Pacific Northwest Culture and Medicine Teachings

FAIN: FT-61096-13

Gregory Fields
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (Edwardsville, IL 62026-0001)

SACRED BREATH brings native Pacific Northwest thought and culture to greater light in the realm of world literatures and religious philosophy, while advancing culturally appropriate means of doing so. The project is a collaboration of a humanities scholar and a culture-bearer trained from childhood for a lifelong vocation as an oral historian, singer, and healer. The project, under contract with University of Nebraska press, will produce a book and several hours of companion media (DVD and audio) to preserve and examine an extensive volume of primary source material and to provide new analysis of Puget Sound and Central Northwest Coast thought and culture. The book interprets, and the media exemplifies, a model of 'medicine' in the spiritual sense. Media selections will also be made available to the public by means of streaming files, hosted by the digital humanities center at the applicant's institution. This proposal seeks support for the completion of Part III: "Epics."