Wisdom Keeper by Ilarion Merculieff Page B

place, the same source, Agox or “The Maker.” It is one thing to intellectually know the sacredness; it is another thing entirely to embody this knowing.
    I was eleven years old the first time I came to know the true sacredness of life. One day I was alone on the reef while my Aachaa was about a quarter-mile away. A sea lion came by in front of me, and I shot it. I knew the moment of its death, not because I was sure of my marksmanship, but because something inexplicable had happened. In an instant, an extremely subtle electrical impulse rushed through my body. There was no doubt in my mind that what I was experiencing was the spirit of this animal. In the instant that the life force came through my body, this sea lion told me it had consciousness, it had intelligence, and it was surrendering itself to me. That experience changed the way I looked at all life on this planet. My reverence and regard for all life expanded exponentially in that instant. I later told my Aachaa what I had experienced, and he looked at me, smiled, and said “Exumnaakoxt!” “Good!” That was all he said to me. In that single word, he affirmed that what Ihad experienced was real and not a figment of my imagination. In one word, he told me that he knew what this experience was and that it was natural and real.
    I could see why my people always had a reverence for any animal they took. And I understood why they developed a relationship of reciprocity. Pribilof Unangan are People of the Sea Lion. The Steller sea lion has provided for us through good times and hard times. In return for the sea lion sustaining us, we protect these animals from wanton killing; we protect them and their habitat from disruption; and we honor each sea lion we kill by eating it and using every possible part of the body and sharing each animal with as many families as possible. When we finish taking the meat off the animal, we return the remains to the sea with a prayer of thanks to the animal and to The Maker.
    In experiencing the profoundness of a sea lion’s death in the way that I’ve described here, I truly came into connection with what it means to touch and be part of the Divine, to sense the proverbial oneness with all Creation. In that experience, when I killed that sea lion, I realized we are connected at the deepest level. We are not separate no matter what our minds tell us.

Chapter 6
Boxer Shorts and Seals
    We were on the beach one summer day—only a quarter-mile from the village—all rolling in the sand, immersed in fits of laughter, and unable to muffle our raucousness even at the risk of being discovered by federal agents. These “feds” were not FBI agents; they were government overseers, and we had just broken the law by killing four seals. 4 This was my first glimpse of civil disobedience; it was illegal to do what our people have done for at least ten thousand years—take seals for food. 5
    It was a time when Unangan families had little money, and most of the food we ate still came from the land or sea—halibut, sea lions, cormorants, seals, wild celery, berries, and whatever the land and water offered to us to eat. The government rations of salt, sugar, potatoes, rice, onions, and salt beef were never enough for our household of nine people: two brothers, two sisters, my grandfather, my uncle, my mother, my father, and me. I remember being hungry from late fall to early spring every year. I always looked forward to mid-spring and summer when the seals, halibut, and birds returned to our mystical island.
    I remember all the times my mother would put off preparing dinner, confident that my dad, who hunted the entire day, would bring her something to cook. We children and my mother greeted him eagerly at the door, but I was always first to spot him through the window. I wouldwatch how he walked—if he was stooped over from the weight of his packsack, I knew he had a sea lion or a lot of birds. If he