Our Voices: Native Stories of Alaska and the Yukon

Gédḗni Gēs Gagáh Nédē: The Girl Who Lived with Salmon

john dickson Gédē´ni Gēs Gagáh Nédē The Girl Who Lived with Salmon act i Down there, someplace, Dawson I think, this side someplace.1 You know that little kid. Children were playing with small fish about this big. You make it slough. That here salmon, salmon little bigger now. They dammed it. They made a dam. All that three, four kids. Yes, two girls, two boys. It must have been that those children went back. That one girl was gone, about that big. He [she]2 got necklace. It was like that watch chain. He [she] got here necklace that cross.3 Yes, it must have been that her mother was gone. john dickson: the girl who lived with salmon  Gee they went around [looking] for her [the girl] but, she was really gone. She’s gone. Children one-two boys she played with fish in the water then. She’s gone. She disappeared. She disappeared. They really ran around, but for nothing, he said.4 Her mother really cried. Her mom cried. Her father, all over. ‘‘Grizzly bear must have taken her,’’ he said. Medicine man, One medicine man make medicine. He sang, he sang, he sang. ‘‘This you all eat.’’ He gave it to them. ‘‘She became this small fish. She became a salmon. She was taken far away. They went with a boat. For us the fish went with a boat. They traveled far by boat. What happened that she disappeared? Maybe she will come back. You all make a fish trap there, when summer comes again then.’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ they all said.  Kaska act ii Where the child disappeared, there, really lots of people came there. The salmon were already arriving. Fish trap, fish trap, they were taking out fish. The father of the girl, he packed fish up, ten. His wife dried fish, salmon. This last one she take, cut its head. She cuts its head. Never cut, ‘‘Kats, kats, kats.’’ She cut something, ten.5 Well she holler here, medicine man he come. He came. ‘‘That’s it. That flowing water, you all bury it across there.’’ Those feathers, feathers, that here swan feathers6 they put over it. People didn’t go across then. ‘‘You all watch it always. Tomorrow then when it is starting to get light.’’ john dickson: the girl who lived with salmon  act iii Gee, her mother, she didn’t know what she was going to do. She’s got that salmon. Salmon they took across like that. They didn’t cut it. He [medicine man] always watched it. Those feathers happened to rise then. There was foam then. That foam went up and down like that then. ‘‘You got to see it. Just you tell me then, me. People are not to go across to it,’’ that medicine man. ‘‘Only me alone, I will go across.’’ They spread feathers over it [over the salmon]. Her mother always watched across, her mother. Her father too. That he come here, foam. Next time like that, the people they saw it like that. That salmon was sitting across. The salmon was sitting there before. ‘‘Tell me about it then,’’ he said, that medicine man. Suddenly her mother ran to there. ‘‘Feathers are rising with breathing over across.’’ ‘‘Finally she is coming back,’’ he said. act iv He [the medicine man] went across to her. It rose more,  Kaska those feathers rose with breathing. Rhythmically. He went to her. He made the sign of the cross like that. He sat facing her. He sing. ‘‘Come here, I’m telling you all,’’ he said. ‘‘I am going to lift my left arm then she was your daughter,’’ he said. Her father too, just two. Only those come. Not too many people. After a long time he lifted up. They ran up crying. ‘‘Don’t cry, all of you,’’ he said [the medicine man]. A child was sitting up like this, little girl. She saw her mother. That salmon was gone, the whole thing that here salmon. She was a person, her daughter. Medicine man, he give her a little water, water, some warm water. He sign the cross before he give it. ‘‘Mom!’’ he [she] call ’em. She spoke as soon as she swallowed that water. ‘‘Daughter! Then there was nothing, we cried about it,’’ they...