Anchorage to Nome,

the mushers carried
the serum to Nome in a
remarkable six days. Nowadays,
it's the epidemic of diabetes.

what's going on
elsewhere in the world
with the oracle bones is if
the divining of when or if the
salmon will come at all,

the fall run of the
dog salmon did not
arrive.  The sled dogs
are being euthanized
because the chum salmon,
dubbed dog salmon are needed
for their diet, their primary food
source,

the Rudder of Nome
grew up with the sled
dogs.  She takes that
knowledge on the trail
with her when riding her
one-of-a-kind sled with an
awesome rudder, an airfoil,
savvy enough to straddle two
worlds, that of nurse and that of
musher.

she's a young woman
who's found her place in
the world, now if the salmon
will just cooperate.

the matriarch soothsayer
of Norton Sound has called
upon the oracle bones.  She
possesses an amazing body of
knowledge of reading the future
through the charred scapulas, shoulder
bones of the caribou.  "As one who speaks
of a living thing, nothing sure can can be known
about it.  The salmon belong to everyone in equal
measure, animals and humans.  It's feast and famine,
life and death."

will the dog salmon
be coming?  Science
and hyrdroelectric dams
say what's taken them off
the hook, and the oracle bones
say what's going to put them back
on the hook.

if the salmon do
not arrive, scores of
sled dogs will have to be
euthanized and scores of diabetics
may die, it's not about book promotion...


Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater