Ever since last weekend, I have been wondering what message was brought to Middlebury by the bear family that staged a sit-in atop a tree in the town’s center and shut down traffic for two days. For an Indigenous person like me, unusual natural occurrences such as this are messages brought to us by our “other than human kin.” It is worth asking what they might be telling us, what teaching or message was gifted to us.
My first thought was that the bear family was alerting us to the fact that we humans, comparatively recent arrivals on Turtle Island (aka North America), continue to multiply and displace the original inhabitants, both flora and fauna. One solution is to preserve more wilderness where our other-than-human kin can live in comfort and safety. Another is to avoid unduly attracting them to places where they are in danger and where we are not adequately equipped to co-exist.
This challenge to our collective understanding arrived as a message with a solution from the human realm as I read the postal mail over morning coffee. A wonderful brochure from Charter House explained how their new facility, North Star, which is located just across the street from where the bears perched, will provide additional safe housing, meals and social services for people who experience dislocation and homelessness. The connection was made. The bears’ message was clarified. Our bear kin, whose Latin family name is Ursidae, and whose species name is Ursus americanus, staged a gentle protest over unequal distribution of resources (living space, food, etc.) just as Europe’s human society is being upended by protests and riots about gross inequality.
Mama bear and two little bears, Ursa Minor and Ursa Major, delivered a message, a challenge, and pointed to a solution. For those who are stargazers, Ursa Minor or little bear (the Little Dipper) and Ursa Major or big bear (the Big Dipper) point directly to the North Star. Mariners have used these constellations and the North Star to navigate for millennia.
We should accept their guidance once again as we struggle with issues of economic inequality at the ballot box. North Star’s spirit shows us the way to compassion for both our human kin and our other-than-human kin. It was no mere coincidence that the bear family staged their peaceful protest so near Middlebury’s own new North Star.
Meanwhile, while we work on long-term solutions in the human realm, we might all work harder at the interface of human society and the natural world to avoid creating what are often referred to as “attractive nuisances,” places and things that can be dangerous and life-threatening to the vulnerable, such as backyard swimming pools unprotected by a fence. Our unsecured garbage and composting are an attractive nuisance for bears. Hence the increasing number of stories about bears in backyards, on porches and even in homes. Taking protective measures such as securing our waste with bear-proof containers or sheds would be a giant step toward living together in harmony and taking direction from the North Star.
Randy Kritkausky
Middlebury
