Most people measure wealth today by the amount of money and material goods one possesses. To the Northwest Coast cultures, wealth is measured by how much you give away.
Is greed the most powerful force on Earth, or is it love? This is the real world Avatar, an epic tale of contact, conflict, and conquest, set in the early 1800's, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. It was a time that saw the clash of civilizations in its purest and most devastating form, and was no place for tender spirits or the faint of heart. "The Bigger Picture" follows the journey of John Jacob Astor's merchant ship to the west's wild coast. Astor was the quintessential new world capitalist, a man so rich that his corporate empire influenced the fate of nations the world over. To captain the Tonquin, Astor chose Jonathan Thorn, a man driven by pride, discipline, and the need to be remembered as the man who broke the west coast of North America to his will.
For Astor's business partners on the journey, and particularly for the fur trader Alexander McKay, Thorn's quest for domination was a clear recipe for disaster. Having lived and traded with First Nations people his entire life, McKay understood that riches were obtained through agreements for mutual gain. He was a trader, not a conqueror, and had no interest in the subjugation of the people he considered his partners in creating wealth, instead wanting to remake the social order of the world in favour of men of commerce over those with arbitrary power.
The destination of the Tonquin was the mouth of the Columbia River, in modern day Oregon. There they would establish a fort that would hold back the British, Spanish, and Russians, and solidify America's claim to the entire Pacific Northwest, from Spanish California to Russian Alaska, as far back as the Rockies. Lost in the details of conquest and greed was the obvious fact that the area being claimed was already inhabited by nations infinitely older than the young republic of the United States of America.
The Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Wikaninnish had become the most powerful man in the Pacific Northwest by the time of the arrival of the Tonquin. He had seen his people devastated by the twin plagues of European disease and white man betrayal, and sought change. His war chief Nuukmiis sought blood. A medicine woman named Tl'aa-uuk sought refuge.
Into these turbulent waters, caught between unstoppable forces and immovable objects, paddles the story's protagonist Kasicall. His own village succumbed to smallpox, but he learned of the kinepox vaccine for it from Lewis and Clark and dedicates his life to bring it to his adopted Tla-o-qui-aht family. His search leads him to Kyuxa, a rogue wanderer of Ktunaxa and Spanish decent. She has heard of the medicine but doesn't believe that it exists. She doesn't believe that the two worlds are compatible, and has given up trying to help anyone other than herself. Kasicall is desperate, and Kyuxa agrees to his promise of guns as payment for her service as a guide to get him in and out of San Francisco, where they might find the medicine. Together they face many dangerous obstacles.
When Kasicall's journey crosses paths with the Tonquin in June of 1811, he becomes the catalyst to the cataclysm he sought so desperately to avoid. Kyuxa's words echo in the hearts of Thorn and Wikaninnish, and no measure of compromise offered by McKay or Kasicall could save them from the ultimate logic of a system built at the barrel of a gun. The Agarikon fungus, a cure for the pox virus and many lethal strains of flu, gets the last word. Greed can contact, it can conflict, but it must not conquer, and we must never give up the fight. The solutions could be closer than we think.
Contact Chris Wendell:
cwendell(at)porterramsay.com
Tel 250.763.7646Porter Ramsay Lawyers:
200-1465 Ellis St.
Kelowna, BC
V1Y 2A3Contact Cam Baker:
cam_baker(at)hotmail.comContact Ron Martin:
tuu_tiis(at)hotmail.com