Nanoose Streamkeepers

A Fairy tale.

The search for mother Salmon.

Once upon a time, long ago beyond the mist’s of time when the rivers of the north west coast ran free through the once mighty forests shrouding the coast with their green blanket.

Inlets running deep into the mountains shrouded in mist and rains, at times torrential some times drizzle all feeding the never-ending forest’s seemingly insatiable thirst dripping endlessly from the canopy above.

Small trickles becoming rivulets ever descending carving small channels in the thick moss down to the soils beneath. Gathering together they soon form small streams and rivers flowing through valleys sometimes wide and slow sometimes steep cascades falling down over sheer rock mountainsides into the grey green sea waiting beneath.

In the declining days of the now fading summer the rivers fill once again with life, millions of Salmon returning from their long journey far out into mother ocean. Whole communities of salmon swimming arriving at their place of birth to find that one spot

Where with their mate they can bury their fertile eggs secure in the gravel nest where they will grow until the following spring.

Great families lived in big cedar houses along the banks of these mighty rivers. Salmon was the gift given to man in exchange for his stewardship of the forest. The children of the salmon waited in great anticipation for the return of the Salmon. Rituals were planned and great dances and songs were practiced for the day the first Salmon was taken to feed the people. When the flesh was eaten her bones were to be returned back into the river ensuring their bond continued. Long ago mother salmon had told humans that their role was the protection and care of her birth place and in return she would give her life to them in order for them to continue stewarding the mighty forests.

 Many animals came down from the forest and great feasts were held as all celebrated the abundance of salmon.

200 years later many things had changed along the coast, gone the once great forest, rivers dammed others full of gravel and silt from the now bare forest floor. Cities built along the shores with saw mills and paper mills on all the rivers consuming more and more of the last remaining forest. The once uncountable runs of salmon only a memory.

Where have all the salmon gone cried the people as no more did they meet by the river shore to celebrate the circle of life. Memories were fading being replaced by the new way of industrialization, “Who cares no one remembers those days any more” was the answer often told. Big industrial fish factories [hatchery] were churning out the remaining salmon taken from the wild and spawned in artificial environments to be released as the new improved version to replace the once mighty wild runs of the past.

No longer allowed to complete the cycle of life Mother Salmon was now only seen by brother bear and eagle when she visited the remotest of rivers. She went unseen by only but a few who kept the memories and songs of the forest alive in secret ceremonies in the remotest of places.

“ This is bullshit”  “ What can be done” was the reply, as they stood beside the river barely able to count the salmon as they swam by “ one” “another one, oh no just the reflection of the same one”

“That’s it I’ve had enough” “ Who do I talk to teach me where we went wrong and what can be done”

Searching high and low it was soon evident that all the scientific knowledge available was controlled by a small group who for the past hundred plus years had answered the salmons decline by taking some of the remaining salmon into captivity and breeding them artificially, “This will be the answer, we can continue to destroy the forest, we don’t need the wild salmon no more”.

Realizing that the answer was not to be found among industrial man then we would have to journey to the most remote parts of the coast to see if we could meet with mother salmon herself.

Journeying deep into the coastal inlets with dark skies above as the incessant rains continued from day to day. Traveling up one river after another deeper and deeper into the coastal range calling out to mother Salmon with no returning answering call, further and further they traveled, still no reply was heard, even the forest or what remained laid silent and foreboding.

After what seemed like an eternity time crawled slowly by until one early morning as they where traveling from one inlet to the next a large ripple broke the surface, “ finner”s” was the cry as they slowly approached the ripple as itself slowly moved ahead of the canoe. “ Where is it leading us “ “ quite we must follow as far as we can” silently paddling they followed the wave that seemed to be growing larger as they approached the coast. Suddenly the wave was gone with only a small ripple to show where it had been, “ we lost it” was the cry as they tried to figure in which direction it had gone. Rounding a large boulder they suddenly saw what looked like a small river flowing from within the earth itself with a strong current upwelling from the dark land all around, “ what is this place” “ No one has been this far before into this inlet since before time began” They could hear a great churning and roaring coming from the bowels of the earth as they approached “ the tide is turning, we must find a place to beach the canoe before we get swept out to sea again” As they struggled to paddle as hard as possible the canoe slowly pulled forward as they spotted a small beach off to the south side of the underground river. Dragging the canoes as far up the beach they tied her to an old root so knurled it looked like grandpas face. [Of course we would not tell grandpa]

“Take the camping gear out and set up a camp as high as you can on the beach” as they made camp and gathered drift wood and sticks from the forest they soon had a small fire burning away and began to cook their supper, all where totally knackered from the long days pull especially today as the excitement of seeing a ripple and what they thought may have been a fin the excitement had given them the remaining energy to make it all the way into this forgotten inlet.  “ What are you cooking tonight” “ Clams and seaweed with a few Salmon Berry sprouts and Hemlock tip tea”

Salmon Berries where the closest they had to real salmon these days and even they were becoming hard to find as modern man did not see the value of wild berries or anything wild in their mad rush to so call tame the wild.

“Look a Bear” “ A white Bear “ came the cry from one who was collecting more firewood, “ Look it has a Salmon in its mouth” Wow this was the first Salmon alive or dead they had seen for many moons since their journey began back when the spring equinox had occurred. “Where did it get the fish” they had at least a hour before the night would envelope them in its cold damp blanket so they decided to have a quick look further into the bush before they eat dinner. Climbing high above the great big rock that the river flowed from they entered a very dark and foreboding forest, “ how come no one has been and cut these trees” was the query as they descended down from the rock onto the forest floor.

“ I hear water flowing again “ they walked deep into the darkening forest as a wide channel appeared before them as if from nowhere.

Closer they came as the roar of the water swirling and foaming as it vanished deep below the massive rock they had just climbed over from the beach. Before them was the most pristine river and forest they had ever seen for generations, even grandpa with all his wrinkles had no memory of such a place hidden away in the dark deep forest shrouded by coastal mists.

As they walked further they began again to see that ripple they first had seen out in the inlet moving a lot slower this time away around a bend in the river blocked by a huge log jam with trees bigger than any alive today. “ Shall we climb over and see where the river goes and maybe we will see what caused that wave” “ Sure we have time it seems to be moving beyond the jam” over the jam they scrambled almost unable to scale the largest of the logs due to its size being thicker than the tallest man, over and up they went until they almost fell down the other side onto a beautiful gravel bar with the river flowing gently down into the jumble of logs within the jam. “ Look a fish” “ No just a stick making the water part like that” further they walked now unaware of the falling darkness all around them as suddenly they saw what they thought was a Whale all the way here in the river. “ What is it” “ it’s not a Whale that’s for sure” slowly the big shape started to rise higher and higher out of the water as they saw that indeed it was not a Whale but the most humongous Salmon anyone had ever seen since the dawning of time. With a gentle swish of it’s tail around swung the head as big as the biggest big house on the coast, “ it’s a Salmon, look it must be Mother Salmon” slowly the head came around to look them straight in the eyes, “ Why do you follow me” cried the Salmon, “ We have been on a long journey since the early spring in search of the mighty mother Salmon in hope of finding her still alive” “ Well my friends you have found me for I am mother Salmon” they all slowly crouched alongside the river as mother Salmon came close in the shallows, “ Listen closely as I begin my tale of the past years” said mother Salmon. Sitting attentively on the gravel bar they soon felt like they had encountered a old friend from a long time ago as she began her story of despair and grief at the loss of the forest and her rivers and streams that had for thousands of years been there for her children and there children for generations.

 Feeling betrayed by humans for the lack of respect for the forest and their lack of caring as the forest was cut down watershed by watershed until almost all was but a long memory from the past. Having not lived up to mans promise long ago to Mother Salmon when he was told that his role was to steward the forest and in turn the forest would provide a home for Mother salmons children to come and spawn the next generation while their dying bodies would provide the food the people needed to survive until the next spring.

With the loss of the forest Mother Salmon had left the coast swimming deeper and deeper into the dark deep depth of the mighty Ocean. After many years of roaming the whole ocean exploring every river and stream she decided to return to the coast to try and find out if there were any watersheds still intact where her offspring could be born and raised.

Traveling all up and down the coast she had found this river by pure accident just like the people had done on their search for her. This is now a sacred place and I want you all to keep this place a secret from prying eyes, I have traveled many times to your coast and have become very sad at what you have allowed to happen to what was my place of birth and that of all my offspring. On my travels I have met many Salmon from your coast, at first I thought, at last, my relatives have survived until I talked with them and fund out that they where relatives but something was wrong they did not smell right and they seemed to be a little odd in their behavior not quite as alert as what I remembered they should be. They spoke a different language though I could understand some of what they told me, first when I asked where their parents had come from they all replied that they did not know who their parents where or even where they had been born, all they knew was that they had come from the big fish factory not too far from the ocean.

I was surprised because all Salmon knew who they were and most important where their home was. “ Oh no they replied we no longer need such knowledge as that is now all taken care of for us by man in his fish factory”. “ What” I cried “who would do such a thing when at one time I had all the coast and many rivers, streams and brooks for my children to be born and raised in” “man” was the resounding cry. “ It took many years to try and figure out where I went wrong, had not man been told that if they looked after the forest then I would have a place for my children and in turn man would have food to sustain him all year until my children returned next year”.

Brooding over the years my despair became too much to handle so I decided I would go to the coast and find out the truth for myself”

“ I swam too and fro, up and down every river and the story I was told was the same, the once mighty forests where no longer there, the once pristine rivers and streams that had been the birth place of my children for millennia where now destroyed full of gravel and garbage with no or very little life left in them”.  “ When I entered some rivers I encountered big metal structures built across the rivers with large stone houses on either side blocking my passage upstream, here I encountered many Salmon milling around in front of these metal fences, I asked what is occurring, why are you waiting here and why is the river blocked with these metal logs”.

“ They all looked at me with surprise as if I was crazy and began to explain what was occurring to them, I will now try to explain what they told me, they said that no they always as long as anyone could remember came to this place of the fence [I learned its name] here we just swim too and fro until man comes and takes us into the house where we are stripped of our eggs and have our milt squirted all over them in a plastic bucket then they take us and incubate our eggs in a artificial river where they douse us with all kinds of strange drugs and chemical then upon emerging we no longer have to learn to survive as they feed us three times a day whether we need it or not, no predators to worry about and when it is all done they send us out to the ocean where we have no choice but to learn how to survive on what instincts we have left”.

 “ Some of our brothers and sisters or at least we think they may be as none of us know who our parents were or where we are supposed to go before trying to find our way back to our new homes of concrete and plastic” “ Shocked at what I heard I stayed silent for many years trying to figure this new world out”. “ Along the way I met many Salmon that did not know who or what they were with many I encountered where just swimming around and around with no direction and plan, many looked emaciated while many more where acting like village idiots and had no idea about anything falling prey to any predator that came along”.

“ I wondered over the years what happened to my friends the people of the land who many years ago had made the pact of mutual survival with me built on mutual trust”. “ One day I decided to go deep into the forest to look for people to ask why they had betrayed my trust and had allowed such destruction of the watersheds to take place” “ one day I came across a woman sitting by the river just like all those years ago when we had made our agreement of mutual survival, as I emerged from the deep she jumped back in surprise, I cried out to her not to be afraid and to come closer so I did not have to shout” “ she came back down to the streamside where in my politest voice I asked why had man betrayed me and destroyed my places of birth” “ she replied “ I am so sorry mother Salmon but we no longer need you to feed us or the forest to sustain our other needs”  “ I was stunned to hear that man did no longer need my children to sustain them during their life’s journey and instead as she had told me they now lived on food from a factory from some   place called Hackensack New Jersey where all the worlds food factories where. We no longer needed the forest for our medicine and clothes and housing material as all is now provided by what are called mega stores supplying all our needs for ever and in return all we need to do is go and work in these factories where at the days end they give us a new tool called money which has freed us from freedom, we no longer have to fish or grow or harvest our food all the freedom our ancestors had been traded away for this new stuff called money and now we had all the freedom in the world to now go and buy what we needed, free from breathing fresh air as all homes now had forced air heating and in the hot summer cold air conditioning, freedom from hunting and fishing walking in the woods and most important freedom from having to think for ourselves”.

“ All we need to do now is work for money then when we come home we can sit in comfort and watch a new tool called TV where all our desires and wants are provided and most important it has freed us from doing anything other than work for money as we can now live vicariously through shows on very aspect of life, we no longer need to go walk in the woods we can now sit in the comfort of our homes and watch a show on TV of someone else walking in the woods showing us all the animals that live there”.

“ As you can see all this information has made me want more and more to find somewhere that life is still lived within the confines of nature which has brought me to this place today” sitting totally amazed at this tale told by mother Salmon they where speechless as they realized that yes indeed we had become comatose to nature and its gifts that at one time we had the freedom to live in harmony with now all but a memory long gone from mans realm of understanding.

 Splash// mother Salmon turned and vanished back down into the deep of the pool she had first appeared from. “ Was that a dream or was that real they exclaimed to each other as the realization of what she had told them and then a great dawning of awareness descended like a huge rock falling into the water with a giant splash soaking them with self awareness. Not a good feeling as they realized that just like the Salmon they where a product of the hatchery system of thinking. Do as you are told and eat all the crap we feed you and do not question your roots and place in life and above all do not question what happened to your own freedom to be a real living human and live just like the factory Salmon does living your whole life in total ignorance of who you really are and your role in life.

Now they had not expected to meet less talk with such a wise old soul as mother salmon only trying to find out where if anywhere where any wild salmon living. Now they knew what they had to do to gain back the trust of mother Salmon.

Returning back to their canoe they made plans to return home and try to get the rest of the village to return to the old ways of looking after the rivers and streams so that one day maybe in the day of their children or great grand children mother Salmon would return to once more gift the people with the blessing of freedom to live within nature and all her gifts.