Part 5 (1/2)
Kate shrugged. ”Probably because of the federal cutbacks in the Parks department. Dan O'Brian's crew is stretched pretty thin. He probably asked Lamar to keep his eye out.”
”Humph,” Auntie Joy said.
”Of course, this is federal land only according to the federal government,” Kate added. ”It wasn't federal land until statehood, and our tribe has subsistence fished here since, h.e.l.l, I don't know, since forever.”
”As long as the water runs and the gra.s.s is green, we been here,” Edna said. She blushed when everyone looked at her in surprise, and ducked her head.
She had invoked the traditional words included in every treaty the federal government had entered into with the Native American peoples, ”so long as the water runs and the gra.s.s is green”a phrase that was supposed to imply forever regarding the terms of the treaty, but in reality had meant only until something of value was discovered on the lands the treaty referred to, something like gold or water rights or grazing lands or town sites or uranium, anything Manifest Destiny could be applied to and that therefore could be overrun by wannabe miners and ranchers and settlers and railroad builders.
And national park managers, Kate thought, who wanted to annex every square foot of land they saw and keep it pristine and inviolate, unsullied by human hand. They failed to recall that the indigenous peoples who came across the Bering land bridge during the last Ice Age had had their hands all over anything that had the remotest possibility of nutritional value and were every bit as much a part of the landscape and the wheel of life as the fish and the birds and the mammals. It wasn't until salmon started being taken commercially, in fish traps owned by Outside consortiums based in Seattlefish traps that spanned the entire mouths of creeks and trapped whole schools of fish in their comprehensive mawsthat the fish runs began to suffer their drastic declines.
She waited in case Edna wanted to say more, but the old woman had lapsed into her customary silence. ”Like I was saying, Johnny, we've always fished subsistence here, but then the feds selected this creek at statehood, and they closed the fish camp down. Five years ago, Auntie Joy and Auntie Vi pet.i.tioned for it to be reverted back to subsistence use. The feds turned them down.”
”And?”
”And, they sued.”
”It still in court?” Jack asked with the cynicism born of long experience with the legal system.
Kate nodded. ”They lost at the state level, big surprise. They're appealing to the supremes.”
In sudden realization Jack sat up straight on his log. ”You mean we're busting a federal law, fis.h.i.+ng on this creek?”
Kate's smile was sardonic. ”Oh no, you can sport fish here all you want, so long as you've got a state fis.h.i.+ng license and the fish hawks declare the stream open.” She nodded at the circle of women. ”It's the aunties who aren't supposed to.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the creek. ”That fish wheel's illegal as all h.e.l.l. Lamar comes upstream every year and tells Auntie Joy so, doesn't he, auntie?”
”Humph,” Auntie Joy said again.
”Lamar's not that bad, auntie,” Kate said gently. ”He's nowhere near as bad as some of the other fish hawks have been over the years.”
The old woman's face relaxed, and she sighed. ”I know, Katya. But his rules are not our rules.”
Auntie Vi was not so generous. ”Who is he, this park ranger, tell us what to do like he own everything? He don't own the creek. He don't own the fish. n.o.body own them, so everybody own them.” She sat back on her stump, dismissing the matter.
”Vi is right,” Auntie Joy said, and added reasonably, ”And besides, how our children and grandchildren living, if we don't teach them the old ways?” She waved a hand at the shack full of drying racks standing behind the cabin, a quarter of them hung with the limp red carca.s.ses of red salmon. Split, boned, soaked in brine, they would be left hanging until the oil ran, when the dried alder would be lit and the shack filled with smoke to dry, flavor and texture the meat. ”Who knows how to smoke fish when we're gone, if we don't come to the river and teach the children?”
”We always looking for children to come to fish camp.” Auntie Balasha sighed. ”But children don't come much no more.”
A memory of the deer hunt with her father flashed through Kate's mind. As small as she had been, as young as she had been, as unskilled as she had been, still Stephan had been determined that his child would learn the traditional ways, at the very least be able to feed and clothe and house herself without being dependent on anyone else. He had died the following year, but by then the pattern of self-reliance was set, forming the fabric of her life.
She looked around the circle at the four old women, and saw her father staring back at her from every face.
Edna surprised them again. ”No, the children don't come, but the white men do. They come with their planes and their powerboats and their four-wheelers, all the time making noise, leaving garbage all over.” She leaned forward. ”You know what I hear about those ones? They don't even eat the fis.h.!.+ They put them on the wall of their house, to look at! Why? Why is that?” she demanded. ”Fish is food, for hungry in winter, not pretty for wall of house.” She sat back and stared accusingly at the two white men in their midst.
Jack looked undeniably guilty.
”Gee, Dad,” Johnny said, ”maybe we should”
”We eat everything we catch,” Jack said hastily. ”Don't we?” he appealed to Kate.
”I don't know,” Kate drawled. ”What about all those trophies you've got lining the walls of your den back in Anchorage?”
There were gasps of horror from all four old women.
”Den?” Johnny said. ”We got a den?”
”Kate,” Jack said ominously.
”Let me see, now, there's a moose, and a Dall sheep, and a goat, and two bearskins, and three king salmon, and I think there's even a wolverine.” Kate added, ”And he flies and shoots caribou the same day, too, and not for meat, for the racks, can you imagine?”
”No,” Auntie Joy said, aghast.
”Ayapu,” Auntie Vi said, appalled.
”Alaqah!” Auntie Edna said, deeply offended.
”Kate,” Jack said.
She went for broke. ”Not to mention all those Outside hunters he flies out to Round Island to take walrus illegally for their tusks.”
Auntie Balasha went so far as to put a hand to her breast and nearly swoon from shock.
”Kate!”
She couldn't hold it back any longer and burst out laughing. The four women joined in, rollicking back and forth on their logs, teeth flas.h.i.+ng, bellies shaking, hands clapping. The sound was loud, merry and unmistakable. Aleuts, one, Anglos, zip.
A slow grin spread across Johnny's face, and Jack mopped a heated brow. ”Sheesh,” he said, ”you broads sure are hard on a couple of simple guys just trying to follow the hallowed Western tradition of raping the environment.”
”Well, aunties,” Kate said, draining her mug, ”thanks for the tea. I'd better head on down the creek.”
Jack shot up next to her. ”Why? They aren't fis.h.i.+ng, so they won't be delivering.”
”You never know,” Kate said. ”Maybe they won't be able to stand Meany catching all that fish in their faces.”
”Meany?” Auntie Joy said sharply. Auntie Vi looked at her.
Kate couldn't read either face, and her brows came together in a slight frown. ”Yeah. The processors have dropped the price of reds to fifty cents a pound. The fleet's on strike. All except for Meany,” she added, watching Auntie Joy. ”Both his drifter and his setnet site have their nets in the water. The fish are hitting big-time, too. Even at fifty cents a pound, he'll make money.”
Auntie Vi started to say something and Auntie Joy cut her off. ”That one always make money.” She snorted. ”All he good for.”
Kate looked at Auntie Vi, who was studying her toes with complete absorption. ”Okay then,” she said, rising to her feet and dusting unnecessarily at her jeans. ”I'm off.”
Next to her, Jack looked over at the four aunties, clearly uneasy at being left to their mercy. Kate saw the look and dropped her voice. ”Don't worry, Jack, they're nice, kind, cuddly old ladies. They won't hurt you.”
Jack's expression told her what he thought of that estimate of his hostesses, and she was hard put to keep her face straight.
”You come back tomorrow, Katya,” Auntie Joy said firmly. ”We catch lots, we need help with the cleaning and the hanging. You come back and help.”
”Okay, auntie. Just as long as I don't get stuck with fire detail.”
”Fire detail?” Jack said apprehensively. ”What's fire detail?”