"Nelson spent a year among the Koyukon people of western Alaska, studying&nbsp;their intimate relationship with animals and the land. His chronicle of&nbsp;that visit represents a thorough and elegant account of the mystical&nbsp;connection between Native Americans and the natural world."—&nbsp;Outside"This admirable reflection on the natural history of the Koyukon River&nbsp;drainage in Alaska is founded on knowledge the author gained as a student&nbsp;of the Koyukon culture, indigenous to that region. He presents these&nbsp;Athapascan views of the land—principally of its animals and Koyukon&nbsp;relationships with those creatures—together with a measured account of his&nbsp;own experiences and doubts. . . . For someone in search of a native&nbsp;American expression of 'ecology' and natural history, I can think of no&nbsp;better place to begin than with this work."—Barry Lopez,&nbsp;Orion Nature&nbsp;Quarterly"Far from being a romantic attempt to pass on the spiritual lore of Native&nbsp;Americans for a quick fix by others, this is a very serious ethnographic&nbsp;study of some Alaskan Indians in the Northern Forest area. . . . He has&nbsp;painstakingly regarded their views of earth, sky, water, mammals and every&nbsp;creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. He does admire their love of&nbsp;nature and spirit. Those who see the world through his eyes using their&nbsp;eyes will likely come away with new respect for the boreal forest and those&nbsp;who live with it and in it, not against it."—&nbsp;The Christian Century"In&nbsp;Make Prayers to the Raven&nbsp;Nelson reveals to us the Koyukon&nbsp;beliefs and attitudes toward the fauna that surround them in their forested habitat close to the lower Yukon. . . . Nelson's presentation also gives&nbsp;rich insights into the Koyukon subsistence cycle through the year and into&nbsp;the hardships of life in this northern region. The book is written with&nbsp;both brain and heart. . . . This book represents a landmark: never before&nbsp;has the integration of American Indians with their environment been so well&nbsp;spelled out."—Ake Hultkrantz,&nbsp;Journal of Forest History

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