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 a black bear with cubs, driven from their den by groundwater, hopelessly starving in the deep snow. He ended their suffering, then dismembered and covered their unusable carcasses, lest he offend their spirits by killing without at least symbolic utilization. “We’ll come back for this later,” he told his companion, a placating remark that he knew he would not abide by.
Treatment of Killed Game
The rules for showing respect to killed animals and harvested plants are myriad. I will give some general principles and a few illustrations here.
Today I was told about a man who had once jokingly stuffed debris into the opened jaws of a dried pike head nailed on a cabin door to ward off bad spirits. His companions were horrified that he would open himself to retaliation from the animal’s spirit. “When you do something like that – when you don’t show respect for animals – it’s just like making fun of the Bible.”
[Huslia journal, March 1977]
The remains of animals and plants are treated with the deference owed to something sacred. For example, when fur animals (such as mink, beaver, or wolf) are brought inside the house for skinning, their names should not be mentioned, nothing should be burned lest the smell offend their spirits, metallic noises should be avoided, and even if it is unfrozen and skinned the carcass should be kept indoors overnight. One way to prevent difficulties is to plug the nostrils of smell-sensitive animals like mink by smearing lard on them. Cloth may also be wrapped around an animal’s head to protect it from offensive noises.
I had bad luck with fox this year. Come to think of it, I was using noisy power tools while I had a fox in the house. Guess that’s why … it’s got really sensitive ears. When you get bad luck like this you just have to let it wear off. There’s nothing else you can do.
There are also rules for proper butchering of game – for example, certain cuts that should be made or avoided for a particular species. There are rules for proper care of meat, such as keeping all meat covered when it is outside, protecting it from scavengers or from any insinuation that it is not respected. And a multitude of rules govern who eats an animal or parts of it. Young adults and especially women of childbearing age are subject to a wide array of these ….
Finally, there are regulations to ensure that unusable parts of animals are respectfully disposed of. For example, bones of water animals such as beaver, muskrat, and mink