sharply drawn than in Western thought – the human organism, after all, was created by an animal’s power.
The Koyukon seem to conceptualize humans and animals as very similar beings. This derives not so much from the animal nature of humans as from the human nature of animals. I noted earlier, for example, that today’s animals once belonged to an essentially human society, and that transmutations between human and animal form were common. One of my Koyukon teachers said, however, that after the Distant Time people and animals became completely separate and unrelated.
Animals still possess qualities that Westerners consider exclusively human, though – they have a range of emotions, they have distinct personalities, they communicate among themselves, and they understand human behavior and language. They are constantly aware of what people say and do, and their presiding spirits are easily offended by disrespectful behavior. The interaction here is very intense, and the two orders of being coexist far more closely than in our own tradition. But animals do not use human language among themselves. They communicate with sounds which are considered their own form of language.
The closeness of animals to humans is reinforced by the fact that some animals are given funeral rituals following the basic form of those held for people, only on a smaller scale …. In these cases, at least, animal spirits are placated much as human souls are after death.
Most interesting of all is animal behavior interpreted to be religious. “Even animals have their taboos,” a woman once told me. From her grandfather, she learned that gestating female beavers will not eat bark from the fork of a branch, because it is apparently tabooed for them. The late Chief Henry had told her of seeing a brown bear kill a ground squirrel, then tear out its heart, lungs, and windpipe and leave them on a rock. Again, the organs must have been taboo (hutłaanee) ….
Nature Spirits and Their Treatment
From the Distant Time stories, Koyukon people learn rules for proper conduct toward nature. But punishment for offenses against these rules is given by powerful spirits that are part of the living, present-day world. All animals, some plants, and some inanimate things have spirits, vaguely conceptualized essences that protect the welfare of their material counterparts. They are especially watchful for irreverent, insulting, or wasteful behavior toward living things. The spirits are not offended when people kill animals and use them, but they insist that these beings (or their remains) be treated with the deference owed to the sources of human life.
Not all spirits are possessed of equal power. Some animal species have very potent spirits called biyeega hoolaanh, which are easily provoked and highly vindictive. These dangerous spirits can bring serious harm to anyone who offends them, taking away luck in hunting or trapping and sometimes causing illness, disability, or even death. Animals possessed of such spirits include the brown bear, black bear, wolverine, lynx, wolf, and otter. The beaver and marmot have similarly powerful spirits but are not so vengeful.
The remaining mammals, birds, fish, and some plants and inanimate things have less powerful spirits. Although these are very real and can inflict punishment (usually bad luck in taking the species), all my instructors agreed that no Koyukon word exists for this kind of spirit. In response to my perplexed questioning, one person explained:
The animal and its spirit are one in the same thing. When you name the animal you’re also naming its spirit. That’s why some animal names are hutłaanee – like the ones women shouldn’t say – because calling the animal’s name is like calling its spirit. Just like we don’t say a person’s name after they die … it would be calling their spirit and could be dangerous for whoever did it.
While most Koyukon adults seem to concur on the basic premises of their ideology, they vary widely in their opinions about the specifics and apparently do not feel inclined toward a rigid, systematized theology. This often left me confused, no doubt because of my Judeo-Christian background; and if my account of certain concepts is amorphous or inconsistent it properly reflects my learning experience. Koyukon people must find us painfully compulsive and conformist about our systems of belief.
… When an animal is mistreated, I was told, its individual spirit is affronted but all members of its species may become aloof from the offender. In former times, shamans could manipulate spirits for the opposite effect. They made dream visits to “animal houses” that were filled with spirits of a particular animal, then attracted them to certain parts of the country to enrich the harvest there.
Many other supernatural beings inhabit the traditional Koyukon world … but these seem to have little importance today. Perhaps Christian teachings displaced or undermined these beliefs, unlike those concerned with spirits of natural entities. Devices used to catch and kill animals – such as nets, snares, and deadfalls – also have powerful spirits (biyeega hoolaanh) with many associated taboos. Like the spirits of natural entities, these are still considered important today. For example, if a person borrows someone else’s snare, he or she may take sick or die from its spirit power. Similarly, stealing a snared animal exposes the thief to grave danger from the spirits of both the snare and its catch.
Proper treatment of natural spirits involves hundreds of rules or taboos (hutłaanee), some applying to just one species and others having much more general effects. The rules fall into three main categories – first, treatment of living organisms; second, treatment of organisms (or parts of organisms) that are no longer alive; and third, treatment of nonliving entities or objects. I will briefly summarize these rules ….
Treatment of Living Organisms
Koyukon people follow some general rules in their behavior toward living animals. They avoid pointing at them, for example, because it shows disrespect, “like pointing or staring at a stranger.” They also speak carefully about animals, especially avoiding boastful talk about hunting or trapping exploits.
A man who said he would trap many beavers was suddenly unable to catch any; and someone who bragged about bear hunting was later attacked and seriously hurt. In fact, bears are so powerful that every word spoken about them is carefully chosen. Trapped animals are also treated respectfully, and powerful ones like the wolf or wolverine may be addressed in special ways before they are killed. One man said that he always asks trapped animals for luck: “My animal, I hope that more of you will come my way.”
Keeping wild animals as pets is also prohibited, except for species whose personality traits are valued in humans. A child who keeps a red fox will become mischievous, but if a boy raises a hawk owl he will acquire its hunting skill and cleanliness. People seldom keep pets, because they are likely to suffer, offending their spirits and causing illness or bad luck for those involved in their captivity. A woman told me of losing her small child about a year after the death of a baby hawk owl her family had kept. The tragic connection was clear.
Taking individual animals away to zoos, even catching and releasing them alive as part of studies, is a spiritual affront that can cause a species to shun the area. For this reason Koyukon people are opposed to wildlife research in their country if it involves live capture of animals.
We have respect for the animals. We don’t keep them in cages or torture them, because we know the background of animals from the Distant Time. We know that the animal has a spirit – it used to be human – and we know all the things it did. It’s not just an animal; it’s lots more than that.
Following from this, Koyukon people believe that animals must be treated humanely. The spirits are not offended because humans live by hunting, but people must try to kill without causing suffering and to avoid losing wounded animals. A starving moose, mired in deep snow near Huslia, was fed daily until it regained strength and could walk away. Once a man found
