WEBVTT

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<v ->Our elders would tell us a story when we were very young</v>

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about the shad fish,

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and it comes to us from two different perspectives.

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One is the human perspective.

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After a long winter of eating food

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that's been stored from the previous seasons,

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when we rolled into February or March,

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our food supplies were quite low

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and we were always looking and waiting

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for the return of fish into our waters.

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And one of the first signs we would do

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is look up in the skies.

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We would look for the return of the osprey.

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When we saw the osprey,

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we knew the spawn, return of the shad fish was close by.

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And another indicator was a shadberry bush.

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Shadberry is one of the first trees in our region

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that blooms in early spring.

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So the combination of the shad returning

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is being known through the osprey in the air

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and the shadberry on the ground.

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And when we saw this,

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we knew that our fishermen would go out

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and get their boats and get their nets

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and be prepared to reel in large quantities of fish,

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which would support a springtime feast for our people.