The Way of Kinship

That these treasures are available to us as writing is a miracle. . . . The writings here, while altogether modern in one sense, are based upon a literature, albeit oral, that has existed for thousands of years. They are the reflections of people who have lived long on the earth, on their own terms, in harmony with the powers of nature. They are invaluable to us who have so much to learn from them. These stories, poems, songs give us a way, a sacred way, into a world that we ought to know for its own sake. It is our own world, after all. —N. Scott Momaday, from the Foreword

The first anthology of Native Siberian literature in English, The Way of Kinship represents writers from regions extending from the Ob River in the west to the Chukotka peninsula, the easternmost point of the Siberian Russian Arctic. Drawn from seven distinct ethnic groups, this diverse body of work-prose fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction-chronicles ancient Siberian cultures and traditions threatened with extinction in the contemporary world.

Translated and edited by Alexander Vaschenko and Claude Clayton Smith, leading scholars in Native Siberian literature, The Way of Kinship is an essential collection that will introduce readers to new writers and new worlds.

Alexander Vaschenko is chair of the Program in Comparative Studies in Literature at Moscow State University. Claude Clayton Smith is professor emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University.
N. Scott Momaday is a Native American (Kiowa) writer. The author of several works of fiction, his novel House Made of Dawn was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

Contents
Foreword
N. Scott Momaday
Introduction. Cry of the Wild Crane: The Call of Forgotten Kinship
Alexander Vaschenko
Evenk Invocation for Good Fortune: To Nature, When the Earth Turns Green
Yeremei Aipin (Khanty)
Old Man Moon
The Earth's Pain
Puzzles of My Childhood
Selections from Morning Twilight: A Novel of the Khanty
And So Dies My Clan
Nadezda Taligina (Khanty)
A Portfolio of Ten Drawings
Yuri Vaella (Taiga Nenets)
At The Bus Stop
Watching TV
On Things Eternal
To the Bear
Song of the Reindeer Breeder
Eternal Sky
The Little Shaman and other Stories
Morning at the Lake
Fyodor the Hunter
New from Vatyegan Camp
Galina Keptuke (Evenk)
A Discovery
The Unexpected Guest
Little America
Gennady Dyachkov (Yukagir)
The Hunter's Son: A One-Act Play
Vladimir Sangi (Nivkh)
My First Shot
Maria Vagatova (Khanty)
My Word, My Tongue
River Mosum, My Water
Dirge for the Land of the Khanty
The People of Tuk'yakang Village
Stone Soldier
An Old Anthill
Gennady Raishev (Khanty)
Four Black and White Prints
Jansi Kimonko (Udegeh)
From Where the Sukpai Rushes Along
Anna Nerkagi (Tundra Nenets)
From The Horde
Leonty Taragupta (Khanty)
Son of the Sky
The Prayer of the Bear
Yuri Rytkheu (Chukchee)
Kakot's Numbers
Evenk Invocation for Good Fortune: To Nature, When the Green Recedes
A Note on Translation
Claude Clayton Smith
Acknowledgments
Suggestions for Further Reading