First Fish, First People brings together writers from two continents and four countries whose traditional cultures are based on Pacific wild salmon: Ainu from Japan; Ulchi and Nyvkh from Siberia; Okanagan and Coast Salish from Canada; and Makah, Warm Springs, and Spokane from the United States remember the blessedness and mourn the loss of the wild salmon while alerting us to current environmental dangers and conditions. The text is enhanced by traditional designs from each nation and photographs, both contemporary and historical, as well as personal family pictures from the writers. Together, words and images offer a prayer that our precious remaining wild salmon will increase and flourish.

Judith Roche's profile page

Meg McHutchison's profile page

Judith Roche is the author of two collections of poetry, "Myrrh/My Life as a Screamer" and "Ghosts". She has taught poetry at various universities and schools around the Northwest, and serves as Literary Arts Director for Bumbershoot for One Reel. Meg McHutchison is a project director for One Reel, a screenwriter, and a former editor of the literary art magazine Opinion Rag Oh Yeah? Uh Huh! and REFLEX, the NW forum on Visual Art.

First Fish, First People provides an international sharing of respect for salmon, a refreshing alternative to the national grasping for a mere resource and to the multinational corporate monopolization of what may become a luxury food ... No journalist should write about salmon issues, and no politician or fisheries official should make a decision concerning salmon policy, before reading this book.

CBRA