Some of Richie’s stories involve “spirit birds” who inspire characters and plots with wisdom and loveliness beyond the human world and beyond human perspectives.
Story / Species
Cycle of Life: Swainson’s Thrush
Owl’s Myth: Great-horned Owl, Prothonotary Warbler
River Sun Warblers: Prothonotary Warbler, Brown Thrasher
Injun Joe and Princess Wenonah: Passenger Pigeon
Removal: Peregrine Falcon
The Howls behind the Waves: Tufted Puffin
The Sting A’ Otter Jack: Osprey, Steller’s Jay
Indian Pictures: Western Meadowlark
Like Grasshoppers in the Sky: Common Nighthawk
Tide and Sorrow: Raven, Pelagic Cormorant
Creator Bird: Black Oystercatcher
How the World was Stolen: Western Gull
Richie couldn’t have written the stories without the presence of these miraculous bird species in his life. Richie laments that the Passenger Pigeon is already extinct, and all his other “Spirit Birds” and many other species suffer population declines that must be reversed, so they too do not vanish from the earth.
