From Redd to Shining Redd

August 31, 2018 by Redfish Center

I am born.

An alevin in a cold rocky bed

With a thousand of my siblings by my side

I think I’ll hide in the rocks for a while

I am hungry.

As a fry my yoke has been used up

And I must seek food for the first time

I think I see some plankton over there

I am protected.

A parr hiding among the willows and rocs

Avoiding the birds and trout trying to eat me

I think one’s coming now

I am anxious

A smolt with an urge I can’t explain

Telling me to go on a journey

I think I’ll go with the flow

I am free

As an adult with open water in every direction

With so much food I need to eat

I think I’ll fatten up

I am excited.

Heading home to where I was born

With the promise of finding mate

I think I’ll follow my nose

I am exhausted.

As I have traveled 900 miles

And laid every egg I have left

I think I nourish my brood

I am complete.

By Thomas Welch

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The Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association is located in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Agaidika, Dukudeka, and other bands of today’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. SIHA also provides services in Ranger Stations on the Salmon-Challis and Caribou-Targhee National Forests, the traditional territory of the Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne, Apsáalooke (Crow), and Oceti Sakowin (Lakota) people. Learn more and read our full land acknowledgement here.