October 21, 2010

Interdependence

The Messenger Feast

Written by: Chris Meier, Director, CITC Educational Services System

Spring festivals are still an important part of life in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The festivals are a way for villagers to share their resources and the goodness of life. Here is my memory of one of the first I attended in 1993 in Newtok, Alaska.

The temperature had not been above zero for more than a month, and as I walked to the community house, I looked in amazement at two large seals frozen solid and flat on one side where they had been laid after the hunt. One of the seals had been turned over on its round belly and the whole top side was flat and looked like a crew cut running the length of its long body.

About two full cords of frozen lush fish had been stacked like wood into wooden sleds. These sleds resembled Santa Sleighs with their nicely curved sides, only narrower, longer, and generally more rugged then a sled that Santa would use. Seals and lush fish are abundant near this traditional village, and the people there are known to be experts at gathering all that the tundra and the vast waters of their area have to offer. This harvest was only part of what was to be given away at the upcoming festival.

It was at the end of the festival, after the dancing, feasting, and general communion, that I watched as many items where distributed to the visitors from other villages. With a sequence and purposefulness that I did not understand waves of items where given away. Socks and gloves, soap and wash cloths, buckets and mops, furs, a gun, boots and coats both handmade and store bought, and the seals and lush fish outside were all systematically handed out.

An elder told me that this was the modern version of the messenger feast. In the old days they would send a messenger with a good memory to the villages that they would want to invite to their festival. The messenger would bring back requests from the invited groups as to what they needed, and what they hoped the hosts might be able to provide. In this way an item that was abundant in one area could be shared with a group of people where that item was scarce. The giving was reciprocated in future feasts. It seems that community interdependence was and still is an important part of the society.