WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
6 – The moose
This was a tough one, for me as well as the fans, vide Megan’s thoughtful comment here. (I also loved Jodie’s comment here.)
But in the end, the votes have it and I agree, it’s the moose. Moose is food, and without food there is no survival. There have been times when Alaska moose have been stricken with disease which drastically reduced the food supply for local tribes, forcing draconian decisions for mere survival (see Two Old Women by Velma Wallis). Google the definition of subsistence sometime. The important words there are “at a minimum level.” As in you aren’t quite starving, you’re just hungry all the time. The food supply is everything, from bowhead whale to walrus to caribou to bear, and moose, and when you’re hungry everything else that doesn’t manage to get out of the way first. Marty’s right, the issue is subsistence.
A visitor said, “Do you see a lot of moose around, then?” and my friend Dan said, “They’re like mice.” I think that was the year his brother Dave shot one from the deck of his house (relax, legally, he lives way outside the city limits and it was hunting season). Yes, they’re everywhere, including my front yard, which is where these pictures and the video below were taken.
Yeah, sure, cute video of moose enjoying the fireweed. Just remember, to many Alaskans these pictures don’t say “How beautiful.” They say “When’s dinner?”
the 23rd Kate Shugak novel
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Chatter Kate Shugak The History of Kate Shugak in 22 Objects Uncategorized blood will tell History of Kate Shugak in 21 Objects Kate Shugak No Fixed Line