by Sue Harrison
WILLOW Salix: This narrow-leafed shrub or small tree has smooth, gray, or brownish-yellow bark. There are presently more than thirty species of willow in Alaska. The leaves are a very good source of vitamin C, though in some varieties they taste quite bitter. The leaves and inner bark contain salicin, which acts like aspirin to deaden pain. Bark can be chipped and boiled to render a pain-relieving tea. Leaves can also be boiled for tea. Leaves are chewed and placed over insect bites to relieve itching. Traditionally, roots and branches have been used to make baskets and woven fish weirs.
YARROW (milfoil), Achillea borealis: This hardy plant grows with feathery alternate leaves along one-to three-foot upright stems. The white or light purple flowerets grow on a flat, multistemmed head at the top of the plant. Yarrow has been used as a laxative, a cold remedy, and to combat asthma. It is said to help stop lung hemorrhaging, and also is used as a hair rinse to prevent baldness.
YELLOW CINQUEFOIL (five-leaves grass), Potentilla tormentilla: This plant has five-fingered palmate leaves, and it roots at the joints. Cinquefoil branches out from the root with yellow flowers at the end of eighteen-to twenty-inch stems. The root is boiled and used as a poultice for skin eruptions and shingles. It is said to be useful as a tonic for the lungs, for fevers, and as a gargle for gum and mouth sores.
YELLOW ROOT (gold thread), Coptis trifolia: The leaves of this creeping, fibrous perennial root grow in threes on foot-high stalks separate from the flower stalks. Tea made from boiling the root is said to be an invigorating tonic and also a gargle for sore throats and mouth lesions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AS WITH EACH OF my novels, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the many people who helped me with the research and editing of Call Down the Stars.
First, many thanks to my husband, Neil, gifted with wisdom, always an encourager and willing to listen. I am also much indebted to my parents for fostering my love of books and stories, for reading the various versions of this novel, and for their support, which means the world to me. My gratitude to my daughter, Krystal, and son and daughter-in-law, Neil and Tonya, all experts at adding joy to my life, all astute readers who have come into wisdom young.
My heartfelt gratitude to Rhoda Weyr, the best agent anyone could hope for, and a miracle in my life. She always warms my heart with her positive attitude and joie de vivre. She also keeps me from a multitude of errors and saves me from my own poor judgment with her astute and gentle wisdom. My thanks also to Rhoda’s assistant Alexa, an island of sanity and efficiency, always kind to a sometimes very inefficient author. To my editor at Avon Books/HarperCollins Publishers, Lucia Macro, and to her staff, also my sincerest gratitude. Their expertise makes me look like a much better author than I am!
To my readers, my former writing students, and those book critics who comment on my work, you have all taught me much about honing my craft, and I thank you. I could not have written Call Down the Stars without your input.
I have had the privilege of receiving much information from many people. In this short acknowledgment, I can mention only a few, but my gratitude goes to all who have sent articles, made comments or corrections, discussed ideas, and shared their knowledge and expertise. I owe an immeasurable debt to Dr. William Laughlin and his daughter Sarah for their continued support, to Mike and Rayna Livingston and Dr. Ragan and Dorthea Callaway for too many kindnesses to mention. My thanks to Jim Waybrant for his caribou journal and video, and to Paul Peck (recently deceased) for his expert outdoor writing and commentary and for books and materials he sent me. My gratitude, also, to Sally Rye, R.N., who is always available to answer my medical questions.
To Hashida Yoshinori, many thanks for his introduction to the ancient Jomon Culture of Japan. This book would never have been written without his generosity in sharing his knowledge and research materials.
To others who lent or gave me research materials used in this novel, my gratitude: Glenn and Edith Anderson; Bill Boerigter; Patricia Okalena Lekanoff-Gregory; Bonnie, Chris, and Samantha Mierzejek, Caroline Whittle; Dr. Mark McDonald; Forbes McDonald; Ray Hudson; Chris Lokanin; Keith Krahnke; Don Alan Hall, editor of Mammoth Trumpet; Mike, Sally, Crystal, and Mary Swetzof; Ethan Petticrew; Kaydee, Candee, Hollie, and Joe Caraway; and Mary Attu.
Much appreciation to my husband, Neil, and to Daniel Morrison for their work on my website. I love to hear from my readers. Please visit me at www.sueharrison.com and send your email to [email protected].
Last, but certainly far from least, my thanks to those who read my manuscript and offered thoughtful, wise advise: my parents; my friend and fellow writer Linda Hudson; my sister Tish and her husband, Tom Walker; and my friend Joe Claxton.
Any errors in presentation or interpretation are my own and not the fault of those so generous in giving time, sharing expertise, and lending research materials.
About the Author
Sue Harrison grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and graduated summa cum laude from Lake Superior State University with a bachelor of arts degree in English languages and literature. At age twenty-seven, inspired by the cold Upper Michigan forest that surrounded her home, and the outdoor survival skills she had learned from her father and her husband, Harrison began researching the people who understood best how to live in a harsh environment: the North American native peoples. She studied six Native American languages and completed extensive research on culture, geography, archaeology, and anthropology during the nine years she spent writing her first novel, Mother Earth Father Sky, the extraordinary story of a woman’s struggle for survival in the last Ice Age. A national and international bestseller, and selected by the American Library Association as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 1991, Mother Earth Father Sky is the first novel in Harrison’s critically acclaimed Ivory Carver trilogy, which includes My Sister the Moon and Brother Wind. She is also the author of Song of the River, Cry of the Wind, and Call Down the Stars, which comprise the Storyteller trilogy, also set in prehistoric North America. Her novels have been translated into thirteen languages and published in more than twenty countries. Harrison lives with her family in Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2001 by Sue Harrison
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
978-1-4804-1196-8
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
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