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Hunter-Fisher: Surviving by generosity

Published on November 16th, 2009

By ALEX DEMARBAN

John Dilts won a coveted AFN award for being an excellent hunter and fisherman who always shares his catch.

So it should be no surprise that when Dilts accepted his award, he carried boxes of kippered salmon onto the stage - gifts for AFN leaders and CIRI, the Native corporation that gave Dilts money to travel to the Anchorage convention.

Before the crowd, Dilts paused to swallow his anxiety, then recognized and thanked his fishing buddy back in Hydaburg, the Southeast community where he lives.

"It's all about caring and giving," said Dilts, 38.

His parents, Steve and Jacqueline Dilts, accepted the Hunter-Fisher award with Dilts on Oct. 24.

"He's a good boy," said Steve, in a phone conversation.

John was found guilty by the state last year for illegally selling crab without a permit outside the Ketchikan General Hospital.

But he had to do something, his dad said. His mother needed surgery on a broken ankle, and her treatment was costly.

John's generous side goes back a long way. A longshoreman now, he dropped out of high school in 1985 to provide for the family.

"I spent 85 percent of my time learning to fish and learning the cycles of fish," said John, a Haida Native.

Steve and Jacquelyn both have disabilities, Steve said.

John also became an expert subsistence beachcomber, looking for abalones, clams, urchins, sea cucumbers.

"We didn't have money, we just learned how to live off the land," he said. "It was just part of the necessity of getting by."

When John was about 12, he provided fish and meat for a handful of elders, heading out in an old wooden boat to catch enough fish to fill their freezers, he said.

Sometimes he'd prepare a delicacy the elders loved: brined fish buried in the ground for days until it ferments.

"For my dad and them it was a delicacy," he said. "For me it wasn't."

How'd he get so generous?

His traditional and religious upbringing demanded it, and the waters and land always provided more than enough, he said.

"He's always amazed me," said Steve. "When churches can't catch fish over here, he catches fish and brings it to them so the poor can eat."

He's also sent his kippered salmon all over the world, to feed missions, for example, said Steve.

Subsistence rights are also critical for John, his dad said.

"He believes everyone should have right to subsistence and we should take care of renewable sources," Steve said.