TW4 - Journey on the River

This is a 2-disc CD album of Vi Hilbert at her finest.  Vi, one of the world’s greatest story tellers (London Press 2001), was also the primary voice of the Lushootseed language for many years as she taught at the University of Washington.  This language was spoken around the greater Puget Sound region for a minimum of ten thousand years when only the Native American lived here.
 
Vi and myself worked on the creation of this project for a number of years before we recorded in the studio.  She required I accompany her during the winter Longhouse spiritual season for 10 years. She had me drive her to (Yed-was), the location of the creation story of how people came to be on the Earth.  She and I floated down the Skagit river in a 16-foot skiff in February one year as she showed me where she took trips with her mom and dad in her father’s dugout canoe as a child in the late 1920s.  She and I conversed in detail for years about the philosophical purpose of the Ancestral stories on this album.
 
This album is all about life with Native people 200 years ago in this part of the world.  To hear the many many lessons and teachings requires uninterrupted listening attention and a true desire to step into the canoe and learn and participate in their world the way their elders did, utilizing stories for far more than the mere passing of time. Vi spoke of the ancient stories as the encyclopedia of history to be revealed slowly and in greater depth than today’s academic style can teach.  After 10 years of preparation we went to work on this masterpiece. 
 
My favorite story of this collection is “Loon and Deer Were Traveling”.  This is a real step into experiencing shamans, with the Wolf Brothers as one of the main components.  This story pitches common sense against naivety.  It demonstrates the parallel between the natural ranks of power in the animals to leaders in society.  It teaches tremendous respect for the animals and especially how people learned to live with cohabitation of their environment instead of conquering its source of life and the necessary elements to living in balance and with happiness and well-being. 
 
This album is a great witness to Vi Hilbert’s extraordinary gift as a Native American Storyteller in some of her finest moments.  Bravo to Vi Hilbert.