THE WINTER BEAR
The Winter Bear is the story of Athabascan teenager, Duane “Shadow” David, who’s contemplating suicide when he’s sentenced to cut wood for Koyukon Athabascan elder Sidney Huntington. At first the two can’t even communicate, but they gradually find a shared language based on the old man’s hunting experience and the young man’s video game vocabulary. Together they construct a Bear Spear in the old, traditional way. Soon after, Duane is forced to kill a marauding Winter Bear using only the Spear. Sidney is wounded in the encounter so Duane, who’s deathly afraid of showing himself in any public way, must stand in the spotlight and speak for Sidney at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.
”When I asked Sidney Huntington if I could use what he was telling me about suicides in his own family and especially the suicides of his father and three of his sons and his own suicidal depression, he asked me if I thought it could help kids going through the same sorts of things. I told him that I couldn't say for sure, but it might. He replied, ‘If you think it might help even one kid, go for it.’ I consider this a very generous act by a man in his mid-nineties with a personal legacy to protect. I always want the play to honor the legacy of Mr. Huntington.”
