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First published 2018
Copyright © Adam Weymouth, 2018
Illustration and map by Ulli Mattsson
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover design: Richard Green
Author photograph: Suki Dhanda
ISBN: 978-0-241-27041-7
To you, as yet unnamed, who came along quicker than this book
And to Mum and Dad, for always trusting that I knew what I was doing
– the generations that came before, the generations coming after
Wait, I see something: We come upstream in red canoes.
Riddle of the Alaskan Athabascans, documented by the missionary Julius Jette (1864–1927)
rival (n.)
from the Latin rivalis, ‘one person using the same stream as another’
Author’s Note
There are five species of salmon found in Alaska and Western Canada. This book is concerned predominantly with one of them, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, generally referred to as the king in Alaska and the Chinook in Canada. I have used these names interchangeably throughout.
Whilst the majority of the research for Kings of the Yukon was carried out during the summer of 2016, I returned to the Canadian side of the border for a shorter trip in 2017. One summer in the North is simply too short a season to cover the two thousand miles of river that the salmon span between break-up and freeze-up. I have, however, written about the trip as one continuous journey, in order to preserve the flow of the story. All data on escapement numbers, sex ratios, etc., relates to the 2016 season. Most interviews were recorded by hand, either at the time or afterwards; several were recorded on audio. Some characters’ names have been changed to protect their privacy. Interviews in Canada were carried out according to the Traditional Knowledge policies of the First Nations involved, policies which strive to protect their cultural heritage from exploitation.
The terms ‘Eskimo’ and ‘Indian’ are often considered pejorative, yet are commonly in use in Alaska and Canada, amongst both Indigenous and white people. ‘Alaskan Native’ and ‘First Nation’ are not able to differentiate between these two very separate groups, and they do not encompass the connection, on the Eskimo side, between other groups that inhabit the circumpolar region, and on the Indian side, with other native peoples of Canada and the Lower 48. As such I have occasionally used them in the book, alongside the proper names of specific tribes and clans. Whilst the word ‘Indian’ is commonly assumed to derive from Columbus believing that he had reached India, figures such as the activist Russell Means and the American Indian Movement offer an alternative etymology, described here by Cree lawyer Harold R. Johnson in his book Firewater: ‘Columbus was not lost, he knew where he was, and he called us In Dios, meaning “with God”. The word is not as important as the story we tell about it. Indian is also a precise legal term found in our Treaties and the Canadian constitution.’
Finally, for reasons best known to themselves, Alaskans call a snowmobile a snowmachine. A snowmachine is not for making snow, as it is everywhere else in the world, but for driving on it. It is the word I have used here.
