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Salmon Summer
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Bruce's Fortieth Book
1998 - Houghton Mifflin Hardcover ISBN 0-395-84544-0 |
"Alaskan sky and water in images
that make them characters all by themselves." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books May 1998 |
| Tribute to Larry | Kodiak Links | |
| Fish Links | ||
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"Bruce McMillan has done it again... |
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Education World, June 22, 1998 |
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| <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> Awards and Honors  Parent's Guide Children's Media Award Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction - 1998 |
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Moser Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska  I lived in the cabin on the left. |
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 What's the weather like right now on Kodiak? The Weather Cam at the Airport |
The cabin on the right is the smokehouse, and to the left of that is the steam bath house for banya, steam baths. I was a guest at this native Alaskan fish camp located at the remote southwest end of Kodiak Island, Alaska. |
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| Journal entry for August 7, 1996 It was a cloudless sky last night. The big dipper and north star were clear and close. The moon is rising later (2:00 am) and is now only a quarter moon. The men were out picking fish again at 8-8:30 am. My lens is in Akhiok, and Paul at Fish and Game called, said it was a great day to photograph the fish running at Dog Salmon Creek. Hope we get a break to do it. The seas are calm, and it is a spectacular day to photograph. Hope, hope. It's 9:45 and they're halfway through the first pick of the day. On my walkabout yesterday two things struck me - the sounds and the smells. The breeze blowing in the grass was mixed with the sounds of songbirds chirping and singing. On the damp bog the air was filled with the sweet scent of the grasses and flowers. Of course the salmonberries were out, as well as the "blackberries" (crowberries), blueberries, lingonberries, and cloudberries. Patches of low growing bushy alders dotted the landscape - no real trees anywhere in sight here and on all the surrounding mountains. Cow parsnips (similar to lovage) rose high above the grasses and berries. Patches of purple fireweed were scattered here and there. The fox photo of last evening - great late evening light - may have the fox looking at the camera. Can make reference to its sly nature, looking up to see if Alex is there before sneaking off with the cleaned remains of Alex's salmon on the beach. Warmed up to the seventies - shorts! Went to town for mail - lens and model releases. William picked up Alissea, his girlfriend due to have their baby in October. Photos in town, scenic photos, and stopped by the nets to take photos of the gill-netted fish. Later Alex Sr., Alex Jr., Sally, and I went out for "hooking" - halibut fishing. Sally got one, and Alex Jr. held it up. It was about 20 pounds, 32-36" long. Okay to keep about any reasonable size for subsistence, but the official keeper minimum is 32". It was like a summer day at a lake in Maine - in the seventies, calm, and sunny. I was wearing shorts! Took some shots of Alex eating. May be okay; but may not be very good. Afterwards went for a walk on the west beach towards Olga Bay, and took Spike and Blackie, the dogs, along for walk. Beautiful light. Some bird shots, and even a butterfly on the beach - brown with yellow and orange markings on the wings. |
 My cabin  My office in the cabin with laptop computer and the electric cord to lamp to charge the battery when the generator was on.  My friend, the mother fox on my porch. Her den was under my cabin and her young kits often woke me up with their yipping.  Holding my camera to keep it dry from the spray as we head out to check a crab trap. |
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| Read more about the fish species in Salmon Summer Red Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) also called sockeye salmon Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) Pacific halibut (Hippoglos-sus stenolepis) Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) Alaskan Red king crab, (Paralithodes camtschatica) |
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| Horn Book May/June 1998 To the Editor: |
Larry Matfay never before published photo taken by me in 1996  Larry is carving a replica kayak for the Alutiiq Museum |
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| It was a moving surprise to see the photo of Larry Matfay with the review of my book, Salmon Summer (The Horn Book Magazine May/June 1998, page 362). My issue arrived only days after Larry Matfay, the Native Alaskan Aleut elder who had hosted my visit to his remote fish camp, died. He was ninety years old. Larry had welcomed me to this remote area of his childhood, never having met me, because he realized the importance of preserving his culture. I had the pleasure of photographing young Alex Shugak, Jr., the grandson of his adopted niece, for my book. When I wasn't shooting, I also I had the pleasure of listening to Larry's stories for weeks, kidding back and forth with him, and watching him make models of the boats he had made as a young man. I was delightfully surprised when I later discovered other models, photos, and artifacts of Larry's on display at the Kodiak Alutiiq Museum. Larry was very much respected among his people. He and his late wife, Martha, accepted many children into their lives and raised them. He saw the ways of his people disappearing and he made efforts to preserve them for future generations. He is a man who has made this world a richer place, and I thank you for the moving surprise of seeing him in The Horn Book Magazine. Bruce McMillan Shapleigh, Maine |
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| Visit The Alutiiq Museum on Kodiak About The Alutiiq People Explore Kodiak Island Akhiok the village of eighty people near Salmon Summer |
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| <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> Description Every summer the salmon return to spawn in the streams of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Nine-year-old Alex, a Native Aleut, comes here to fish with his family. As his ancestors found, there's enough salmon for all. There's salmon for the bears and eagles to catch, and for the foxes, magpies, and gulls to scavenge. Best of all, there's salmon to feed Alex's family and salmon to bait a line to catch a fish much bigger than any salmon. The consistently outstanding photography reveals a faraway place seen by few outsiders, in this engaging story of an Alaska Native boy's summer in the wilderness at his family's fishing camp. |
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