Sacred Risk

I do not have (to the best of my knowledge) any DNA links to the Chinook people of the Pacific Northwest, nor to any other Native American peoples. I am, however, a daughter of Oregon where I spent over 4/5th of my life. Perhaps because I drank the water or perhaps because I camped and played and hiked in the fern-rich Douglas Fir forests and slept beside rain swollen streams or perhaps because I have for years numbed my feet when standing the cold Pacific Ocean swell that I have some understanding of Salmon as a sacred food. Not a complete understanding, not like the knowledge that the Chinook and others have – but enough to know that Salmon is indeed sacred.