...And We Will Have Snow

Part 4: The Dome Dream

A white bear trudges south through heavy snow. It is slow going, but faster than swimming against the tides and currents. He walks alone in the mountains, far from others of his kind. He hopes to find his family where the snow ends. He doesn't know precisely how far that will be, how long it will take him. He knows only that he must keep going until he gets there.

Bear is forging his way through the snow-covered mountains of Vancouver Island, intent on reaching the southeast shore near his home. Wind blows cold, snow drifts deep; his bear form takes little notice and trudges on.

When he left Xayna in Haida Gwaii, he followed the eastern shore where the daily tidal surges left behind an ever-widening layer of snow-covered sea ice. Perfectly at home in polar bear form, he was invisible on this perpetually fog-shrouded coast.

When he reached the southern edge of the ice he shifted to his equally comfortable sea lion shape for the long swim to the bigger island nearer home. Now again in polar bear form, he keeps to the snow-covered back country. The grip of heavy winter snow has reduced human activity to a near stand-still. He can make faster progress on his own than seeking help, but maintaining bear form means avoiding contact with people. This is not difficult because in this weather communities rely on autonomous transport to supply them with the goods they need. Bear is amused to observe that these self-driving trucks are similar to his bear body in not needing constant attention from a guiding spirit. So there is virtually no movement of people between towns.

While his borrowed bear shape plows ever onward on the long trek, Bear's shaman mind wanders elsewhere, and has been pondering the similarities and differences between Haida culture and the needs of a Sun Dome community. In the Sun Domes, he knows, there are two kinds of populations, those who have endured extreme hardship, and those who lived in relative ease most of their lives before they were displaced by sudden disaster. It is the second group who need new acculturation most. Traumatic as they were, the disasters they survived had been brief interludes, thankfully forgotten once secure in their new homes. For too many of them, it is easy to take their new safety and comfort as due recompense for their misfortune. Instead of engaging themselves in support of their new community, they simply accept what is offered, and even begin to demand more. Bear sees this as Raven think.

In contrast, the other group is more like the modern Haida. Once the Vikings of the Pacific, secure in their island home, wealthy with its bounty from the sea, the Haida had playfully raided each other's villages and the mainland tribes for plunder and slaves. Then, their numbers reduced to a relative handful by disease, their means of sustenance plundered by the Canadians, their native culture suppressed by haughty newcomers, they clung to what remained of their independence and dignity, rejecting more than token submission to new ways.

Finally, when the thumb of foreign government was lifted out of sheer indifference, they reasserted their heritage, taking responsibility for their land and culture, allowing their self-expression to blossom anew.

But the devastating reversal of fortune left its mark. There would be no more raids, no more slave-taking. Playful as it may have been in its time, they had seen where such actions could lead, where in fact it had led on the global stage over the two hundred years of their own suffering and gradual recovery.

So they had become a peace-loving people, respectful not only of the land but of the many other people who shared it, demanding only the same respect in return. In the old days, even with the raiding and slave-taking they had kept their world in balance, through the potlatch practice to which their Raven and Eagle lineages were equally committed. Now they were more committed than ever to that balance.

This was the lesson of the Haida that Bear wanted to pass on to the Sun Dome communities: the deep respect for what they had and for the needs and wants of others, their independent dignity and pride in who they were and what they were part of, and their dedication to balance. Many instances of people with similar experiences could be found in the world, but the purity of the Haida case made it unique. Here it was clearly the devastation of disease that had been the downfall of their people, not any ill will on the part of invaders. Their age-old outlook that life is perilous but worthwhile enabled them to take even this in stride. They had no lingering axe to grind with anyone. This made them a perfect example of how life could be good again for those who had been through hard times.

Travelling in animal form, Bear cannot release his spirit dream. Nor does he want to, because it means that Xayna can join him at any time, which she does often. She has been with her mother and the rest of her family. Bear met Xayna's mother only briefly while he was among the Haida, and had found her to be, like most Haida women, reticent, unwilling to open up to a stranger. She had not even told him her Haida name. She is of the Raven line, and although that is no longer as important in the community as it once was, it is a source of pride and she is active in the perpetuation of rituals such as the feasts and dances that reflect the old potlatch tradition. But in the Haida way she defers to her husband Ghandl in matters of discourse with outsiders.

Although she has refrained from encouraging Xayna's relationship with Bear she is secretly pleased, for the bear is exclusively a Raven totem, and an honored one. Ghandl's naming of him tacitly implies that he may be adopted among the Haida, but will not become an Eagle despite Ghandl's tutelage in Eagle ways.

Xayna too is Raven, by the rules of matrilineal descent, and by the same rules would normally seek an Eagle mate from her father's matrilineage. That Bear's lineage is neither makes him acceptable, and in due course Xayna's mother may happily sponsor a formal naming and adoption ceremony for him, as well as a marriage. But for now she will not openly encourage such thoughts. In her mind they are both too young.

Xayna is aware of all this, and conveys it to Bear, who is elated at the prospect. As always, Xayna's company makes the time pass all too quickly, and soon he finds himself looking down from the eastern flank of Mount Tuam at the San Juan Islands. Home is in sight.