The Story
Chapter One: Salmon’s Quest Begins – Synopsis
A ribbon of water, known as Rogue River, winds her way through southwest Oregon just as she has done for thousands and thousands of years. She splashes over rocks and waterfalls, carves deep gorges, and rolls across wide, green valleys, never sleeping once. This waterway is Salmon’s path upriver to meet his teacher, Morning Star, who rises at dawn in the skies above Boundary Springs, many swims away. Salmon is on a journey to learn all that he must know.
On the eve of Salmon’s departure, Coyote celebrates his friend’s big swim by building a campfire on the beach. As night falls, Coyote proudly coaches Salmon on the power of stories and stars: that they are here to remind us of where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
Come sunrise, from seaside rocks at the mouth of Rogue River, Eel plays music through seven sound holes in her flute-like body. Her gift of music gives Salmon strength and courage for his long journey. After saying good-bye to his friends on shore, and thanking the Great Salt Sea for being his home, Salmon turns his attention toward fresh water. With a swish of his tail, he’s off!
Upriver, Grandmother and Grandfather Cedar announce that Salmon is swimming. Their words are carried on the outstreached wings of Red-Tailed Hawk.
Salmon’s quest begins!
Excerpts from Chapter 1
“HEY!” shouts Coyote to Salmon, “You’ve got a long swim ahead of you, many days and many nights. You will never feel alone if you look up to the sky after dark. That’s what I do. Ha! It’s fun to point my long nose into the air. You’ll see stars, Salmon, thousands, and thousands of stars. Each one has a story. You have a story too. Stories and stars remind us of where we’ve been, and where we are going.”
* * * * *
Nearby, Eel slithers to the rocks just offshore to make water music through the seven sound holes in her flute-like body. Eel sings to Salmon to celebrate his departure. She knows that life is a beautiful thing if you can put some music to it.
* * * * *
Upriver, Grandmother and Grandfather Cedar whisper to each other in forested voices. From grove to grove, Wind People carry their words upon the outstretched wings of Red-Tailed Hawk. “Salmon is swimming. His relations are waiting upriver.
Salmon’s quest begins.”
Chapter Two: In Six Directions – Synopsis
Red-Tailed Hawk screeches the news, “Salmon is traveling toward his teacher, Morning Star, and I am going with him.” Salmon feels protected under the watchful eyes of his guardian hawk. “Thank you, my flying friend,” says Salmon. “One day I’ll return the favor!”
Not to be left behind on this adventure, Coyote tracks Salmon’s progress from a woodland trail along the river’s edge. With his eyes fixed on Salmon, Coyote stubs his toe on an unseen rock in his path. “Yeow,” he cries! His outburst alerts Deer Woman who is quietly feeding nearby. She recognizes the cries of Coyote. As she comes to his aid, the two hear screaming calls of alarm from Red-Tailed Hawk, flying overhead. Salmon hears it too.
“I wonder what she sees in the sky. What is she alerting us to?” Salmon twists through the current. “I know that tremble!” BOOM!!! Thunder roars. In an instant, the thrashing rain of a late summer storm assails the landscape, soaking everyone and everything in its path. Pounding wind whips Rogue River into a frothy serpent, with pulsing currents that quickly drain Salmon’s energy. He struggles to find a place to rest, but instead, without warning or witness, Salmon disappears.
Red-Tailed Hawk notices immediately. She swoops toward the river where she last saw him. Her eyes scan underwater through a curtain of floating debris and whitecaps, seeking any sign of Salmon’s swishing tail or silver scales. Rain falls hard and fast off her folded feathers. Though utterly spent, her sharp eyes fix on one mission only.
Finding Salmon!
Excerpts from Chapter 2
“Why, yes. I travel with the unseen. I ramble upriver with Salmon, my underwater friend. He’s on a long journey to Boundary Springs, high in the Story Mountains where everything begins. I also travel with Red-Tailed Hawk who keeps watch from the air. She’s got mighty eyes and a loud screech. With her as our lookout, we ground-walkers and river-swimmers always know what lies ahead.”
* * * * *
Days shorten. Tree People hold their breath. Autumn walks along the river and paints each leaf red or gold. In spite of his swollen toe, Coyote is so happy to have company along the trail that he dashes behind trees, splashes through creeks, and leaps over rocks to wheedle Deer Woman into a game of Hide and Seek.
“Hey, Deer! Bet you can’t find me!” … Coyote loves games where he gets to be found.
* * * * *
Hawk sees the world as a big, big place. As Watcher, she scans activity in six directions: Upriver, Downriver, Over Her Right Wing, Over Her Left Wing, High, and Low. Unlike river dwellers, shoreline dwellers, forest dwellers, or underground dwellers, her views have no beginning and no end.
Chapter Three: Circle Five Times – Synopsis
While Coyote and Deer Woman wait out the storm in the hollow of a dry cave, a racing river bullies Salmon. He thrashes his tail against thick water just to stay in place. River Hawk, the masked fisherman, secretly observes Salmon’s distress from above. In an instant, he leaps off his lofty perch and dives toward the river. With talons outstretched, River Hawk snatches Salmon, careful to protect his fragile, silvery scales.
River Hawk is an osprey. He normally delights in eating fresh fish from the river. But not today. Instead, he rescues Salmon from the raging waters by lifting him up in his talons and flying to safety in a protected pool high in the cliffs.
When evening falls, stars reappear in the sky as the storm moves on. As promised, the next morning River Hawk returns Salmon to his watery home to continue his important journey upriver to Morning Star. On the move again, Salmon and his friends soak in the colorful and tasty bounty of River’s autumn valley. Food in rich, delicious variety is everywhere.
The band of loyal though weary travelers reach Upper and Lower Table Rocks, where they will overwinter.
All is well until the shelter is built, the fire is lit, and the old stories are ready to be retold… like whitecaps on a roaring river, the ground suddenly pitches this way and that. In an instant, crumbling cliffs and rumbling rocks drown out the musical voice of Moon Woman.
She is singing her medicine song to save the world.
Excerpts from Chapter 3
Salmon is exhausted and struggling. He loses ground in the rascally currents, whipped into rapids under the storm’s battering rain. No sound can penetrate the pitch and intensity of the fuming winds. Animal People huddle, Winged People alight undercover, and tiny creatures of the soil and shore dig deeper into soggy tunnels and burrows.
* * * * *
It is vital that River Hawk put Salmon’s needs ahead of his own. He must help Salmon rest and replenish his bedraggled body.
“Tomorrow, when the storm passes,” Hawk tells him, “I will return you to the river to resume your journey with the others, toward the rising sun, Morning Star’s home.”
* * * * *
Dusk calls in darkness. Overhead a lone star breaks through parting clouds. Then another. And another. Though unlikely companions, a fish and a fisherman spend the night side-by-side in a rain pool high above the river. Under shifting skies, they tell each other story after story. Eventually the storm tires, and blows itself out. Earth, and her creatures, exhale.
Chapter Four: The Great Animal – Synopsis
Table Rocks jump and rattle, upsetting trees, cliffs, and the slumbering night. Moon Woman sings her medicine song as walls of the freshly finished shelter creak and bend. Fearing a collapse, Coyote and Deer Woman roll and race to get outside. Jackrabbit, Fox, and Muskrat sprint after them. Red-Tailed Hawk’s storytelling ladder splinters as the fire chokes under falling dirt and debris.
Star People peer through billowing dust. They blink knowingly. They have watched the Table Rocks quake and shake before. As the travelers bounce about on the summit, Red-Tailed Hawk dives toward the river to find Salmon and his relations safe in an underwater hollow.
Moon Woman beats her drum, gradually slowing its tempo in order to still the quaking earth beneath her. When the last rock is hurled off the roof of the world, and settles, all is still. Without warning, the exhausted Table Rocks simply stop moving. Early the next day, the travelers will continue their journey to Morning Star, up, Up UP the river to her source.
Bear circles his fire turning the season from winter to spring, something he has done since the beginning. Sounds of spring instantly saturate the world, and the earth is reborn.
The travelers look to Hawk to set the pace.
At sundown, Salmon and his friends gather for the night at Avenue of Giant Boulders. The constellation, Big Bear, rises in the eastern sky to continue his circle dance around the North Star. Sky Bear joins Earth Bear to bring longer days and greater warmth to higher elevations.
Nearby, Red-Tailed Hawk, the Winged Watcher, tucks a turned head into her fluffed wing feathers, and closes her eyes.
Excerpts from Chapter 4
“I hear roots waking up,” says Bear in his low, slow voice. “I smell sap moving in the trees. Sunshine brings back my shadow. My paw prints make patterns in melting snow. Today, I turn the wheel of the seasons from winter to spring. Today, we leave dark and cold behind us and move toward their opposites, light and heat.” With this announcement, something happens that has happened for as long as stories have been told. Sounds of spring instantly saturate the world, and the earth is reborn.
* * * * *
In the Avenue of Giant Boulders, animals rest, but there will be no rest for Rogue River. Frothy and fast, she shouts her ‘Goodnights’ then races through the labyrinth of Rock People. Silently watchful, the presence of these elders is an ancient affirmation of the strength of this river, as she journeys toward the vastness of the Great Salt Sea. Nearby, Red-Tailed Hawk, the Winged Watcher, tucks a turned head into her fluffed wing feathers, and closes her eyes.
Chapter Five: Stories and Stars – Synopsis
Just before sunrise, as her sky neighbors take their leave, Morning Star rises above the eastern horizon. Her shimmer draws the attention of Rock People, Animal People, Tree People, Water People, and for the first time, Salmon. Though he cannot yet see her, he knows she is close.
Salmon takes this moment to honor the efforts and sacrifices of his companions. Through storms, earthquakes, fires, and floods, they stayed by his side. Salmon shows gratitude by nudging stones into a tiny rock stack, five stones high.
Spring brings rainbow colors to these higher elevations. Scarlet poppies zigzag through fields of purple lupine, a sight so magnificent that Jackrabbit can’t help himself. At full speed, he bounds through painted meadows, hoping Red-Tailed Hawk doesn’t notice. Every traveler feels energized by the nearness of Boundary Springs and the soon-ness of meeting Morning Star.
With one last mountain ridge to cross, the travelers learn about the value of fire from the One-Leggeds. They rejoice upon seeing ripe wild huckleberries. And when they finally arrive at Boundary Springs, they sleep.
On this final night of their long trek, Coyote enters the dreams of every traveler. “Dreams,” coached Red-Tailed Hawk early on, “help us remember those valuable bits of wisdom we collect on journeys.”
In the morning, dog-tired and irritable, the travelers wake up cloaked in fog. The morning mist is so thick they can’t see their own paws, hooves, talons, feet, or fins in front of them. When the fog lifts, Morning Star speaks.
Far downriver to the sea, sweet and salty notes rise on the wind. The music is coming from Eel’s flute-like body. She plays her song to Salmon, Coyote, Red-Tailed Hawk, Deer Woman, Jackrabbit, and Bear.
Star People peek over the ocean, and dance!
Excerpts from Chapter 5
“What started out as my journey is our journey now. Wisdom that I seek is ours to share. Hardships that I’ve suffered we have suffered together. Stories that have nourished my spirit have also nourished ours. Though some of us swim, some of us walk, some hop, crawl, saunter, and fly, what I know is this: we have made this journey together and this journey has made us.”
* * * * *
“Grandmother showed me how to respect Mother Earth by doing things with fairness and in balance. ‘Don’t overgraze a meadow,’ she advised. ‘Eat only some berries on a bush and leave the rest.’ She showed me how to help others and how to give back. She taught me that wherever I put my feet down, I am home. She trained me that laughter is the greatest gift of all. ‘Lightness of spirit,’ she’d say, ‘is the best medicine we’ve got!'”