Honoring the Salmon

A little over ten days ago, a remarkably thing happened to me. I was blessed and lucky enough to catch my first wild salmon. I caught it in a river nearby on a sunny morning after sighting the return of wild salmon at a hatchery a few days earlier.

The salmon I caught was a "pink", the smallest and easiest to catch of salmon. They come back every two years and are relatively abundant compared to other salmon. The run I've seen this year certainly seems quite abundant.

I won't bore anyone with the details of how I caught it, but I will say it was quite an amazing experience and was something I have always wanted to do.

What might interest most of you is that tomorrow, I am gathering with friends to honor this salmon in a simple ceremony. We will offer some of the salmon flesh to a fire we create with ancient tools, and then we will eat a stew made from the animal. From the stew we will save all of the bones. Later the bones will be returned to the river to honor the salmon and the journey and sacrifice it made.

It is my hope that this act will help rejuvenate the wild salmon population and bring blessing to the salmon nation and the rivers into the future.

I am also planning on making a special pouch from its skin as another way of honoring this amazing being.

I know that for many people it might seem illogical to eat a being as a way of honoring it. Yet, there is something profoundly ancient and magical about consuming another being ceremonially and doing so in a respectful way.