The Cormorant Hunter's Wife


Book Description

This collection of poetry is inspired by the author’s lineage as an Iñupiaq Eskimo woman with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo, Alaska. The poems’ syncopated cadences and evocative images bring to life the exceptional physical and cultural conditions of the Arctic and sub-Arctic that have been home to her ancestors for tens of thousands of years, while the poems’ speakers refer to an indigenous identity that has become increasingly plural. The author’s perspective as a Native person affords her unique insight into the relationship with place and self, which she applies in her consideration of the arctic landscape and to questions of adaptation and resilience. Kane’s work refers to the Inupiaq oral tradition, and while in some poems she continues to revisit, rewrite, and revise traditional narratives that are suited to the lyric form, she moves beyond narrative retelling, honoring the legacy of imagination that has sustained Inupiaq people for millennia.




The Cormorant Hunter's Wife


Book Description

This collection of poetry is inspired by the author’s lineage as an Iñupiaq Eskimo woman with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo, Alaska. The poems’ syncopated cadences and evocative images bring to life the exceptional physical and cultural conditions of the Arctic and sub-Arctic that have been home to her ancestors for tens of thousands of years, while the poems’ speakers refer to an indigenous identity that has become increasingly plural. The author’s perspective as a Native person affords her unique insight into the relationship with place and self, which she applies in her consideration of the arctic landscape and to questions of adaptation and resilience. Kane’s work refers to the Inupiaq oral tradition, and while in some poems she continues to revisit, rewrite, and revise traditional narratives that are suited to the lyric form, she moves beyond narrative retelling, honoring the legacy of imagination that has sustained Inupiaq people for millennia.










The Storyteller Trilogy


Book Description

The complete saga of prehistoric Aleut tribal life in one volume: “Under Harrison’s hand, ancient Alaska comes beautifully alive” (The Denver Post). In Song of the River, eighty centuries ago, in the frozen land that is now Alaska, a clubfooted male child had been left to die, when a woman named K’os rescued him. Twenty years later and no longer a child, Chakliux occupies the revered role as his tribe’s storyteller. In the neighboring village of the Near River people, where Chakliux will attempt to make peace by wedding the shaman’s daughter, a double murder occurs that sends him on a harsh, enthralling journey in search of the truth about the tragic losses his people have suffered, and into the arms of a woman he was never meant to love. In Cry of the Wind, Chakliux has one weakness: the beautiful Aqamdax, who has been promised to a cruel tribesman she does not love. But there can be no future for Chakliux and Aqamdax until a curse upon their peoples has been lifted. As they travel a dangerous path, they encounter greater challenges than the harsh terrain and the long season of ice. K’os, the woman who saved Chakliux’s life when he was an infant, is now enslaved by the leader of the enemy tribe against whom she has sworn vengeance. To carry out her justice she will destroy anyone who gets in her way, even the storyteller she raised as her own son. And in Call Down the Stars, a handsome young tribal warrior and sage, Yikaas has traveled across the sea to hear stories of the Whale Hunter and the Sea Hunter peoples. Around the fire, Qumalix, a beguiling and beautiful storyteller, barely old enough to be a wife, catches the eye of Yikaas, and so begins their flirtation through storytelling, which brings to vivid life tales of the Near River and Cousin River tribes. The fates of lovers Chakliux and Aqamdax, and their wicked nemesis K’os, are revealed as Yikaas and Qumalix weave together tales from their ancestors’ past—and tales from their own lives.







Song of the River


Book Description

DIVDIVTwo ancient tribes on the verge of making peace become foes once more when a double murder jeopardizes a storyteller’s mission /divDIV Eighty centuries ago, in the frozen land that is now Alaska, a clubfooted male child had been left to die, when a woman named K’os rescued him. Twenty years later and no longer a child, Chakliux occupies the revered role as his tribe’s storyteller. In the neighboring village of the Near River people, where Chakliux will attempt to make peace by wedding the shaman’s daughter, a double murder occurs that sends him on a harsh, enthralling journey in search of the truth about the tragic losses his people have suffered, and into the arms of a woman he was never meant to love./divDIV /divDIVSong of the River is the first book of the Storyteller Trilogy, which also includes Cry of the Wind and Call Down the Stars./div/div




The Devil's Cormorant


Book Description

Behold the cormorant: silent, still, cruciform, and brooding; flashing, soaring, quick as a snake. Evolution has crafted the only creature on Earth that can migrate the length of a continent, dive and hunt deep underwater, perch comfortably on a branch or a wire, walk on land, climb up cliff faces, feed on thousands of different species, and live beside both fresh and salt water in a vast global range of temperatures and altitudes, often in close proximity to man. Long a symbol of gluttony, greed, bad luck, and evil, the cormorant has led a troubled existence in human history, myth, and literature. The birds have been prized as a source of mineral wealth in Peru, hunted to extinction in the Arctic, trained by the Japanese to catch fish, demonized by Milton in Paradise Lost, and reviled, despised, and exterminated by sport and commercial fishermen from Israel to Indianapolis, Toronto to Tierra del Fuego. In The DevilÕs Cormorant, Richard King takes us back in time and around the world to show us the history, nature, ecology, and economy of the worldÕs most misunderstood waterfowl.




Tsimshian Mythology


Book Description




Drama and Power in a Hunting Society


Book Description

The Selk'nam people, now virtually extinct, are a classic example of hunting societies. The book is based on the author's field work among the last surviving 'pure' Selk'nam, as well as an exhaustive review of the previous literature.