F. Jay Fuller

I am a writer of Finnish/Sami descent living in the Cascade Mountains of northern California. The main thrust of my writing is to investigate the traditional spiritual cultures of northern peoples of both Eurasia and America through historical fiction novels and short story pieces, with special emphasis on the concept that all articles of reality are living and understood to be contributing, in their own unique way, to a unified field of causality.

Although I choose to write from the perspectives of many of the native peoples of the northern hemisphere, I am especially drawn to the traditions of my Finnish and Sami ancestors, particularly their spiritual wisdom and metaphysical insights. The vocation of the Noaide - the shaman/seer of the Sami people, the voice of the sacred drum, the mystical and deeply interpersonal relationship that the Sami have with Reindeer and the other animals and forces of the north -- the winds, the ice and snow, all influence and enrich my life and inspire me to write.
  

But the impetus to write comes from the tragic fact that native societies, cultures and languages - in particular those whose traditions and wisdom are deeply rooted in the preliterate and prehistoric past, are being decimated by the unrelenting pressures of modernity.  Everyday, in some part of the world, something of their past - which is our collective past as well, is lost.  It may only be a word, a phrase, an act, a way of carrying oneself.  But cumulatively, over days and weeks and years, their past - our past, disappears and, in some cases, can never be recovered.  And when that happens, we lose something of our humanity, because we forget what it means not just to be human, but what it takes to become human - what makes us who we are and who we can become.

If we fail to honor those who came before, fail to remember the wisdom they gained and passed down to their descendants, we will do more than forget where we all came from, we will lose our way and, in a bleak and not too distant future, no longer be recognizably human.