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Firelight Before the Conference   On a windless evening by a tidal creek, an older woman pinched out the lamp and let the moon light the circle. Children leaned in; a fisherman set down a net; a midwife warmed her hands. She began with the story her grandmother told of the river that is an elder, of bread shared with a traveler, of a chief who lost his seat because power is borrowed from the people and the earth. Every face around the circle knew the endings before she spoke