Summary

In the introduction to this website, I shared a story of my own about my relationship to whales to explain why this is a topic of interest to me, but also acknowledge that my relationship is shaped by vastly different contexts and places than those of the indigenous peoples you’ve read about. The rituals and material and verbal folklore surrounding whales across North America was developed in the context of subsistence practices and reciprocal relationships between animals and humans. Like all people, the indigenous groups written about on this website have developed identities not only from their place, but the creatures and people around them. In this folklore, animals have agency and choice; they have to be wooed and convinced to swim in front of a whaler’s harpoon, and in return, their remains are honored.

 

In Keith Basso’s “Stalking with Stories” the places and land of the Western Apache help them know themselves and remember who they are. I think the same can be said for the sea; without the ocean and without whales, how would these communities know who they are?