Deer Rock

I'm a sucker for historical markers and information plaques.  Always have been; probably always will be.  It has to be something deeply woven into my DNA!!  How many persons, for example, would have a desire - no, not just a desire - rather, a need to read the information on a marker, entitled "Deer Rock"?

A couple of days ago, during our tour up the Chilkoot Valley - near where we sat and observed a bald eagle doing it's daily grocery shopping, I stopped to read the marker next to a large rock - designated, Deer Rock.  Our guide, at that point, added the commentary - that when the road was paved several years ago, the Highway Department had moved the rock, and had been preparing to break it into pieces - for crushing.

At that point, however, some native Chilkoots intervened, and made their plea - to stop - rather forcibly, as I understood it.

As with most, if not all native Americans, their is a deep-seated belief in "spirit", that infuses the sense of their relationship to the natural world - rocks and trees, as well as animal and plant life.  It is a vitally important life principle, within native American cultures, that "spirit" be respected!!

What the Highway Department had done was to remove the most sacred rock in all of the Chilkoot Valley!!  I can imagine that it would be - in our Western cultural values - like someone cleaning out old manuscripts, and carelessly tossing away the Declaration of Independence - due to its faded, fragile, creaky condition.

And the reason that Deer Rock held such a sacred sense within, the Chilkoot hearts and minds, is - as I perceive it - both fascinatingly profound, and spiritual.

Within the Chilkoot culture, the deer are reverenced as the most gentle of animals.  So, when wars and disputes between other tribes and the Chilkoots, or between tribal factions was to be resolved, each tribe or faction selected the person, whom they most respected as being patient, far-sighted, honest, and compassionate.  The person selected was designated as the "deer person."

The two "deer persons" then met at the Deer Rock, and there - discussed the points of negotiation, by which peace was to be made and sealed.  Their agreement, once made, was a final and binding decision!!

As I've reflected on this history, that is narrated upon the marker next to Deer Rock, I've since asked myself the question, "how many "deer persons" - across the centuries - had been sent to sit, and meet with their counterpart upon Deer Rock, and how many wars and disputes had ended there?

No wonder, that Deer Rock is sacred to the Chilkoots!!

Maybe, it could be a positive thing if every city council and town council had a Deer Rock, to which they could send their "deer persons", to negotiate endings to strife and discord!!

Earlier, I had noted that the Alaska Highway Department had moved the rock, and had been preparing to crush it.  However, to their credit, the Department listened and heard the "angst" of the Chilkoot - and the importance of "Deer Rock" to Chilkoot history and heritage.  Had they not done so, it's my judgment that there would have been little difference between crushed rock, and the broken hearts that would have resulted!!

"Deer Rock", however, was moved back to the location, from which it had been removed!!  And today, it sits - bearing positive testimony to the history of the Chilkoots, and to the "spirit" of peace and good will - that is the foundation for any richly, experienced, positive sense of lived life.