Eskimo Indian Aleut
CONTENTS
AFOGNAK
.................................
1
ALITAK .................................
.
3
ANVIK
..................................
.. 4
ATTU ................................... ... 6
BARROW
.................................
.. 7
BEAVER ...................................
12
BETHEL ................................. 13
CANTWELL ...............................
14
CHIGNIK
................................
15
CIRCLE .................................
.
16
DIOMEDE
..................................
18
EAGLE ..................................
..
20
EGEGIK
.................................
. 21
ELIM .................................
..
22
FLAT ..................................
. 23
FORTUNA
LEDGE (MARSHALL) ...............
24
FORT YUKON
............................
... 26
GALENA ..............................
...
31
HAYCOCK
...............................
... 32
KARLUK..................................
.
35
KENAI
..................................
34
KING COVE
........................
.....
36
KIVALINA
...............................
37
KOKRINES ...............................
40
KOTZEBUE
...............................
.. 41
KOYUK ..................................
..
42
KOYUKUK .............................
..43
LONG BEACH
..
44
MANLEY HOT SPRINGS
..................
. 45
METLAKATLA
.............................
.. 46
NASH HARBOR
....
...................
48
NEELIK .................................
..
49
NOATAC
.................................
51
NOME.....................................
.53
NOORVIK
................................
54
NULATO................................
..
56
NUNAPITCHUK
............................
. 58
PERRYVILLE
...........................
.. 60
PILOT POINT
............................
.. 61
PILOT STATION
...........................
63
POINT HOPE
...............................
64
POINT LAY
.............................
65
RAMPART
................................
.. 68
RUBY
.....................................
. 75
SELAWIK ................................
76
SHISHMAREF
.............................
79
SNAG POINT
..............................
80
STEVENS VILLAGE
........................
... 81
ST. MARK'S MISSION
.....................
... 82
TANANA .................................
85
TATITLEK
.................................
. 85
TELLER
.................................
.. 86
UNALAKLEET
.............................
.. 87
UNALASKA ...............................
. 88
WAINRIGHT
.............................
.. 90
WHITE MOUNTAIN
.........................
. 91
WISEMAN
................................
94
YAKUTAT
.................................
.. 95
ALASKA VILLAGES 1939-1941
My home is located among the first islands on the Aleutian chain,
on Afognak Island, near Kodiak. It is on the coast so that means there
are lots of boats that travel back and forth, some from outside and
others from almost all parts of Alaska from Seward to Unalaska. Our only
way of travel is by boats.
The climate is quite favorable: hot in summers and with very
mild winters.
There are about 300 people in the village of which one-third is white.
For a living the men fish in the summer and hunt in the winter.
During the three summer months they do a lot of fishing of all sorts and
for all sorts of fish. They then sell the fish to a cannery and after
the summer months are over they go out and get fish for their own use,
for instance they dry fish, salt, and smoke them. That is for their
own winter use. Besides these things they grow all kinds of vegetables
which are very useful to the people.
In the winter they go hunting foxes for their fur and some
ducks for their food. Of course there is some other meat they can get,
like bears, elk and rabbit. They sell the fur that they get. Some are
lucky but still others don't get as much as the ones who are the most
experienced hunters. There are two or three fox farms, but they are
all owned by the white people.
For recreation they have dances which is one of the best hobbies
of the younger generation especially. Then there is baseball, basketball
and other games which the white people have brought in with them. They
have parties and school programs quite often and so that helps us natives
to be sociable.
The village is governed by the principal of the school and it
helps the people a lot.
Quite a few of the people have been outside and have got some of
their friends from the States interested in the village. Some persuaded
them to come and see for themselves. Then, too, there are a lot of
boats traveling and tourists who are on board come ashore and look over
the place.
There are now more boats than there used to be and they come
oftener. It seems as thought whenever the people go to a place like Sew-
ard or Kodiak that they come back with something new to do every time.
Page 1
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And they are always willing to show their fellow men the things they
have learned.
Most everyone who can afford to buy a radio has one. Of course
they are not electric like we have here at school, but they are battery
radios instead.
Some people who can really afford electric lights have a little
motor which we call a Delco. It is kept in the basement and is a great
help and some younger boys are having lessons on how they work.
They used to have silent moving pictures before but now they
have talkies which the Coast Guard cutters have helped the villagers to
organize.
Since we have a new schoolhouse they have had nice, worthwhile
books which all the students enjoy reading in our little school li-
brary.
They have improved the hospital down in Kodiak for
the use of the natives from the nearby villages like Ouzinkie and Afognak. They
also have a new and well-experienced doctor.
The homes of the people in the village are becoming more and
more attractive slowly but surely and the people are very hospitable.
Marie Malutin
Page 2
My home is 550 miles from
Anchorage, on the southwestern cor-
ner of Kodiak Island. There is a population of only 95.
We fish for the canneries and work there, too. The price of
work there is seventy-five cents an hour. We fish two months and five
days, then get paid off according to how many fish we caught and sold
to the cannery. In a good season we make lots of money, but sometimes
it isn't so good. After we get paid off we buy our winter supplies of
food and clothes.
We have dances and play ball and go skating for amusement;
some people go to Kodiak in the
fall and others go to Karluk. To go to
Kodiak we have to go by water, but
we can walk to Karluk overland.
It
It takes four days hiking to make
it, but there are cabins along the way
where we can stop overnight.
Alitak is governed by the
government school teachers. In the
summer there are fish wardens
around to see that the fishermen obey the
fishing laws, and the game warden comes around once in awhile, too.
Herman Andrewvitch
Page 3
My home is a small village called
Anvik,
located in the interior of Alaska;
the Anvik River
flows into the Yukon and the
village is at the mouth
of the Anvik. There are hills
surrounding the place
and mountains in the distance so
that most people who
come to see Anvik admire the
beautiful sunsets we
have, and the pretty scenery.
The climate is very changeable in
the win-
ter; sometimes the thermometer will
drop to 60
below zero, sometimes it is mild
all winter and rains
quite a bit. The first part of the
summers are quite
warm but in August and September
it rains quite a bit
and gets cooler.
There are about ninety people in
the vil-
lage. Ten years ago Anvik was a
larger village with
a population of about 200, but in
the spring of 1927
all the people had the flu and
pneumonia, and the
result was that most of the older
people and some of
the young folks died at that time.
Most of the people leave the village
in the
summer, scattering around the
Yukon to do their fish-
ing, since the kings and silver
salmon do not go up
the Anvik River. Some of them
catch whitefish as
well as the king, silver and dog
salmon; they salt
some of them, putting them in kegs
for future use,
can some of them, make up salmon
strips and use the
rest for dog feed. Most of the
people stop their
fishwheels on Sundays and spend the day in Anvik.
The 4th of July is always spent in the village. Most
of the villagers raise good garden vegetables.
Some of the people cut cord wood during
the winter and then sell it to the SS Nenana during
the summer. Some of the men work
at the sawmill in
summer; the men bring in a raft of logs and the
Mission sawmill cuts it for themin payment they
give half the logs to the Mission. Others work for
the mission during the summer. In the fall the men
leave home for their winter camps but the women stay
in the village so their children can go to school.
The men trap for foxes, wolverine, mink, otter,
weasels, marten, beaver when the season is open, but
come home about once a month and on all the holidays.
The women, in the meantime, make and sell beaded
moccasins, mittens, cushions, gloves, scissor cases,
and picture frames, fur boots, caps, parkas,
and fur mittens.
Page 4
____________________________________________________________
The people all like to dance at
home so they
have them quite often, celebrating
every holiday with
dancing. We skate, ski and, drive
dogs and have par-
ties. The days we enjoy the most
are Halloween, Christ-
nes, Valentine's Day, Easter and
the 4th of July. They
have card parties quite often,
too. Picnics are also
one of the main recreations.
Most of the people have outboard
motors,
or larger gasboats. Those who
don't own one of them
are able to borrow from their
neighbors when they
have to travel from place to
place. But if they are
going longer distances, they
travel on the "Nenana".
In the winter they use their dog
teams, but in emer-
gencies they often go by plane.
There is an. Episcopal Mission at
Anvik and
the one in charge looks after the
village. The U. S.
Marshal passes thru once during
the summer and the
head of the Mission gives him a
report about the
people.
About five families have radios,
and there
is a lot of visiting around at
nights to hear the
news from KFQD. The ones who have
short wave listen
in the day time to amateurs and
their friends go in
to listen, usually saying,
"Well, I came to hear the
gossipers."
The "Nenana" comes every
two weeks in the
summer, bringing our mail and
freight for four months.
during October while it is
freezing up we do not get
any mail at all. The first of
November the mail
plane cones with mail every two
weeks for six months.
During May while we are waiting
for the ice to go,
we get no mail till the boat
starts running.
The people who are most ambitious
raise
good gardens in the summer;
lettuce, cabbage, tur-
nips, rutabagas, beets, carrots,
radishes, onions,
spinach, potatoes, peas and
cauliflower. The mission
has its own hothouse where they
raise tomatoes, cu-
cumbers and green peppers: they
sell some of these
things to the villagers.
[signed] Alberta Fisher
Page 5
____________________________________________________________
Attu? Some people lift an eyebrow,
shrug
or shiver. They wonder how anyone
could live out there
and be contented. Yet to my ideas
of happiness, I don't
believe I have ever seen a happier
community!
It is the last island of the
Aleutian
chain and is rather large in size,
but the village it-
self has a population of only 45.
In the summer, the climate is very
warm,
But gets very cold in the winter
time, tthe temperature
often reaching 30°.
All the men fish for cod to be
shipped to
the states, to say nothing or
halibut and salmon that
is caught for their own use in the
way of food. Another
food considered very delicious is
fresh seal meat.
Having eaten it myself, I know it
is much more tender
than beef but of course tastes
differ.
Ways of recreation vary in this
small vil-
lage. People amuse themselves in
any way possible.
During the year there are only
three boats. Of course
they do have their dances quite
often. In short, they
have few means of recreation.
Every Sunday, the entire village
attends
church, but are not in any manner
foolishly religious.
They have their own religion and
they have established
a new church by themselves.
The only means of travel is by
boat. They
own their own power boats and do
all their yearly seal
hunting by boat. Every fall the
men with their fam-
ilies leave for the fox islands to
trap and remain un-
til Spring.
The village is practically
self-governed.
Of course they have a chief to
care for all the money
matters.
The people have little or no
contact with
the outside. This is due to the
fact that the island
is so far out of the way.
Improvements may be made by more
frequent
boats calling at the village.
Radios, doctors and a
nurse would, help, but what they
would want for their own
happiness is hard to say.
[signed] Stephainta Tarkauoff
Page 6
____________________________________________________________
Barrow is located on the
northern-most part of Alaska. It is
on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
The place is a low country; there are
no mountains and no trees. It is
just bare tundra. The climate is al-
ways extremely cold in winter. The
temperature goes down to 45° below
zero and sometimes more. In summer
the weather is quite warm. The hot-
test part is usually in July. The
sun never goes down in the months of
June, July and the first part of
August. There are no nights during
those months. The place starts
freezing up in September and the ocean
freezes up in the month of
November. The sun disappears in December and
reappears on the twenty-first of
January.
The population of Barrow is from
400 to 600. When the people
all gather together at Christmas
time it is usually 600.
In the 18th Century Barrow used to
be a whaling place. Many
sailing vessels would come for
whaling from the United States. They
would return home with ship loads
of blubber and whale bones. Sometimes
three or four ships would winter
in Barrow and also east of Barrow. Quite
a number of ships were wrecked at
Barrow in those days. The remains of
these wrecks can still be seen,
things such as big tanks and heavy boilers.
The chief occupation of Barrow
people is hunting game. In win-
ter there is fox trapping, wolf
hunting, seal hunting, hunting for polar
bear, and also the fishing in the
interior. Trappers sell their skins
in exchange for white man's food
and stuff. In wolf hunting they get a
bounty for the skins they get.
They can also sell the skins at the stores.
Wolf is used for parka ruffs. The
legs are used for high boots, which are
very useful in winter.
The seals are also very useful.
The meat is used for food and
the blubber is put in seal pokes
and conserved for winter use. The skin
is used in many ways. It is used
for fines, seal nets, and waterproof .
boots and for soles. The Ugrood
skins are also used for boot soles, for
heavy lines and oomiak [umiak]
covering and for kyaks [kayaks].
There is also a reindeer company
owned by the natives. Almost
a whole village owns reindeer.
They butcher reindeer in fall and summer.
The meat is used for food while
the skin is used for parkas, fur pants and
for fur socks and mittens. The
meat is sometimes sold to the whites at
eight cents a pound.
In the month of April there is
whaling. This is the most import-
ant of all hunting. When one whale
is caught everyone in the village
gets his share. Sometimes when the
whalers are fortunate enough they would
catch nine or ten whales in a
spring. The skin boots are used in whal-
ing for they are easier to handle
in case of danger from the ice breaking.
Once in a while the whale boats
are used for whaling. The meat and muk-
tuk are stored in the ice cellars
and the peoples houses, enough for the
whole winter.
Page 7
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After the ice breaks away, usually
in July, they start walrus
hunting. The walrus hunting is the
most exciting tine I've ever had in
my life. When you get into a big
herd like a hundred or two hundred on
a big cake of ice it's a thrilling
time. The walrus hunters just right
into them and shoot about at a
distance of twelve or twenty feet way
from the herd. Sometimes the men
would get up on the ice and shoot. From
a herd like this they can get
anywhere from ten to twenty walrus. Some-
times they don't dare to shoot
when there are too many because they are
dangerous when they are many. They
can punch holes in boats with their
tusks. The meat is used for dog
feed in the winter and the tusks are sold
to the stores.
To make money a few people work
for the whites and in the sum-
mer they haul freight for the
traders and the whites and make a little
money. In the fall they cut ice
for the stores and earn more money.
There is also the whalebone basket
making, which which increasing. Good
baskets are solf for fifteen to
thirty dollars each. An expert basket
maker can finish one basket in
less than a week.
For fuel we use pitch instead of
coal. Driftwood is also used
a great deal. There is a pitch
lake about 65 miles from Barrow. In
summer we use launches and dories
for hauling pitch.
There are three stores in Barrow;
two owned by whites and one
a native cooperative. The latter
is getting bigger and better every year.
For recreation we skate in the
fall; play fall; football and
volleyball, and celbrate the
Fourth of July. On Christmas we play lots
of games and dance. After the
whaling season is over we celebrate the
catching of the whales with
"Nalookatuk". We have blanket tossing from
morning until evening.
Our traveling in winter if by
dogteam; in summer by skinboats,
or launches. The mail carrier
comes by dogteam three or four tines dur-
ing the winter; we get
occasionally by plane and in summer our mail comes
by ship. We have a radio
stationoperated by the Signal Corps.
For government we have a U.
S. Commissioner and also a village
council.
Harold Kaveolook
Page 8
____________________________________________________________
BARROW
Barrow is located on the farthest north tip of the Terri-
tory of Alaska. It is all tundra
where no trees grow and no vegetables
can be grown. It is about one
thousand miles north of Eklutna.
The temperature at Barrow goes
about 50 degrees above zero
during the summer, and in winter
it has been as cold as 45 degrees be-
low zero, tho it is usually not so
cold as that.
The population is about 700.
The people of Barrow work as
longshoremen, janitors, car-
penters, carving ivory, making
whale-bone baskets, sewing skins and
making mukluks and parkas.
The people live on whale meat,
seals, polar bears, walrus,
and many foods of the white men,
which may be bought from the stores.
There are many things which keep
the people of Barrow busy.
The women make parkas, boots,
gun-cases, sleeping bags for men in the
winter, parka-covers and many
other things. The men work at repairing
equipment, making iron stoves and
building their small houses.
In the winter the boys and young
men often play football.
Sometimes we go for dogteam rides
just with three to five dogs, for
pleasure. We often play volley
ball for recreation.
On the 4th of July everyone
gathers for a big celebration
when they play all the Eskimo and
white man games and have big feasts.
The village is governed by the
commissioner and the native
village council, which is advised and directed by the school teachers.
[signed] Stephen Ahvakana
Page 9
____________________________________________________________
BARROW
Barrrow is located on the
northernmost part of
Alaska. Just because it is located
there, most of the
people think it gets very cold,
but Fairbanks, which
is quite a way south of Barrow
gets just as cold as Bar- r
row or colder in the winter. The
temperature is about
40 to 50 below zero in the winter
and this summer the e
wamest we had was 50° above, which
was too warm for most
of the people. The population is
approximately 300.
Mostof the people make their
living by hun-
ting all kinds of animals, foxes
in winter, whales in n
Spring, walrus in Summer, and some
of the people go u p
inland just before the freeze up
and fish on some of the
creeks. So a fellow is kept very
busy during the year
if he does all these things.
In spite of all the things that
the people
have to do to make a living, they
find time for recre-
atin. Holidays like Christmas and
the 4th of July are
enjoyed by the people. Games are
played which they like.
This summer the favorite ones were
baseball and foot-
ball, Eskimo style. Five years ago
just before I left
home I remember that on the 4th of
July that every-
body played football. Men and
women, boys and girls,
young and old played football and
that was the only time
I have ever seen that happen.
Nowadays just the young
people play the game.
Practically all the traveling
where I come
from is done by dogteam. We have
long winters up there
and during that time we use dogs
for traveling. You
can't do much traveling in the
winter if you don't have
dogs, so in order to have dogs you
have to have feed
for them. My dad is always anxious
to go out walrus
hunting so he can have lots of dog
feed during the win-
ter. Without the dogs he can't
have the job of carrying
the mail, which pays pretty well.
Summer they use laun-
ches, whaleboats and canoes,
getting from one place to
another. Airplanes are used
rarely, and the wireless
operator up there has a snowmobile that he uses when he
goes on a trip once in a while.
The village is governed by the
commissioner
and the council men. The
commissioner hasn't much to
do unless something comes up like
a man's stealing. The
council men do most of the
governing but the commission-
er sometimes gets after the
council men if they don't
see that the people clean up.
Page 10
____________________________________________________________
During the winter months we get
our mail
four times a year by dog team.
Summer we get mail by
boats that come up, and the
airplanes sometimes go up
and bring mail. Like last summer,
quite a few planes
came up and each one of them
brought mail except the
Russian plane. All the whites up
there have radios
and also some of the natives, so
we get all the news,
and the wireless station is the
place where we get the
news. The operator broadcasts
twice a week, so the
people of the outside world knows
what is going on wa y
up there.
[signed] Henry Panigeo
Page 11
____________________________________________________________
My home is located near the Arctic
Circle on the Yukon River. Thiss
small town has
a population of about 150 people.
There are
no hills near the river at that
place, and the
nearest ones are about 14 miles
back of the
town. These are low hills,
however, with a
great many lakes.
The climate is cold in winter, the
temperature ranging from zero to
45 below. It
gets very warm in the summer,
especially dur-
ing July and August.
The people at Beaver depend for
their living mostly upon trapping,
altho some
engage in mining for gold or
prospecting for
other minerals. The trappers sell
their fur
to the fur buyers who come through
Beaver or
to the store keeper in return for
food and
clothing. Those who trap in the
winters usu-
spend their summers in
fishing--they sell some
of their fish, but most of it they
keep for
themselves and their dogs.
For recreation the people read,
have dances, hike, ski, skate,
take dog rides,
visit each other. In summer the
boys swim
a good deal, but very few of the
girls know
how.
We travel by dog teams in the win-
ter; in summer with motor boats.
Some of us
are able to travel by airplane
winter or sum-
mer.
The only government we have is the
United States marshal. Contacts
are made
with other people by travel,
radio, news-
papers and magazines, and mail
between vil-
lages.
[signed] Katherine McGuire
Page 12
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My home is located on mission ground--where
the first missionarys made their
homes; later they
called, it Bethel. Now the people
from below the town
are moving up to Bethel because
they may receive
mail and supplies there by boat or
air. The pop-
ulation now is about 300.
In the winter it gets very cold;
January is
the coldest month, when the
temperature stays around.
10° below zero. When one travels
from place to
place by dogteam one feels the
cold most.
The people fish starting in June
or July
and either dry or salt, smoke or
can the salmon.
In the winter there is some
fishing for pikes,
with hooks, thru the ice. To earn
money many of
the people work for the traders or
do freighting
down the river or up the river as
far as McGrath.
The Eskimos there trap or hunt
fur-bearing animals
such as foxes of all kinds, mink,
muskrat, beaver,
and land otter.
Recreations are Eskimo dances and
games,
or moving pictures provided by the
Northern Commer-
cial Company.
There are three schools in and
near Bethel.
Two are in town and one is about
18 miles above
the village. One in Bethel is a
government native
school, to the eightth grade. The
territorial
school has classes to the l2th
grade. The mission
school has classes to the 8th
grade.
Travel is done mostly by dogteam
in the win-
ter; by boats and airplanes in the
summer. There is
a telegraph station in Bethel,
and. many of the people
own their own radios.
Bethel is governed by a U. S.
Commissioner
and a U. S. Marshal. The Eskimos
have to have a
permit to kill the reindeer for
their families. In
the fall and winter, they kill
reindeer and save
the meat, and make parkas, mukluks
and mitts from
the skins.
[signed] Ivan Jordan
Page 13
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Cantwell, Alaska is the name of my hone town. It's a big name
for such a small place. It's just
a small village on the Alaska Railroad
located near Mt. McKinley National
Park.
How many people live in Cantwell;
only between 20 and 30. Most
of the men work in gold mines
nearby or just go out and hunt for a living.
Cantwell is a good hunting ground,
most people travel around by dogteam
altho some use caterpillar
tractors and. others use planes to go to the
mines.
Many of the people go outside from
Cantwell after the freezeup
while the ones that are left
usually go out trapping.
Most all of the houses have
radios; radio is about the only
thing the people have to enjoy
here besides the busting and fishing and
working.
The snow gets very deep in the
wintertime and sometimes the
ice covers the railroad tracks.
There are lots of brown bears and
lots of blueberries around
the village. We stay clear of the
bears and eat the berries.
Some people like Cantwell but it's too small for me.
Sam Pedro
Page 14
____________________________________________________________
Chignik is located on the lower
side of the Alaska Peninsula.
The climate there in the winter is
rather cold. It snows a lot and blows
hard enough to shake the houses.
In the sunnier it is sunny most of the
time, raining mostly in the months of March and April.
There are four canneries at Chignik but only one is operating,
and that one is owned by Captain
Crosby. Before when the Alaska Packers
cannery was operating, Cp. Crosby
used to take in only natives from
Perryville and most of the Chignik natives for help.
We fish in the summer, for all
kinds of fish. The natives buy
most of their food supply from
Crosby's store because the prices aren't
so high as they are in the Packers
or PAF stores. And they also put
up fish to smoke, dry and salt. In
the winter the natives go up to the
lakes and trap and hunt for fur
and caribou. Some of the white people
go out to their islands and trap foxes.
There are three stores and a
liquor store which is owned by
a Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. We do not
have a marshal there. But if some-
one does not obey the law they
just send for Mr. Peterson, the marshal
at Unga. The population is about 210.
There were two schools; one government and one territorial.
When the boys and girls are thru
with grade school they can either go
to the Jessie Lee Home at Seward
or the Kodiak Mission for more school-
ing. Some of the boys and girls
that are old enough to work in the
cannery go outside for a trip or
go to high school, which many of them
have done in the past.
Irene Osbekoff
Page 15
____________________________________________________________
Circle is my home town, and is
located near the Arctic
Circle; at one time, in the early
days it was thought our village
was on the circle, hence its name;
later it was found to be somewhat
south.
In the early days there were five
or six thousand people
living in the town of Circle, but
times have changed and now there
are between one hundred and one
hundred and fifty. I do not know much
of the history of the town except
that the gold rush caused the place
to grow very rapidly, and the lack of gold has made it shrink.
During the winter, most of the
people hunt and trap out in
the surrounding country. Some go
to wood camps where they cut wood for
people who remain in the village.
In the summer, most of the people
go to their fish camps where they catch and dry fish for winter use.
Winter is the time for many
parties, dances, and all the
outdoor winter sports of sliding,
coasting, skiing, skating and racing.
During the summer, there are
usually parties only when the boats come
in and tie up on their trip from Whitehorse and Dawson.
We receive our mail every week
during the winter; it comes
to us both by plane and by
dogteam. In the summer, buses carry the
mail on the Steese Highway from
Fairbanks, and the mail boats on the
Yukon bring mail from both up-and down-river.
In Circle we have a telephone
system, tho there are very
few telephones. Many families have their own radios.
Florence Boyle
Page 16
____________________________________________________________
CIRCLE
Circle is up along the Yukon
River;
it isn't a very big town, with a
population of
about 100 people. In the winter
the weather is
so cold that the thermometer
sometimes goes
down as far as 70 below or more.
In the summer
it doesn't get so very hotonly
once in a
while. It rains and blows a good
deal in the
summer.
The people go trapping and hunting
in the winter. In the summer they
make fish
wheels, and work in the stores or
on the Steam-
boats. Those are the only ways of
making money.
The men and boys go hunting and
dry the meat
or fish and the women and girls
pick berries
or make beaded mocassins or other
things to
sell to tourists.
Circle has a church and a place to
dance. They dance on holidays
only, and have
Church every Sunday. The women and
men some-
times play cards or tell stories,
while the
kids play with balls, go swimming
or have pic-
nics. In the winter they go
outdoors and
play with snowballs, go coasting,
skating or
dog-riding.
The people can travel by cars,
boats, and steamboats in the
summer and in
winter they can go by dogteams,
horses, or
by plane. There is a store in
Circle, where
we get the mail. They have a radio
station
in the N. C. Co. store and
telephone in the
store and some other telephones in
places
around town.
There is a road from Circle to
Fair-
banks and on thru to Valdez. We
get most of
our supplies from Fairbanks or
Valdez. Even in
the winter we can travel to
Fairbanksit is
162 miles to Fairbanks and about 520 to Valdez.
[signed] Lois Peters
17
____________________________________________________________
My home is located in the Bering Sea, one hundred and eighty
miles northwest of Nome. The name
of the island is Diomede. The
village is located on the west side of the island.
The climate of Diomede is much warmer than the mainland in the
winter time. The termperature
ranges from twenty to thirty-five below
zero in the winter. In order to
protect ourselves from cold, we use
mukluks and parkas. The parkas are
made from reindeer and squirrel
skins. She mukluks are made from
either reindeer legs or seal skins.
In the summer we wear lighter
clothing. In the first part of July, we
have warm days until the last part
of August. We have very little rain,
but in the winter the snow fall is
rather heavy.
The approximate number of people on the island is one hundred and
sixty.
The people at hone make their living by hunting and carving
ivory. Fishing is not so common.
The fish they catch are bullheads,
tomcods, bluecods, etc. There is
also some crabbing in the winter time.
The people over on big Diomede
Island do more trapping than we do for
the reason that the island is much
larger than our little Diomede and it
belongs to the Russian government.
The Russians do not allow any Amer-
ican to trap foxes in their
territory or get any kind of fur. About
eight or ten years ago we used to
get most of our furs from Siberia,
such as reindeer, wolverine, wolf,
and white fox. In April we start to
hunt for whales, seals and walrus.
Recreations at home are skating, snowshoeing, hand ball, foot-
ball and Eskimo dancing. Since
there are no movies, the people spend the
rest of the evenings by telling jokes and old-time stories.
There is no traveling in winter time at Diomede, except going
to big Diomede. The distance is
about five miles, and in the winter the
ice doesn't freeze up between the
island usually. In the summer we
travel in skin boats equipped with
outboard motors. They either go to
Siberia or Wales. In July half of
the population goes to Nome to spend
the summer for trading. Most of
our carving and skin sewing is sold at
Nome. They we return home on the MS North Star in October.
The village is run or governed by the village council. These
councilmen serve three year terms.
A long time ago the village was run
by a chief whose name was Kosinga.
The old Russian name of the two is-
lands was "Krusenstern".
That was when the village was run by a chief.
I don't know why the name was changed
to "Diomedes".
18
____________________________________________________________
There is no wireless communication
on the island, except the
radio receiving sets. No airplane
comes to Diomede except for some
very special reason, during the
winter. The MS North Star brings
groceries for the people on the
island from Nome. At the same time
she unloads freight for the school
teachers. The Coast Guard cutter
Northland comes in twice during
the summer to look after the natives.
In order to improve the village there should be a doctor and
a nurse, and a hospital for the
village. They should have a wireless
station and more radios, so the
people on the island could have better
contacts with other places and
from Outside. In order to have more
recreation there should be a
gymnasium and a moving-picture show. There
are lots of other things needed on
the island in order to improve the
village.
Arthur Ahkinga (deceased- 1942)
Note: Married Kate Brower, of Barrow, now teaching arts and crafts
at Pt. Lay, for the Office of Indian Affairs; two children.
19
____________________________________________________________
My real home is at Eagle, which is
about seventeen miles from the
Canadian boundary line. The
climate there is very different during the
summers and the winters. The fomer
are nice and warm, but the winters
are always brisk and cold.
There are just about two hundred
people living in Eagle, counting
both whites and natives.
To earn their livings, the Indians
often dry and sell fish to the
traders for money and food. In the
winter some of them trap wild fur-
bearing animals. The rest of us cut
wood for the steamers which travel
back and forth between Dawson and Nenana in the summertime.
For recreation our people play
games like running races, boxing.
On the Fourth of July prizes are
given to the winners. On every holi-
day we have big dances.
We travel by dogteams and steamers
or on our own boats if we own
one.
The village and town are governed
by a U. S. Marshal and some
Councilmen. The Indians have their
council, which was formed to help
each other in their government.
If we want to hear from our
neighbors or friends in other towns
and places we often visit them or
write to them in order to keep in
contact with them and learn how
they are getting along. Letters and
packages are carried by planes,
boats, and dog teams, depending on the
time of year.
If my people wanted to make more
money in different ways, they
could put up a salmon cannery some
place along the Yukon River and
make plenty of money for
themselves and their families. There are lots
of ways they could make more
moneyputting in movies, starting fur
farms, a library; but what we need
most is a good hospital because we
have none in Eagle now.
Clifford Thompson
20
____________________________________________________________
Egegik is in Bristol Bay. It isn't
a very big placethere's
about 95 people in the winter, but
in the summer there are lots more
from other places, who come
looking for work. There are two canneries
and they are now building a new
one. There is a restaurant which is
run only in the summertime when
there are lots of fishermen and cannery
workers around the village.
We also have a building in the
village called the poolroom,
where the men and boys can go to
pass away the time playing pool. We
also have lots of dances and show.
People in Egegik make their living
by fishing for the canneries,
working in the canneries, and by
trapping in the winter. We travel by
both airplane and boats.
I don't think Egegik is a very
pretty place; there are no trees
around the village although there
are just a few way out in the hills.
We all have wooden houses and have
almost all the things that the white
people have. There are two stores,
one owned by Mr. Evans and the other
a cannery store owned by the Alaska Packers.
Maggie Strom
21
____________________________________________________________
Elim is located on Norton Sound,
on the coast. Every Spring and
Fall one of the Coast Guard
cutters stops there. Each time they bring
a doctor and dentist with them,
who examine people. The town is just 100
miles east of Nome.
Elim is surrounded by trees and
mountains. The trees there are
pretty. In the springtime when we
go out walking we pick wild flowers
and play games and go any place that we want to go.
There are about 100 people in
Elim. In the summer we go out
to fish in our fish camps. During
the fishing season only two or three
families remain in the village. We
stay away for two and one-half months.
Of course, some of us go back to
the Elim to visit. When we are through
fishing we go berry picking for
the winter. We put the berries into big
barrels and into seal pokes.
Transportation is mainly by
dogteams, boats with outboard motors,
and sometimes by plane.
Most of the people fish for a
living, but some go to other
places to work and some sell or
trade furs to the stores there. But
most of them send their furs to Sears, Roebuck and Co.
The people at Elim are going to
have a cooperative store soon.
We all hope it works out all right.
We live in log houses and get our
water from the creek nearby
or from the spring which is less
than a quarter of a mile away. The
school buildings are at the west
end of the village and made up of the
schoolhouse, machine shop, woodshed, and teacher's house.
The mail boat comes only twice a
month in the summer, but there
is no regular mail in the winter.
Norma Charles
Benjamin Daniels
22
____________________________________________________________
Flat is located in a long flat
valley with
high mountains around it. It is
about 300 miles
inland from the Yukon river and
eight miles from
the Iditarod river which flows into the Yukon.
The population in the summer is
about 335,
but only 125 in the winter; most
of the people go
Outside during the winter and come
back in the.
spring. The climate is very hot
during the summer;
the temperature in the sun has
been known to go up
to 108°; the winter months are
much like those at
Eklutna.
Most of the people work for
wages-- some on
the dredges; some on the
draglines, or bulldozers,
pumping stations, hydraulic lines or driving trucks.
The only recreations they have at
Flat are
dancing the year around and
skating, skiing and
dogriding in the winter.
Most of the people travel by
plane. In the
summer, when the weather is fine
planes come almost
every day, carrying passengers to and from Flat.
[signed] Keith Housler
23
____________________________________________________________
Fortuna Ledge, or Marshal
[Marshall], as it is gen-
erally called, is located on the
Yukon River about one
hundred miles from the mouth or this mighty river.
The climate is satisfactory for
raising
home vegetables in the summer. The
average temperature
in the summer months is
approximately 60 degrees above,
whereas in the winter the
thermometer reaches 20 to thirty
below.
The population varies a great deal
due to
the fact that the native people of
Marshal have to leave
town to do their hunting and
fishing. In summer, prac-
tically all of the native
inhabitants settle temporarily
along the Yukon and spend three
months of fishing. Some
native men are fortunate enough to
get jobs on the Willow
Creek gold mine which is nearly
ten miles from Marshal.
Other men and boys cut wood for
the steamer "Nenana"
that carries freight and mail from
Nenana to the different
towms along the Yukon. In winter,
mail is carried by
plane.
The three chief sports are:
dancing,
skating, and mushing dogs.
Swimming is not very common
at this place as there are no
ponds or lakes in which to
do so. However, some of the
younger residents take the
chance of swimming in the river.
Traveling is done by boat, dogteam
or air-
plane. The latter is used mostly
for long distance trav-
eling in winter. The dogs play a
great part in carrying
our mail from St. Michael after
the Yukon has frozen.
The town is governed by a
deputy-marshal
and a commissioner. The marshal
takes care of the "bad
people" as far north as Nome
and up the river as far as
.Holy Cross, When cases are
brought for a trial the com-
missioner takes the judges seat. I
am glad to say that
residents from Marshal are seldom brought to jail.
Close contacts from the outlying
districts
are obtained by telegraph,
telephone and mail. The daily
news from the states and Foreign
countries as brought to
us by radio.
There are various ways in which
the com-
munity could be improved but it
would rely upon the in-
dividual families to make these improvements, For in-
24
____________________________________________________________
stance, the proper disposal of
garbage, the proper means
of isolation for contagious
diseases and better means
of obtaining sanitary water rather
than from the river.
There is one underground water
supply but looking at it
from a scientific basis it would
not be fit for drink-
ing.
[signed] Emery Hunter
25
____________________________________________________________
Fort Yukon is located, at the
widest part
of the Yukon River. It is about 5
miles above the
Arctic Circle. The climate there
differs very much in
the winter and summer. The coldest
I have known it to
be was 78° below zero. In the
summer it goes as high
as 98° in the shade. The average
number of people at
Fort Yukon in the summer is about
300 or more, but in
the winter there are only about
150 left as most of the
people are out on traplines.
During the summer the people go to
fish
camps. Salmon is the most valuable
fish up there.
Some of it is dried in strips and
others sliced. The
stores buy a lot of dog salmon
from their traders. In
the winter people go trapping.
Lynx, marten, beaver,
muskrat and a few other animals
are caught. In May
most of the trappers come in and sell their furs.
Every week we have a dance and a
movie.
In the Fall every one is enjoying
skating and the first
fall of snow. On the holidays
there is always a big
time. A certain group of people
give what is known as
a "potlatch".
People travel from one place to
another by
boats in the summer and by planes
and dog teams in the
winter.
The village is governed by a
deputy marshal
and a judge. If anything goes
wrong the marshal takes
it up and they go to the judge. If
it is too ser-
ious they have court and it is
usually taken to Fair-
banks.
We hear from people from other
villages
by mail which is carried from one
place to another by
boats in the summer and in the
winter we have planes
or dog teams to carry it. Most of
the white people
have radios and some of the natives.
Some ways that the village could
be im-
proved are to build a small salmon
cannery. The homes
in the village could be improved a
lot. The children
should have places to stay while
they're going to
school and their parents go on
traplines. I think a few
of these changes could be made and
we would have a nice
village.
[unsigned]
26
____________________________________________________________
FORT YUKON
The small rather thickly populated
town
of Ft. Yukon is situated on the
Yukon River. It faces
the river and is flat and
unprotected from wind due to
the mountainless scenery. The
winter is extremely dry
and cold but undaunted the
majority of the male pop-
ulace goes ahead with the fur
trapping, hunting, wood-
cutting and hauling. The young
people in the meantime
attend school.
When Spring comes most of the
womenfolk
go out on ratting trips and after
a large, catch the
rats are skinned, the skin treated
and sold and, this
brings in a good sum or money or
else traded for food
and such supplies. The skins are bought by white men.
Only recently have gardens been
developed
and these thrive nicely during the
hot summers. The
products from these are used by
the household. Flowers
have not been considered quite as much yet.
Fall finds the younger people
going to
school and the jamority of the
older people at the
fish camps There fish are caught
and dried. Bales of
fish are brought to town and sold
or kept for dogs dur-
ing the winter season.
Every weekend rain or shine finds
the
people enjoying a show or a dance.
The other diversions
Include swimming, berry picking
and boat riding during,
the summer. Winter and fall
skating, snow shoeing and
hunting predominate.
Many families own a motor boat,
canoes and
dogs. It is in these that they
travel about as they
please can often carry letters and
messages which are
very helpful to out of the way
places. Airplanes are
not uncommon in transportation.
The weekly steamer dur-
ing the summer season gives access to the outside.
Whatever trouble that may arise in
town is
attended to by the marshal and the
judge.
Recently radios have been
installed in a
few places and are quite a subject
of interest. I know
our place could be improved by
constructing walks and
larger sized houses.
[unsigned]
27
____________________________________________________________
Fort Yukon is located on the Yukon
River, eight miles above the
Arctic Circle and has
a population or about three hundred people.
In winter it gets very cold. One
winter
it got as cold as 70 below zero,
but in summer it
gets very warm at times.
In the winter the people go out
trapping
for lynx, marten, foxes, and
beaver. Early in the
spring they make their fish
wheels, then about the
first of June they all leave for
their fish camps.
The kind of fish they catch the most of is salmon.
They have a show house where the
people
can go any night to see a show. A
big dance hall and a
large ball field and a place where
we play basketball
are also there.
The people travel mostly by small
boats or by canoes in summer. A
river steamer comes
down the river once a week and
goes back the next
week. In winter all their
traveling is done by dog
teams.
The village is governed by the
Chief or
Council, and they help the people
in a lot of their
troubles. Also they have a marshal
so he keeps peace
among the people and they also have a commissioner.
In winter the mail is brought once
a week
by dog team from Circle to Fort
Yukon and from Fair-
banks to Fort Yukon by plane. In
summer the steamer
Yukon makes weekly trips from Dawson to Nenana.
Some of the ways we could change
our
community are having or making
better places to
dispose of our garbage, and making
our homes more at-
tractive, and having a library.
[unsigned]
28
____________________________________________________________
FORT YUKON
Fort Yukon is situated on the
northern-
most point of the Yukon River,
where the Porcupine River
meets the Yukon. The River is
supposed to be about 10
miles across but we can only see
to the next island
which is about 5 miles. The
country surrounding the
town is flat, with not even a hill in sight for miles.
The climate is extreme in the
winter and the
summers are very mild.
Thethermometer sometimes reaches
78°. But every one is bundled up
so in parkas, boots on
and fur mittens in the winter that
they don't mind the
cold at all. Everybody enjoys
swimming almost every
day in summer, it is so warm.
There is a great variety in the
kinds of
people that make up the population
of the town. The
Indians make up the larger portion
of it. There are
also many whites, and a few
Eskimos. Then there is the
mixture of white and Indian blood,
the half breeds and
the quarter-breeds. All in all the
population amounts
to about 500. In summer of course
there are more
people due to the fact that Fort
Yukon is the place
where all trappers and traders
from the outlying
villages and towns come with their
furs to be either
sold or shipped outside.
Trapping is the main way of making
a
living. In the fall of the year
the trappers take
with them enough supplies for the
winter, and leave
the town not to return until
spring unless necessary
supplies are needed. Both the
whites and natives of
the town make a living by
trapping. During the summer
enough fish are caught for a
family for winter. This
fish is dried, of course.
September is the month when
the men get together and go on
their annual caribou
Hunt. The caribou that they get
are usually given to
the older folks who can't go out
and hunt, and also
used for their own families. All
the trading stores are
owned by the whites. Fort Yukon
also boasts a very good
hospital, with 4 nurses and a
doctor, a sanatarium for
TB patients and everything else a
good-sized hospital
has. This hospital also serves the
surrounding country
as far up the river as Eagle, and
as far down the river
as Rampart. The Northern
Commercial Company owns the
wireless station, where the daily
weather reports are
sent and messages received from Fairbanks.
Dancing is the favorite sport of
all the
younger people of the village and. for the old folks, too.
29
____________________________________________________________
The older folks have their
old-fashioned jigs and square
dances. Every week there is a
movie shown. These
movies Were all silent until
recently a talking machine
has been installed. There are many
other sports that
are enjoyed such as skating,
swimming, and dog team
riding. During holidays or after a
caribou hunt we
sometimes have a big potlatch, to
which everyone comes
and eats their fill. It is during
Christmas and New
Years that this feasting is
carried on for about two
weeks. To get to the nearest us
village, one can go in
launches or canoes or in the
winter by dog-teams. In
the summer, there are the weekly
river steamers that
make traveling easier. Planes come
over quite often
from Fairbanks with mail and passengers or tourists.
Our town doesn't seen to be
complete with-
out our marshall and jail, not
meaning of course that
our people are rough and rowdy but
for other pur-
poses too. When a native has done
something wrong the
village Council usually takes it
up first and then turns
him over to the judge to settle.
The natives have also
a chief who is at the head of the Council.
Most of the town's homes that can
afford
a radio, have one. This is one way
of keeping up
with the outside. During the
winter we get weekly
mail by dog-teams and also by
plane. In summer the
riv er steamers bring mail,
freight and passengers.
Just about all summer long there
is heavy tourist traf-
fic because of the many tourist
that want to get to
Fort Yukon to see the midnight
sun. Of course one can
see the sun at other points along
the river but Ft.
Yukon is about 7 or 8 miles above
the Arctic Circle
and that makes it more exciting
for the tourists. Other
attractions are the church and
it's old graveyards, where
the dead, of the Hudson Bay
expedition,. Which first
discovered the town, are buried.
We also have at Ft. Yukon, a
mission, which
is supported by the churches. This
happened to be the
place where I lived a while before I came here.
One way in which I think our
village could
be improved is by building more
attractive homes, altho
the people seem to be quite
satisfied with their small
log cabins even if some are not
attractive. A better
means of disposing of garbage and
a better water supply
are truly improvements that should
be had. Everyone
dumps their garbage into the river
and everyone gets
his water from the river, too.
Maybe a couple of wells
built in the village would help.
[signed] Martha Carlo
30
____________________________________________________________
My home is on the Yukon Fiver.
It's not such a very big place-
only about seventeen houses and a little less than a hundred people there.
In the winter time we usually fish
with nets under the ice, but
in the summer we fish with
fishwheels. Of course we go out trapping for
furs and go hunting for game.
Galena just looks like a fish camp
to most people, but just the
same we have lots of fun; dances
of course whenever people cone from a-
nother place to celebrate. We have
lots of visitors from Nulato and from
Koyukuk. Of course we have no cars
or trucks, so they come by boat in
the summer or by dogteam in the
winter. We do not have any cows, horses,
pigs or chickens.
We play baseball and handball, but the thing I like best to do
is go dogteam riding in the
wintertimes. Sometimes we go out riding with
a dogteam, boys and girls mixed;
then sometimes the boys would throw
the girls in the snow; the girls
would get cold so we'd wrap them all up
in blankets.
We have no real government at
Galena, but there is a Deputy
U. S. Marshal not far away in case anything serious happens.
Mary Nollner
31
____________________________________________________________
Haycock is a small town of less
than one hun-
dred people. It is located near
the Koyuk River
on Dime Creek, a tributary. It is
built on the
side of a hill. Dime Creek runs
thru the place
where the dredge works; and, of
course, there are
trees all around. In the winter it
sometimes
gets over forty degrees below zero.
For amusements we ski, skate,
swim, coast,
dance, play baseball, lap ball and
other outdoor
and indoor amusements.
For a living most or the people
mine and a
few trap. Some cut wood for the
miners, the
school and for some other people.
W get mail
by planes, dogteams and boats. The
planes land
at Landing, a small place seven
miles from Hay-
cock, where the boats come in the
summer time.
From Landing the mail is carried
to Haycock by
dogteam. In the summer it is
carried by the
tractors. People travel by
dogteams, boats and
planes. Two fellows even came from
Nome last
winter on skis.
There is a radio station at Koyuk,
fourteen
miles from Landing where people
can send mes-
sages in cases of emergency.
[signed] Harry Beltz
32
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My home which is located on Kodiak
Island has a
population of about 200. The
climate is quite favorable down there
and in the summertime the weather
is quite warm while the winters are
very mild.
In the summertime the men go
fishing and sell the fish
to some cannery. After the summer
season is over they go fishing for
their own use for winter. They
dry, smoke, or salt the fish for their
own use for their families. In the
winter time they hunt for fox and
ermine for their fur, for which
they get quite a reasonable price when
they sell them.
They do not have much in the way
of recreation; they
have dances and silent pictures,
of course, and the little children a-
muse themselves by playing games
out doors and also some indoor games.
All the traveling is done by boats.
The village is governed by the
teacher there; he also
has to take care of the people that are sick.
Some people who can afford to have
radios have them
which helps the people to come in
contact with other towns, villages,
and outside. Mail also helps to hear from other people.
[unsigned]
33
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My home is just a little town and
the houses are scattered here
and there. There are three stores
which aren't very big, but big enough
for Kenai.
Kenai is located at the mouth of
the river of the same name.
On one side of the river is our
fish cannery and on the other side is the
little town. The population is
about 350, and it is about 100 miles from
Anchorage.
Sometimes in the middle of the
summer there are very hot days,
but most of the time it just
rains. Once in a while we have terrible
thunder storms.
For recreation in the summer the
people dance, swim and listen
to their radios. In. winter we go
skating, dancing and have parties at
our homes.
Most of the men go fishing in the
summer. Some make over nine
hundred dollars fishing, but some
don't make that much. In the winter
they go hunting and trapping and
sell their furs to the stores. That's
the way most of the people make their living.
On Christmas the people usually
celebrate all day. The night.
before Christmas the school
children give a program and then after that
there's a bundle of presents for
everyone. Then we have a big dance.
We celebrate New Year's Eve by
shooting off guns at midnight, and on the
Fourth of July we shoot off firecrackers all day.
Kenai is governed by a deputy
Marshal. Every once in a while
a game warden comes around to check up on us, too.
Helen Dolchok
34
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KENAI
My home is in Kenai, Alaska. In Kenai I live in a three room
house; there are two rooms
downstairs, and one bedroom upstairs. The
village is located hair way up
Cook Inlet on the southeastern side. The
population is about 350.
A long time ago there was a little
village up the Kenai River
quite a way called Skitook where
the people used to live before and later
they moved down the river towards the mouth and named the place Kenai.
In the summer most of the people
go fishing. There is law
that you're not supposed to fish
in any river or creek in which fish go
to spawn. There is a limit from
the river to the location of the fish-
ing grounds. The fishermen get 21’
for good fish and 4½’ for poor fish.
Fishing is a good trade for some
people make as much as $2000 in one
season fishing.
For recreation in Kenai the people
dance or they go on hunting
trips up the Kenai River. The
methods of travel are by boat and plane
in the summer and by plane and dogteam in the winter.
We have regular mail service and
also have a radio telephone in
the village for communication with other places.
The place is governed by a U. S. Deputy Marshal.
Emil Dolchok
35
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King Cove is a small town located
on a long
piece of level land with water on
three sides and
two main channels; one on the
South and the other
on the East. The climate is very
poor since it
rains practically every day. In
winter it gets
only as cold as 10 or 12 above
zero. In summer
it often gets up around 60 or 70 above.
There are about 80 people in King
Cove in the
winter, but in the summer a crew
of 100 whites
and 100 Chinamen come up to work
in the fish
cannery. Most of the people work,
and most of
them have little boats with which
to travel
from place to place.
There is no government in the
place. There
are only bosses for the cannery
and the people
who work there. Of course, if
things get too
bad, we have to send for a marshal
from a neigh-
boring village.
There are about 20 radio sets in
the village-
almost one for every house; and a
few of the
people have telephones. We receive
our mail
only once a month from the steamer
which connects
at Seward with the steamer from Outside.
Well, King Cove may be a good
place for some
people but I certainly don't like it.
[signed] Edward Mack
36
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Kivalina is located on a little is-
land surround, by the ocean and a
lake. The
climate is very cold in the
winterdown to
60 below in the winter around
January; it
never seems to get so warm there
as it does
at Eklutna.
In the fall there are about 150
people in the village but in the
spring only
about 30, for that is the time
when the
people scatter along the coast to
hunt seals.
We do not bother about fishing
except in the
Fall when we catch trout; fishing
for them lasts
about a month.
Trapping is the most important way
of earning a living: in the winter
they trap
red and white foxes and a little
for wolves.
No other fur-bearing animals are
seen except
weasels. The fox skins are usually
sold to the
local traders.
The recreations of the Eskimos are
native dancing, dogteam racing,
foot races,
snow shoe races, wrestling,
playing tricks on
each other. These tricks are
really ways of
showing skill in athletics and stunts.
Travel is mostly done by dogteam
in the winter and boats in the
summer. In
summer when the men are inland
where they are
rounding up the reindeer, they
have to walk
on foot for miles.
The village is governed by the
Civic Club and the councilmen;
they are doing
their best to keep everything in good shape.
The natives are always trying hard
to make their living and they
seldom think of
buying a radio, but we do have one
in the
village. The village is growing
and there
may be more radios in the next few years.
[signed] Adolph Jones
36b
____________________________________________________________
Kivalina
Our village is located on kind of
an island; it has
a lagoon right back of it which is
about 13 miles long, and our vil-
lage has rivers on each end.
In winter time, the climate is
very very cold. The
people all use fur clothes and the
temperature goes down to 40° to
60° below zero. But in summertime
the weather is warm, too, and the
temperature goes up quite high.
The number of people at our
village is approximately
200.
In summertime our people fish with
nets and also seine
with long line of net in the
rivers. In winter they hook fish from the
ice. In the first place, they make
a hole in the ice and then they
put their hook in and wait until they have some luck and get a bite.
We trap only in the wintertime
because the fur is so
good then. They also hunt seals
and butcher reindeer. Otherwise in
summertime they go to Kotzebue or
further South for work of different
kinds in order to make their living.
The recreations they have at home
are Eskimo games and
dancing in both the Eskimo and American ways.
In the summer they travel in
summer mostly by umiaks
or skin boats while in the winter they travel mostly by dogteams.
Our village is governed by
councilmen; they vote one
person to be chief and the
councilmen meet at certain times when any-
thing comes up to attend to.
Up North the mail comes by dog
team from other villages
The Outside mail comes by ships or
on mail boats. They go up as far as
Kotzebue. At our village the
airplanes don't come very often. The
most of the planes come 10 our
village from Kotzebue or further South.
There are not many boats in our village.
I think there's only one radio in
our village and that
belongs to the school teachers and
that is the only way we get our
news from other places.
At our village the houses are mostly
made of sod framed
with driftwood. There are a few
lumber houses, of course, but very
few.
Theres not even one truck or car and no large boats and but few gas or motor boats.
37
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Our village has the largest herd
of reindeer and the
largest reindeer company in Alaska
even tho it is so small. And the
people are as happy as other places and really very smart.
[signed] James Smith
38
____________________________________________________________
Kivalina
My home is far up north about seventy-five miles above
Kotzebue and is on the coast of
the Bering Sea about forty-five miles
below Cape Thompson.
The population of Kivalina
consists of about 150
people. It gets very cold in the
winter but it is warm in the summer.
It gets so cold in the winter that
the people wear fur parkas and fur
boots.
The people do most of their
fishing in the fall. The
village is very small but it owns
quite a lot of reindeer. Toward fall
the reindeer herders go out in the
mountains and round up the herds
of reindeer and corral them. They
then mark them and chase them back
in the mountains. When the Motor
Ship North Star goes by they round up
some of the herds and butcher some
and send them to Seattle. The last
year before I came to school they
butchered 1,070 reindeer to send
South to Seattle. The people start
trapping on the first of November
and quit at the end of April.
For recreation the people at home
skate, play ball,
dance, and other things of the
sort. They travel mostly by dogteams
and by boats. The village is
governed by seven councilmen.
The people of the village are in contact with other
villages by mail. This place is
really a little island with the lagoon
in the back and the sea in front
with one inlet from the sea and one
outlet from the lagoon.
I think if the people had a
cannery for reindeer meat,
it would be better for the village.
[signed] Walter Wilson
39
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If you were looking for Kokrines
you would look between Ruby
and Tanana. There are hills almost
all around it. The town itself is
built on a big hill. It is about 402 miles from Eklutna.
The temperature is sometimes very
hot, but if it is there is
always a little breeze from the
hills to cool it off. Sometimes in the
winter the temperature goes way
down to 60° below or lower, but not very
often. The winds blow very hard in
March and the first partoof April.
The ice starts running about the
middle of September, and freezes in Oc-
tober. Around, the last part of
October there is no danger of falling
thru the ice but before then it
isn't vary safe to travel at night. The
snow gets very high and thick and takes a long time to melt.
There are about 98 people in
Kokrines. They cut wood for the
steamboats, traders, school , and
Northern Commercial Company down at
Ruby. They sell dried fish, meat,
all kinds of berries, moccasins, boots,
and many other things to earn money.
We dance, have parties, play ball,
play cards, and have plays
given by the children. They travel
by canoe, motor boats, steamers,
plane and in winter by dogteam.
They have one telephone in the store
that is connected with Ruby.
The village has a chief and some
of the men to help him, but
if things get too bad, they can go
down to Ruby where there is a U. S.
Deputy Marshal.
Frances Gonzales
40
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Kotzebue is located above the
Arctic Circle
about 125 miles north or Nome. The
thermometer rises to
about 60° in summer and in winter
it is about 4:0° below.
Snow piles up about 20 feet in
drifts. There is a pop-
ulation of about 400 people. In
the summer people from
the Noatak and Kobuk Rivers coming
down to fish set up
about a mile of tents, increasing
the population consider-
ably.
One of the chief means of making a
living
is fishing; it is also a sport. In
winter a hole is
made thru the ice and a line is
cast thru it. A large
pile of fish is caught in an hour
when a lot of fish are
running. Another way of fishing in
winter is casting a
net under the ice. Two holes are
made about 30 feet
apart. A net is drawn down one
hole and is anchored in
the other. Salmon fishing is
common in summer. A lot
of hunting and trapping is done in
the winter as soon as
the season is opened, quite a few
foxes are caught. A
bunch of men go seal-hunting in
the Spring. The meat is
dried and stored in seal oil.
Baseball is a favorite sport. A
lot of
skiing and skating is done. On
moonlit nights more than
50 skaters are out. There is a
small show house where a
silent picture is shown once a
week. Afterwards there is
a dance.
Dog-teams are the most important
means of
travel in winter; boats are in
summer. There are a couple
of trucks--one owned by the
Ferguson Company, which also
owns a motorcycle and 2 or 3
airplanes. These planes car-
ry mail between Nome and Kotzebue.
The town is governed by a marshal
who takes
care of the tough characters of
that town. There is a
small jailhouse in which drunks are kept for about a week.
There are a few radios by which we
hear
news from the outside. Airplanes
and dogteams carry mail
to and from the other towns and villages.
The natives could be more careful
about
their garbage. Instead of dumping
it behind their houses
or by the street they should take
it way out on the ice
where it will be taken away at
breakup time. Playgrounds
could be erected.
[signed] Bertha Schaeffer
41
____________________________________________________________
Koyuk is located near Norton
Sound. Part of
the village is located on the side
of the hill which
is covered with trees, and part of
it is nearer the
river.
Most of the people herd reindeer
and fish
for a living. A few of them work for
the miners dur-
ing the summer.
The coldest it ever gets is about
sixty below
in winter, but it is usually only
between thirty or
forty below. In summer the hottest
it ever got in
the sun was 116 above, but it is
usually much cooler
than that.
The population is about 100.
Nearly every
family has a dog team. With a team
they can travel
almost any place in the winter. In
the summer they
do all their travelling in boats.
Koyuk is governed by a Mayor who
is elected
by the people of the village.
There are also a few
other elected officers who manage
affairs of the vil-
lage.
There is a dogteam mail-carrier
who goes
from place to place with freight
and mail. He usu-
ally goes thru Koyuk twice a week.
The plane trav-
elling between Fairbanks and Nome
also carries mail
and usually lands at Koyuk twice a
week. The Pac-
ific Alaska airways has put up a
wireless station
in the village to aid their
flyers, since that com-
pany has the mail contract.
[signed] Henry Adams
42
____________________________________________________________
My home is near the middle part of
the Yukon and on the mouth
of the Koyukuk River. It is very
cold in the winder and moderately
warm in the summer. In the village there are about 150 people.
Most of the people at home fish in
the summer and trap in the
winter. In summer when all the
people come from trapping they have
good times every night such as
dancing, the native type, parties,
potlatches, etc. In winter there
isn't so much recreation as in
summer and fall.
The most important way of travel
at home is by dog teams in win-
ter and steam and gasboats in
summer. Every winter there is aman
with a team of about 15 dogs who
goes up and down the Yukon river and
carries the mail from all points. It is a very dangerous job.
In summer time we contact people
with mail, telephone, river
boats and in winter with dog
teams. There is a Signal Corps station
about 15 miles down river and it
is used daily to bring weather re-
ports and messages to Anchorage to
broadcast. It was out of order
last spring when the river flooded the whole town.
[signed] Gilbert Andrews
43
____________________________________________________________
My home town is located on the
Kobuk River. In winter time it gets
pretty cold but in summer it is mild.
The population of our village is approximately three hundred.
The people fish for grayling,
white fish in the summer and about the
month of August they fish for salmon until freeze up.
In winter time they hunt red, white, blue, cross and silver foxes.
They trap all winter until March,
and after March they trap for muskrats.
The native mine for gold also.
They play baseball, foot ball,
skating, skiing, dancing, and a whole
lot of games. They also go to shows once a week.
They travel by dog team in the
winter and by gas boats in the summer.
We get our mail by plane in the winter time and in summer by gas boats.
They are very friendly with each
other. They trade for things they
dont have.
My home town people are not very
civilized as they should be. I think
there is lot of ways that they can improve. For instance:
They need more gas boats, build a
cannery, more attractive homes,
Doctors and Nurses, fur farms and
vetter ways of preparing food for
both winter use and summer. If
they can allord to buy radios, I
should think it would be a good
thing to do. But the thing is that
they would have a rather difficult
time getting electricity. They
also need knowledge of crafts. If
they all combine as one I think
they wouldn't have much
difficulties in getting there little village
better than the rest.
[signed] Clarence Aden
44
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Hot Springs is situated on a
slough of one
of the tributaries of the Tanana
River, above the
settlement of Tanana. The steamers
stop at the dock
which is 5 miles out of town;
there is only a ware-
house at the dock.
The climate there is very
favorable; it is
warm in the summer, and very cold
in the winter. The
population is about 100, which
makes it quite crowded
since it is only a small village.
The people trap foxes, mink,
coyotes, weasels,
otter, lynx, and wolverine. They
hunt rabbits, moun-
tain sheep, moose, caribou,
muskrats, porcupine, ptar-
migan, spruce chickens, ducks, geese, and cranes.
Fishing is another great industry;
they fish
for different kinds of salmon:
kings, silvers, and
chums; also whitefish, grayling, and lush.
Farming is another occupation. One
of the
chief occupations of the people is
the mining of gold.
The people travel from place to
place by dog,
teams in winter and gas boats in
summer, horses and
by automobiles.
The only government of the village
is han-
dled by the U. S. Commissioner.
There is one store at Hot Springs,
owned and
operated by the Northern
Commercial Company, but there
is also a roadhouse there.
For recreation the people skate,
dance, swim,
ski and go picnicing and for dog
team rides. Mail
comes twice a month in the summer
by the steamer, and
in winter it is brought by dogteam and airplanes.
The people live in log cabins,
which are very
cosy in the winter time. Almost
every family has a
radio.
Hot Springs was named and is noted
for its
warm water spring and anyone can
bring their tubs and
washboards and wash their clothes at the spring.
[signed] Irene Westerlund
45
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There are about six hundred
Indians in
the progressive Alaskan town of
Metlakatla,
which has running water in every
Indian home,
electric street lights, sewers, a
large salmon
cannery, the largest town hall in
Alaska, and a
fifty-piece band or orchestra,
with new, modern
instruments. The Indians also own
and operate
a sawmill and a boatbuilding
establishment. The
chief source of income is the salmon industry.
The Metlakatla colony on Annette
Island,
Alaska, possesses a unique
history. In 1856
William Duncan, a young
Englishman, came to Fort
Simpson, British Columbia, as a
boy missionary
of the Established Church of
England, Missionary
Society of London. After five
years at Fort
Simpson he founded an Indian
village near there
which was called Metlakatla, and
converted a-
bout one thousand Indians to
Christianity. He
taught then self-government, to
construct suit-
able log houses, thrift, morality,
and the ways
of the white men.
The community prospered. In the
course
of years, however, friction
developed between
Mr. Duncan and certain officials of the church
and of the Government. This
trouble began about
1880. As a result, Mr. Duncan and
the Indians
decided to found another home
elsewhere, and fi-
nally chose Annette Island,
Alaska, as a desir-
able site for their new colony.
Mr. Duncan visited Washington, D.
C. and
interested Government officials
and members of
Congress in this work among the
Indians and their
desire to migrate to Alaska. By
Act of Congress,
approved March 5, 1891, Annette
Islands were
set apart as a reservation for the
use of the
Metlakatla Indians and such other
Alaska natives
as might join them.
The colony has prospered. It is a
self-
governing community, operating
under Rules and
Regulations prescribed by the
Secretary of the
Interior, January 28, 1915, with a Town Council
46
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and town officials elected by popular vote.
The Office of Indian Affairs
conducts a
school at Metlakatla which is its
largest day
school in Alaska. The salmon
cannery is leased
to a commercial operator, under a
contract which
assures a large share of the
profits to the In-
dians for community welfare and
improvements.
During the last few years this has
approximated
$40,000 a year. People who visit
Metlakatla for
the first time invariably express
surprise at the
advance in civilization which has
been made for
these Indians in a comparatively
short period of
time.
The Natives of Alaska have
retained, tho
in modified form, the essentials
of the arts
and crafts of their forefathers.
In Southeastern
Alaska the men, through expressive
carvings,
sometimes bold, sometimes
delicate, in wood,
slate and bone, testify to a
sensitive interpre-
tation of the mythology of the
Tlingits and
Haidas, rich in totemic symbolism.
Baskets are likewise produced by
many
Eskimo villages. But the Eskimos
are better
represented in the art field by
carvings in
ivory, executed with fidelity to a
style set
centuries ago by a cultural era
now passed, a
style often compared with the
impressionistic,
palaeolithic drawings of the caves
of Southern
France.
D. E. Thomas
(From Indians at Work---July 1, 1935)
47
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The location of my home is on the
north
side of Nunivak Island. It is
beside a small river or
lagoon. The weather is not so cold
as farther north,
but sometimes it was 20° below
zero when it was the
coldest. There are only about 65 people.
In summer we fish for codfish,
salmon, and
some trout. We hunt, too, in the
fall, for seals when
our fishing is over. In winter
those men and boys who
are not in school hunt and trap foxes.
The people have Eskimo dances
almost every
month. In the winter they play
Eskimo football, too.
They travel mostly in kayaks, but
sometimes
when they have enough walrus skins
they make umiaks
or skinboats. The use dogteams in
the winter.
The village has no commissioner or
any other
Form of government, so the headman
of the village
rules the people with the aid of the teacher.
We have radios that gives us news
as well as
music. In the winter we have no
visitors from the
mainland, and we have to wait
until the ice melts in
the spring before we can get any
mail. The only way
the mail is brought is by Coast
Guard cutters and other
boats. The traders travel
regularly in the summer,
trading merchandise for baskets,
foxes, and ivory car-
vings.
[Signed] Arthur Nagozuk
48
____________________________________________________________
Neelik is a small village about
sixty
miles north of Selawik. It is
located at the mouth
of a small slough on the Selawik
river.
In the summer tine, the temperatures
av-
erage from sixty to seventy
degrees above zero. Only
in rare instances has it ever
reached eighty degrees
above zero. In general, the
climate at Neelik is very
moderate. In winter the
temperature almost never goes
below sixty degrees below zero and
never goes above
twenty above. It usually ranges
from thirty to fifty
below.
Unlike most towns, Neelik has more
people
in winter than in summer. In
winter there are about
15 families at Neelik, but in the
Spring most of them
go away to their various fish and
muskrat camps and stay
away all summer. In winter the men
go out hunting and
trapping foxes, mink, wolves, land
otter, and once in
a while some hunter gets a lynx,
which they trade to the
fur buyers and traders. In
addition to that, they kill
reindeer, rabbits, ptarmigans,
geese, etc. Also, in
summer, the people catch fish
which they dry for winter
use.
During the latter part of August,
all the
women and children go out into the
hills to pick blue-
berries, cranberries, salmonberries
and currants. They
store these berries away in
barrels and seal-skin pokes
for winter use. They also pick
wild rhubarb in July,
which they cook and store away in
barrels, also for
use during the winter.
As there is no school at Neelik,
the boys
and girls have a lot of time to
themselves. So when-
ever there is no work to do, they
all hitch up their
dog teams and go out riding, play
football or baseball.
If the weather is too stormy to be
out of doors, they
all gather at one house and play
cards, tell stories,
or dance to the phonograph, the
guitar and sometimes
when they happen to meet at our
home, to the radio.
There are also two favorite out of
door sports that I
almost forgot to mention: skiing
and skating.. As there
is a lot of snow up there, almost
every boy and girl
has a pair of skiis, which they make out of birch wood.
As Neelik is only a small
settlement,
there is no marshal or even a
school teacher there, so,
whenever the natives are in
trouble, they go to the
trader and he does whatever he can do for them.
49
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The cheapest and most common means
of
travel above the Arctic Circle in
winter is by dog
team, and for the more well-to-do,
airplanes. In
summer everybody travels by boats,
mostly gasboats.
The only way the people at Neelik
can
come in contact with people from
the outside places,
in winter, is by radio, and thru
the mail that an
airplane brings once a month. In
summer, however, as
the boats run up and down the
river all the time,
you can go down to Kotzebue, about
180 miles away, and
back
again in a week.
Since there are quite a few
families with
children that are of school age, I
think that there
should be a school there.
50
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Noatak village is located on the
high
banks of the Noatak River in the
interior from Kot-
zebue Sound. It is many miles
north of the Arctic
Circle. The village itself is
encircled, with many
trees and at the back of it there is a great lake.
In the winter it is quite cold and
in
summer it is comfortable. In the
coldest days of the
winter the temperature is some
around 80Ί below zero.
Thus the parkas and mukluks made
of skin are warm. In
summer an ordinary kind of clothes
like we have here
now is used.
The population of the village at
present
is at least around 200, but I am not sure.
In summer a lot of fishing for all
sorts
of fish is done and they are
stored for winter use
mostly while some of it is sold.
Of course there are
many different kinds of hunting
that the people do,
such as muskrat hunting and selling
of the furs, and
also seal hunting. The skins and
the oil from the
seals are sold and also the skin
is made into clothing.
The meat is kept for food. In
winter most people trap
for foxes, wolves, minks,
wolverine, ermine, etc. The
foods that are Most used by people
are such as rein-
deer meat, fish, caribou meat, all
kinds of wild
berries, rabbits, ducks, and once
in a while mountain
sheep and goat. There is very
little growing of vege-
tables.
The people enjoy all sorts of
interesting
native games such as native
stunts, dances, football,
baseball, and sometimes parties for the school children.
The traveling in summer is mostly
by boats
and in winter by dog teams.
The village is governed by the
school
teachers and village council. When
the people need help
they usually go to the teachers for aid.
To make contact with people from
other places : mail
is brought in by either boats in
summer or by dog teams
in winter and also by radio.
Some ways that the village could
be im-
proved is by building up more
attractive home. Or course
most people are quite satisfied
with their log cabins
which are very cozy and loved by
the family. One could
also build a fur farm there.
51
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There is a fur farm at the village
but it is owned by
the whites. There are many ways
that thev village can
be improved although it is a Very
small village.
[Signed] Grace Barger (Stevens)
52
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My home is located near the Bering
Sea and has a little river near it
called the
Snake River. There are a few hills
nearby,
and mountains not far away, with
tundra dotted
with lakes and ponds in between.
The climate there is almost like
Eklutna except that it doesn't
rain so much
and is much colder in the winter.
The people
who live in Nome wear parkas,
jackets, coats,
mukluks and heavy winter clothing.
In the winter Nome has a
population
of about 700, but in the summer
there are
1,000 or more. The people fish,
trap, hunt,
or mine. They fish in the summer
along the
beach and rivers; they mine along
the beach;
in the winter they hunt seals and
ptarmigan
and trap foxes and rabbits; ducks
and geese
are shot both in the spring and
the fall; and
both walrus and seals are hunted in the Spring.
For recreation we have dances and
games. White people have their
dances where
they dance in their own way, while
we Eskimos
have our own dances for recreation.
Travel is done by planes,
steamers,
motor boats, skin boats, dogteams and skiffs.
The town is run by a city council
which takes care of most of its government.
There is a postoffice at Nome; a
landing-field for planes; and a
radio sta-
tion. The mail is carried by
dogteams and
planes in the winter, by planes
and boats in
the summer.
[unsigned]
53
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My home is located on a hill by
the Kobuk
Rivor; it is half surrounded by
the river and has many
beautiful spruce trees around the
village. On its
north side, the mountains are
about 19 miles away and
on its south side, about 22 miles.
The village has
two streets; the upper one is
called Spruce Street and.
the lower is called Birch Street.
The climate from November until
April is
usually cold. In the summer,
however, it is hot, from
70 to 90 degrees. In a year the
ice in the river freeze s
4 or 5 feet deep and 2 or 3 feet
of snow covers the
ground.
In the winter the people work and
hunt for
a living. The women cook, make
mukluks, parkas and
mittens. They use wood for fuel
instead of coal. In
the Spring nearly all the people
scatter out for their
muskrat camps and hunt for the
next three months. In
summer they move to their fishing
camps and fish for
smelts, sheafish, white fish,
pickerel, mudsharks, trout
and salmon. The most important
fish are the salmon and
the whitefish; A bundle of these
fish contains 25 sal-
mon and a bundle costs about
$4.50. There are 8 white-
fish in one string; one bundle
contains 20 strings.
Its cost is now about $6.75. They
sell these to the
traders and get what they need in
exchange. Most of
the time the women pick berries
and store them away for
the winter.
On Thanksgiving they have a great
feast.
Before they eat they have dog
races, root races, and a
football game. At 4:00 p.m. they
come to the feast
at the Friend's Church and stay
until 9 o'clock. Then
the men and big boys go the native
store and play
Eskimo games all night. On
Christmas they have pro-
grams, feasting, racing and play
all kinds of Eskimo
and white games until New Years.
In the winter time the people
travel by dog
teams. Some richer people travel by
planes. In the
summer they travel by motor boats
and rowboats. In
the fall some of the people travel on their skate s.
The village is governed by
councilmen; they
also have a judge, two marshals,
and a secretary. No
gambling or other bad things are
done in this village.
Every spring the village must be
cleaned up.
54
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Some people have radios in their
homes and
they hear the news from other
places. In winter time
the planes are used to carry the
mail; in summer boats
are used. There is no postoffice
in the village so the
mail is handed, out by the
teachers: mail usually comes
once a month.
There is no doctor or nurse in the
village
so the teachers see that the
people get along. Most of
the people go down to Kotzebue to
see the doctor. This h
is 60 miles from Noorvik. The
population of the vil-
lage is 185.
[Signed] Louis Kagoona
55
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Nulato is eighteen miles from the
mouth of the Koyukuk River. The
climate is
mild and warn with a little rain
in the sum-
mer and extremely cold around the
middle of
winter with about 15 inches of
rain during
January. There are about 200
people in the
village.
The present village of Nulato is
not in the same place as before
the famous
Nulato massacre took place when
the Koyukuk
Indians wiped out the village. The
old vil-
lage was about a mile below where
it is now.
Most of the people were killd and
their houses
were burned down; what few were
left lived
around the Koyukuk mountain which
was their
trapping ground and winter camp
ground. They
finally settled ton the present site of Nulato.
Most of the boys of the village
either work on the river boats or
go freigh-
ting to the Koyukuk mine which is
turning out
good lately. There is also a
sawmill there where
some of the people work.
Other people of the village chop
cordwood for the three trading
posts or fish
during the summer with nets or
fishwheels.
They often use fishtraps in the winter.
During the winter, December 25, is
a day set aside every year by the
people for
their dances and the
entertainments given by
the school children. March 17th is
also a day
of recreation, especially for dog
races, snow-
shoe races, and games. The most of
the people
between Kaltag and Galena select
good runners
and teams and try them out to see
who will win.
July 4th is also a day of races,
but different
kinds than in the winter; the
one-man canoe
races for 2 miles; boat races with
4-6 men in
each boat; footraces; baseball
games. Nearly
every Sunday they play baseball,
handball, or
football.
56
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Transportation is by gasboats on
the
river in the summer and dogteams
in the winter.
For communication there is a
telephone between
Koyukuk and Unalakleet and also a
Signal Corps
station.
The head of the government of the
village is called the Chief and he
has a council
to help him talk over matters
about dances,
and other things of more
importance. A new
chief is elected every four
years.
[Signed] Donald Stickman
57
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My home is at Nunapitchuk, located
on the
west side of the Kuskokwim Rive r.
It is about 40 or
50 miles from Bethel by the river
and about 28 miles
by land. It is on one of the
tributaries of the Kus-
kokwim, called Johnson Slough. The
place is nothing
but tundra and is very swampy and
we can see for miles
around us because there are no
trees except willows
about 3 feet high.
The climate is not very
satisfactory during
the fall for it rains continually
every week until
about the middle of January. In
the winter it does not
get very cold except that it blows
and drifts snow. Dur-
ing the summer months the weather
is very favorable.
The sun shines almost every day.
The population of the village is
120 or a
few more. Most of the people live
in mud igloos for
there are very few who live in log
cabins, it is very
hard to get timber as far as the
village; every summer
they go up to the Kuskokwim and
cut logs for the win-
ter use and then drift then down stream.
During the summer the people all
go down
to the Kuskokwim and fish for king
salmon. Then they
go on up to the tundra in August
to put up as many
berries in barrels for winter use
as possible. In the
fall they fish for whitefish and
black fish with dip
nets and fish traps. During the
fur season they trap
for red and white fox, mink, and beaver.
For recreation in the fall they
skate and in
winter they play football and
baseball. In the even-
ings, they have their native
dances which are very in- n
teresting to see, for even the
five-or six-year olds
do the dances just as well as the grownups.
In the winter they travel by
dogteams,
Which they use for going from one
place to another and
Get getting their wood. During the
summer they go by
rowboats and mostly by kyaks [kayaks].
The teacher has just been
explaining to the h
men how to organize a council this
fall (1937). When
the teacher first got there he
found they did not
know the difference between yes
and no because they had
never been to school before and
they talked nothing but
native.
58
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The mail is very irregular at
Nunapitchuk
for the planes do not go there. In
the winter they
take the mail up whenever they go
to Bethel by dog
team. In the summer they go by
boats. Only the
teachers and the traders have
radios which help them
a great deal for they can hear the
news every even-
ing .
[Signed] Ruth Anaruk
59
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The little village where I come
from is Perryville and it is
located on the Alaska Peninsula,
six to seven hours run by boat from
the Shumagin Islands. It is on the
coast and there are lots of hills
and mountains around us.
The summers are sometimes very
hot, with cold winters. There
are at least 100 people in all
including the school teachers.
Recreations are baseball,
basketball, and other sports. Last
year in the spring our boys played
a game of baseball with the players
from the cutter Hermes. They won
the game bay a schore of 9 to 3.
We have dances at least six or
seven times a month in some of
the houses. But they're building a
dance hall. The size of it is to be
30' x 50'; pretty good size for
such a few people. They are planning to
have games played in it when it is
done.
The natives there also have a
bluefox farm on Chiachi Island.
That started four years ago.
There's a certain family to take care of
it in the winter when the rest go
to their trapping grounds and trap for
fur such as fox, mink, wolverine,
cross fox, etc. In the summer there
is also someone to care for it and
when the summers work is over they
pay the ones who took care of it.
.Each man gets at least $200 to $250
apiece. But the men who work, kill
and help with the skins in the winter
also get paid besides. First they
have to catch the foxes and put them
into pens , then they pick out the
finest before they do any killing
and let the bad ones go. The men
and boys seem to like it and cooperate
together to put up feed during the
summer months.
In the summer we put up fish and
berries. We salt, smoke and
dry fish for our won use. The men
do all that work while the girls
and older women pick berries and
make jams and jellies out of them. There
are salmon berries, blue berries,
mossberries, and cranberries.
Last year, beginning May 21, the
volcano erupted and there was
Hardly any berries, game, fowl or
fish. But now it isn't so had.
Father Hubbard and his party were
in Perryville to climb Mt.
Veniaminof and see if it was
dangerous. Before they started climbing
they gave talkies which the people
enjoyed and were very jubilant about.
Tt took them at least two days to
climb and were having hard times as
there are so many steep bluffs,
but they go home all right.
There is a mayor and councilmen
whom the people obey and try
to do the best they can. We also have a priest in the village.
Dora Takak
60
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My home town, Pilot Point, is
located on the Ug-
ashik River on the Bristol Bay.
The population is about
two hundred, when theyre all
there. Most of the popula-
tionis make of the Alaska Packers,
men who come there each
summer and work on the cannery,
canning fish.
The climate is fairly warm in the
summer time, in the
middle of the summer the
temperature gets and high as 98Ί in
the shade. In the winter the
weather gets quite cold at times.
20Ί below zero.
For living the people fish, and
trap. In summer
the people fish and sell it to the
cannery, of which they
get fourteen and a quarter cents
for a fish. People
there make two to six hundred
dollars each season, that is,
if the fish are running good. The
packers put up thirty to
fifty thousand cases each year.
Red salmon, of course, is
the main and only fish they can,
and of course the king and
dog are top, but it isnt so sweet
and juicy and the red sa-
lmon. Crabs are also canned at the
Alaska Packers Cannery.
Cod fish is also caught and salted
and diced.
For recreation people gamble,
dance, play pool, and
baseball, camp, hike, and joy ride
in automobiles and speed
boats. Speed boat riding is the
leading recreation in my
home town.
Traveling is quite a hobby to the
people of Pilot
Point. They travel by boats and
chiefly by plane. The pl-
anes come in quire often bringing
passengers, mail and fresh
fruits and vegetables like
tomatoes, celery, bananas, peaches,
cherries, plums and many others
which we cant raise at our
place.
In winter people travel by skating
and skiing and
so many dog teams. There is so
many lakes and hills that
it is always cheaper to
either ski or skate going from
one village to another. Skating is
one of the chief means
of traveling from village to
village in winter.
Most every one has a radio and
light plant. By
means of radio, we get the news
and whats going on in the
outside world.
There are few attractive homes,
most of them are at
the north end of the village. To
tell the truth, most
houses arent painted and the fish
cashe could be built a
little more like one than of
having a tumble down shack
covered over with canvas. Garbage
is one of the most un-
tidy looking places, since most
people are living so close
the beach back and it is always
easy to dump the cans, etc.
61
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there. A garbage disposal will be
very nice thing to have,
as it will make the bank, not of
cans, boxes, and all such
things.
Roads can be made more smoothe
with gravel then of
having big gutters here and there.
Our town is run by the Alaska
Packers Cor-
poration. This company is known to
be the biggest Packing
Corporation in the world.
[Signed] Mary Griechen
62
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This little village is located on the Yukon River. It is in a
valley; the best valley along the
river. In the winter the coldest it
gets is between 50° and 60° below
zero. There are not many people during
the winter for they are out at
their winter camps. There are only about
28 people there during the winter.
In the summer there are somewhere a-
round 90 people.
In order to make a living we hunt,
herd reindeer, work for
wages at the government school,
cut and haul wood, work at mines at
Marshall, and go muskrat hunting
down ont the flats in the spring. We
have good duck and goose hunting in the spring and fall.
All thru the summer we do a lot of
fishing for Yukon River
salmon, which we dry, smoke, and
salt. Some of this we sell, and some
we keep for dog feed and still
others we keep for ourselves. In the
winter, too, we have fishtraps in
some of the lakes and streams, and we
visit them every once in a while to take out the fish that we catch.
Willie Kinzy
63
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My home is at Point Hope. The Post
Office
is called Tigara. The village is
located at 68Ό de-
grees north latitude and 167 west
longitude. There
are two oceans on either side and
there are two capes.
Cape Lisburne is north of Pt. Hope
and Cape Thompson
is southeast of the village.
Lisburne is about 30
miles north and a range of
mountains extends between
the two capes.
The village is about half a mile
away from
the point; the houses are built of
lumber and drift
wood; more of lumber then of drift
wood, which are
covered with sod. In. winter the
temperature goes
down to 30 below zero, but not
very often below 6°
below zero. In summer it sometimes
goes up to 80°.
There are about 150 people in the
village.
In the summer the people fish,
hunt walrus,
herd reindeer, and dig in the old
ruin for relics to
sell when any boat comes. In the
fall some people go
up the Kukpuk River to fish and
also to rebuild their
trapping camps. In the winter most
of the people go
trapping up in the mountains. The
season opens in
November and lasts until March
31st. In the district
called no. 8 it opens in December
an. lasts until
April 15. Last winter some of the
trappers caught over
40 foxes. In the Spring the men go
out on the ice for
whaling; the season lasts for
about three months and
after that they hunt for oogruks,
seals, walrus, bel-
ugas, and ducks. The first part of
July some of the
men go to gather crowbills eggs in skin boats.
For recreation they dance both
Eskimo and
American dances, play football,
baseball and do other
things for pleasure. In the summer
they travel by
skin boats with outboard motors.
In the winter and
spring they go by dogteam.
The village is governed by seven
council-
mmen and four women. Every
Saturday these four wo-
men inspect the houses. Every New
Year they have an
election in the school house for the
village com-
mittess. There is also a Commissioner in Pt. Hope.
There are two radios, so we can
hear news
and music. In the winter the mail
is brought by dog-
team which makes four trips. In
the spring or autumn
the mail comes by boats and
sometimes by planes.
In the summer boats bring supplies
for the teachers
and the store. Every Sunday we go to church at 11 a.m.
[Signed] Rose Koonook / John Oktallia
64
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My home is located on an island;
it is
cold in winter, and by now
(October 20) it is just
about freeze-up time. Boys and
girls go skating
and sliding. They wear fur
clothing and they never
wear shoes in winter. Sometimes it
is warm in the
summer and the people can go
without parkas or other
fur clothing.
There are quite a few houses in
the vil-
lage but not much over 100 people.
People go fishing by boats in the
fall; they
store them and eat them choked or
frozen. The reindeer
hide is used for clothing and the
meat is for food.
Squirrel, skins are usually used
for coats and parkas,
and the meat is used for food.
Seal, oogruk, polar
bear, brown bears are all used for
food and clothing;
whales are not used for clothing,
but are much used
for food; they are very big, some
over 100 feet long.
People go and mine coal in the
spring and fall.
Recreations are good: Eskimo games
and
dances mostly and the people do
them very well.
In winter there are people
traveling by
dog teams from place to place and
in summer by sail
and by skin boats. Once an old man
went to Icy Cape
from Wainwright by a sailboat all
alone and I think
he enjoyed his trip.
The village is governed by seven
council-
men; or six of them are councilmen
and one is the
marshal. They also have a reindeer
manager and a
president.
People travel and bring news from
place
to place. The mail carrier is the
one who brings
the mail, and his home is in
Barrow, his route from
Barrow to Point Hope. The mail
goes four times a
year. In Point Lay we have only
one radio and we
often hear the news. In the summer
we sometimes get
mail by sailboats, launches and by
large ships. In
the spring it sometimes comes by
plane.
There is one schoolhouse in the
village
and the building is also used as a
church. There are
no mountains and trees; it is only
tundra. There is
a lagoon about a mile wide and
there are a few low
hills on the opposite of the lagoon from the village.
[Signed] Reginald Joule
65
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Point Lay
My home is located between
Wainwright and Point Hope;
the name of the village is Pt.
Lay. The climate is very cold in winter
time; they use skin parkas in
order to keep war. The number of people
at Pt. Lay is a little over 100 so
that's not very much. There are not
many old people living there.
At home they don't fish very much.
In the fall before
the ice freezes they go up the
river and stay up there in igloos which
are built of willows and sod. They
stay up there for about three
weeks till the ice is good enough
to travel on. They only catch about
from seven to fourteen sacks of
grayling.
The men are always busy trapping
foxes from December to
April 15. Sometimes a man would
stay away from home about one month up
inland trapping foxes and come
home with about ten foxes at once.
Besides trapping they do a lot of
hunting. They hunt
seals in winter and spring time.
They use the seal blubber for dog
feed and for their own use.
The most enjoyment they have at
home is Eskimo dancing
and football. Between Christmas
and New Years in our village is the time
they have lots of fun. They do all
kinds of rough stunts at that time.
The way they travel at home is by
dog team in winter
time. In the summertime they use
skin boats and whale boats and some
motor boats.
The village is governed by seven
Councilmen. Five men
and two women are on the Council.
The women inspect every Saturday
to see if the houses are clean.
They keep the records of the houses
and at New Years they give the
cleanest house a prize.
The way they carry mail is mostly
by dogteam, which is
done three times a year: November,
January and March. The airplanes
go up there at least five times a year.
[unsigned]
66
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Rampart is located, on the banks
of the
Yukon in the interior of Alaska.
It is considered the
prettiest spot along the river.
Rampart once had a
population of about four thousand
but that was away
back when--in the mad gold rush
days when gold was dis-
covered on one of the creeks by a
native. Then people
of every description swarmed in,
but now only a little
over a hundred people reside in and around Rampart.
The scenery is very pretty, for
our little
village is almost entirely
surrounded by hills. There
was once a government experimental
farm across the river
from the town but is is now
uninhabited. The alfalfa and
hay (oats, etc.) still grows over
there in big squares
of lavender and yellow and this
added, to the rose of the
fields or fireweed and green trees
makes a very color-
ful picture. Strawberries still
grow on the farm and are
picked by the people.
The biggest attraction of Rampart
is
"Rex Beach's cabin."
This little cabin was built by the
author years ago when he lived
there gathering material
for his stories. No one paid very
much attention to
it then, but now his cabin is very
much admired by the
touristsit is all scribbled up
with names and initials
of people from all over.
The weather is very warm in the
Spring and
Summer. In June the temperature is
often higher than
100. In August it grows cooler and
by October pieces
of ice begin to form in the river
and along the shore.
These grow larger and larger until
the river finally
freezes up in November. From
November until late in
March it is very cold. The coldest
weather we've had was
70° or more degrees below zero,
but no one minds the
cold; everyone dresses in fur
boots and parkas as they
do all along the Yukon.
The biggest excitement of the year
is the
Breakup, which occurs in May, and
it never falls to
thrill even the oldest sourdough.
People make their livings by
fishing,
hunting, gardening, working in
gold mines, sewing, cut-
ting and selling wood. Wood is
plentiful around that
part of the country and coal is
something foreign to
us. In the fall thousands of
caribou cross the river
almost right in the town. Men go
on moose hunts and are
almost always successful. Moose
and caribou are our
main foods. Berries of different
varieties are plen-
68
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tiful. Women gather a lot of them
for the winter and the
ambitious ones have enough jelly
prepared to last the
whole winter until Spring. Almost
every family has a
vegetable garden and the
vegetables are stored away in
cold storage or cellars.
Different forms of amusement vary
with the
seasons: In the winter we dance a
lot, read a lot, go
dog team riding, play cards,
listen to the radio every
blessed evening. A lot of people
have radios. The
children coast and ski and make
play houses of snow. In
the Spring we fish for grayling
thru the ice, go fish-
ing on the creeks for trout. In
the summer the boys
practically live in the water.
They also play baseball
quite a lot. We dance very often
in the summer, espec-
ially on boat nights-- I mean when
we expect the steam-
boat Yukon which brings our mail
and freight during
the summer months.
In the fall skating is enjoyed
very much
before the deep snow cones.
Traveling is done mostly
by dog teams. In the winter we get
mail twice a month
by dog team, too. In the summer
people travel on the
river in motor boats, and canoes,
quite a bit of trav-
eling is also done by flying.
We have contacts with the outside
by radios,
newspapers, mail, boats and
airplanes.
The town is governed by a
Commissioner.
People never seem to have any
serious trouble.
Rampart can be improved in many
ways. First
of all a hospital and doctor would
help, even only a
nurse would be nice. Whenever
anyone gets sick they
have to be taken about eighty or
ninety miles to the
nearest hospital or else a plane has to be sent for to
take the patient to Fairbanks.
Rampart would be benefited
by a church, a landing field for airplanes,
and more
attractive and larger homes.
[Signed] Kitty Evans
69
____________________________________________________________
RAMPART
My home is located, in the
interior part
of Alaska along the banks or the
Yukon River. To me,
there is no other place in the
world as beautiful as
Rampart. It is entirely surrounded
by beautiful moun-
tains. Looking across the river,
once can see moun-
tains that seem to reach the sky.
The climate is usually very
favorable. In
winter it is cold and there is
much snow. In summer
the thermometer mounts to a high point,
which shows
that Alaska is entirely different
from the opinions of
outsiders.
There are approximately a hundred
and ten
residents. There are probably only
about ten full-
blooded Indians, most of them
being half-breeds and
whites. Rampart was first settled,
by white people when
gold was discovered along the
banks of one of the
creeks. Gradually more people,
both Indians and whites,
settled along the banks of the
many creeks. These creeks
are located in all places out of
town. After many years
of mining and prospecting, gold
was found to become
scarce, but to this day there are
to be found mnay old
sourdoughs and their mines.
In summer, most of the natives
earn their
living by fishing for the salmon
that is very abundant
in the streams and the river. Some
men are employed
at the various mines. The women
and children pick and
can the wild fruits that grow in
great amounts. In
winter the men trap and hunt the
wild animals of var-
ious kinds. Moose and caribou meat
are the main foods.
These animals are killled in the
fall and stored for
winter use. Fur is traded for food
and clothing at the
one trading post. The women also
earn money by
sewing for the prospectors and the other white men.
For recreation the inhabitants of
Rampart
do various things. Dancing is
probably the most pop-
ular. During the holidays everyone
gathers from miles
around and dances are enjoyed
every night, besides the
parties. They also enjoy all kinds
of outdoor sports
such as snowshoeing, skating,
riding, skiing, and in
summer swimming, boating and
camping. Naturally, there
are a few who spend their
vacations in unpleasant ways
but the majority of them are people of good behaviour.
They have various ways of
traveling but
the most important ones are boats and dogteams. Per-
70
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haps every family has a large boat
with an engine in
it. With the aid of these they can
move to different
places during the summer. They
also have large, well-
trained dog teams. There is no use
for these during
the summer but in winter they are in constant use.
The village is governed by a
commissioner.
The school teacher governs the
behaviour of the chil-
dren. There is verly little
trouble among the people,
therefore, there is little use for a commissioner.
The people contact other villages
in
many ways. In winter, a mail team
makes a trip to
Manly Hot Springs, about seventy
miles distant, every
two weeks. In this way we secure
mail from other
places. Almost every family owns a
radio, therfore
news from the outside is kept up
with. In summer mail
is brought by a steamboat which
makes two trips every
month from Dawson to Nenana.
People also travel on the
boat, besides on their own small
boats. Airplanes
are used also, and during the past
year has been more
frequently used for traveling.
Looking back now, I can see many
ways in
which the village can be improved.
First of all, the
people should be taught to obtain
more sanitary con-
ditions in the homes, build larger
homes and furnish
them with things which would make
them more comfortable.
Then they could be taught the
various methods of
preserving food for winter use.
Many valuable foods
are used only in summer because of
the fact that they
will not keep during the winter.
They could also be
helped by making more use of the
things Mother Nature
affords them, if only they had
someone who could en-
courage them and bring to them the
realization of the
value of their native crafts,
foods and other things.
There is a possibility that they
could be helped be-
having a doctor and nurse, but
since there are so few
people sickness is vary rare so,
of course, a hospital
isn't a necessity. A library would
be a very nice thing
to add to one list of things for
recreation. As it is
now there are few people who have
enough to read.
Being neighborly they usually pass
books around to one
another. A moving picture
certtainly would be enjoyed
by all, but I believe it is not
missed so very much.
There is great promises of earning
a fortune in having a
fur farm, since wild animals are so abundant.
[Signed] Margaret Evans
71
____________________________________________________________
RAMPART
Rampart is located on the banks of
the
Yukon River about 75 miles above
the mouth of the
Tanana River and it is about 60
miles south of the
Arctic Circle. The view around
this place is very nice;
looking across the river from the
village you can see
some rolling foothills on which
there was once a United
States Experimental Farm and
behind these foothills is
a long range of mountains. There
are mountains all
around the town and these make the
town look as though
it is in a big hole; this also is
what gave Rampart its
name.
In summer the weather is very warm
and
hardy vegetables are easily grown,
but in winter the
sun is shut off from the town and
at times the thermom-
eter drops clear down to 70° below
zero, but we don't .
mind the cold much as we are
dressed warmly and we also
get used to it. There is plenty of
timber around there
for warm log cabins and for fuel.
There aren't many more than a
hundred
people there, but means of making
a living are many.
In winter the larger portion of
the people trap, but
some of then carry mail by dog
team; some cut wood for
the river steamboats and some of
them work in the gold
mines. In summer most of them work
in mines and
fish; usually with fishwheels
turned by tile current
of the river. Some of the older
native women make their
living by sewing skins and fur that they tan themselves.
For recreation we do a lot of
dancing and
in winter we ski, skate, coast,
have dog team rides and
in summer we play ball, swim and
have rides in canoes,
motor boats and also small sailing boats.
The largest part of the traveling
is done
by dog teams and small motor
bouts, but people there
also travel by airplanes, river
steamboats, and some
of the people also drift with the
current if they are
not in a hurry and they want to go down the river.
This village is governed by a U.
S. Com-
missioner but he doesn't have much
to do so he does
some gold mining on the side.
The people keep in contact with
other places
by mail carried by dog teams in the
winter and by
steamboat in the summer and also by radio and travelers.
[unsigned]
72
____________________________________________________________
Ruby is a beautiful town and also
a very nice place to live.
It is located very near the center
of Alaska on the banks of the Yukon
river. Ruby is situated on a
hillside and surrounded by hills on three
sides. At each end of town facing
the river are high bluffs. It is
approximately 260 miles up the
Yukon River on the boat and then 200 miles
further by train to Eklutna.
The climate in summer is very hot
at times. It gets as hot as
110° in the sun, and at other
times it is very rainy. In the fall the ice
begins to run and in October it
gets thicker and thicker. Ice forms along
the shore. It gets wider and
thicker. In November it freezes up. Some-
times there is an early freezeup
about the first of November or a late
one around the 18th or 20th. In
winter it gets as cold as 60° below.
There are approximately 160 people
in Ruby. In summer there are
a lots more besides.
Ruby was probably named so for the
ruby stones, found in the near-
by creek. Gold was discovered in
Ruby in 1914. There was a big stampede.
People came from all over. There
were about 600 people. Houses were
built all over the hillsides.
There were many stores, drugstores, and
grocery stores, bakeries, candy
shops, retail and wholesale stores. There
were also beauty shops, saloons,
restaurants, and dance halls. Now there
are only two stores, one dance
hall, one restaurant, a machine shop, a
grade school and a barber shop.
All of the old buildings are dilapidated.
People have torn most of them down
and used them for wood.
A lot of men work in drifts and
out on the creeks. Some haul
freight with trucks in summer and
with dog teams in winter. Men work
for the Alaska Road Commission in
the summer and they also work for
wages in fish camps. The people in
Ruby plant gardens for themselves;
they cut and haul wood, and some
people fish with nets, but most of them
use fishwheels.
For recreation in winter we go
skiing, coasting, and for dog-
rides, and some people go hiking
with snowshoes. We also go to dances,
listen to the radio, read, and
play cards. In summer we go for boat-
rides, car rides, and people go
horseback riding. We go swimming, go to
dances, movies, and listen to the
radio.
Most of the traveling is done by
gasboats or steamers, airplanes
and cars in summer and by airplane
and dogteam by winter. In winter we
get our mail twice a week by
plane; in summer twice a month by boat and
1st class mail twice a week by
plane. There is a radio sending and re-
ceiving set in Ruby and also a
telegraph office.
Our village is governed by a U. S. Deputy Marshal and Commissioner.
Hazel Knox
73
____________________________________________________________
RUBY
Ruby is a town located on the bank
of the
Yukon River about 175 miles from
Fairbanks. It has
a population of 140 people with
about half that
many families. The climate is very
cold in winter,
the thermometer going down to 60°
below zero; the
summers, however, are very warm at times.
Ruby was founded in the year 1905;
people
began to settle there because of
the gold they found
near there; there's a big mining
camp 30 miles out
of Ruby where they take out
thousands and thousands
of dollars worth of gold each
summer. It is called
Long Creek and there are several
small mining camps
beyond this place. There is a
government road to
them from Ruby.
Most of the natives fish in the
summer and
trap in the winter. Fur-bearing
animals are plen-
tiful as Ruby is surrounded, by
hills, the favorite
places for such animals as beaver,
mink, muskrat,
marten, weasels and land otter.
Some of the people
work on the road, build bridges,
work at the gold
mines, or work in the lumber mill.
Some haul freight
from Ruby to the mining camps,
with trucks and. cat-
erpillars. In the fall they cut
their own wood and
hunt their own meat for their winter supply.
For recreation there are dances
every Sat-
urday night. There is a man who
travels along the
Yukon in the summer who carries a
moving picture
outfit with him and we see then
frequently. The
children play ball in the summer
and most of the
boys have bicycles. In the winter
there is lots
of dogteam racing, coasting and skiing.
There is a fairly good
landing-field at
Ruby so airplanes, take most of
the emergency travel
cases. In the winter the
well-to-do people travel
by plane; others travel by
dogteams. In summer,
there are gas boats and steamers on the river.
The Government has a telegraph and
radio
station at Ruby; nearly every
family owns a radio;
mail comes twice a week in summer;
and the re are
.a good many telephones in town,
so communication is
well taken care of. The town is
governed by a Com-
missioner and. Marshal.
[signed] Marie Brown
74
____________________________________________________________
RUBY
Ruby is a village on the Yukon
River. It's right about in the
middle of the Yukon. In summer it
gets very hot. We usually have to go
in swimming or stay in the shade
or something to cool ourselves off. But
in the shade, there usually are a
lot of flies. That's the thing that's
wrong with Alaska in summer; there
are too many flies. In winter it
gets too coldabout 50° below zero.
There are around 150 people in
Ruby. It's only very small but
sometimes when everyone comes in
from the creeks or camps we do have a
lot of people.
Ruby was discovered in 1911,
before I was even born. Someone
found gold around there and there
was a gold rush. Everyone came from
all over. There are a lot of
mining camps around town. Ruby was once
big but there was once a fire
there which burned down the whole water-
front. Since then people started
coining and going. But more go than the
few who come. Some say there were
hotels, restaurants, and cafes but
now there is only a hotel, where
people occasionally go to eat. There
are two stores in Ruby; one is the
Northern Commercial Co.
The people fish, hunt, and trap
for a living. Some of the men
mine and do all sorts of things to
make money. Some of the women make
fur parkas, fur boots, and other
fur clothes for a living, some do laun-
dry for old bachelors. They go out
into the woods and haul wood, too.
For water, we make holes in the
middle of the river and get good ice water
as we don't have any running water or wells.
In summer we swim, go on picnics,
play baseball and football,
and other games. We also have
dances when some people from out on the
creeks come in. We always
celebrate the fourth of July. In winter we
ski, coast; sometimes when we want
real excitement we get an old
Yukon sleigh and go down the hill,
snow flying in our faces and girls
screaming.
We travel by plane and by river
steamer. When the first boat in
the spring comes everyone is
excited, even the old men and women. The
ice breaking up causes lots of
excitement, too. We have a telegraph sta-
tion; a weather bureau office; and
the store has telephones to the air-
field. Most of the people have radios.
We are governed by a U. S.
Marshal, a Commissioner, and the
game warden comes around every spring and fall.
Josephine Notti
75
____________________________________________________________
One hundred and fifty miles up the
river north of Kotzebue lies a
little village known
as Selawik. As it is on the river,
the houses are
built in one long street on both
banks of the river.
The only means of getting to each
other is by a row
boat. If you had to visit your
friends or to borrow
something, all you'd have to do is
to get in your
boat and row across and then row back again.
As Selawik is inland, the climate
is very
warm in the summer, registering as
high as eighty-five
above. It sometimes gets
impossible to live indoors and
as a result each family has a
stove outdoors where
their meals are cooked. Most of
the families use home
made sheet-iron stoves for this
purpose altho the more
well-to-do families use ranges. Of
course the picture
wouldn't be complete without
mosquitoes, which at
times are so dense that when
landing on a dog's muzzle
the dog dies from lack of blood.
Many reindeer have
lost their lives in this manner.
In the winter, the weather is very
severe,
sometimes more than sixty below.
We have severe blizzards
thruout the winter, sometimes so
strong that the safest
thing to do is stay in the house.
Many times a blizzard
comes, up while we are in school,
so we have to sleep
overnight in the school-house! The
storm
leaves high banks all around the
houses and some are so
high that your neighbor has to dig
you out. Many times
it is impossible to find the
house, but if you see a
stove pipe sticking thru the snow,
then you are sure
that you're digging in the right
vicinity. It certainly
is queer to see the people come in
and out thru a little
hole which they have dug in a
tunnel-like fashion into
their house. These drifts cause
the houses to be flooded
in the Spring unless a ditch is dug around them.
As there are very few modern
facilities
in the village the people are more
or less primitive in
a fashion, altho they might have
changed considerably
during the years I have been
absent. The people are very
religious and do not approve of
dancing or card playing
and neither are done in the
village. I don't believe
they ever had a dance since the
village was founded.
They take living very seriously,
hunting and trapping
all of the time.
In the Spring, they all move up
the river
at different stations and hunt for muskrats. The
teachers and the store keepers are
the only ones left
76
____________________________________________________________
behind. Each family gets hundreds of muskrats which
they use to pay off their winter
bills and to order
from Sears Roebuck and other companies.
Fur is used for
money here. When ordering from
catalogues, instead of
sending money, muskrats are sent.
In the winter blue
fox, white fox, silver and red and
cross fox, mink,
squirrel, "siksikpuk",
bear, wolverine, wolf, land
otter, rabbit, reindeer, caribou,
beaver are caught and
used as a means of making a living.
Fish is also a major means of
making a
living. Whitefish, salmon,
grayling, mudshark, pick-
erel, river trout, humpbacks and
suckers are used for
personal use and the fish is sold
in large quantities
as there is a constant demand for them from Nome.
Wild fowl such as geese, all kinds
of ducks,
crane, make up the principal diet
during the spring and
summers, Salmonberries,
cranberries, blueberries,
currants and blackberries arc
picked during the berry
season and put in pokes or barrels for winter use.
The younger generation does a lot
of
skating as long as the snow is
gone, end when its im-
possible to skate, football and
baseball takes their
place. Dog team rides, reindeer
rides, rabbit drives,
and hunting are enjoyed the year
around. There are no
movies or dances or parties, For
recreation the women
folk usually go berry-picking or
continually visit each
other.
Dog teams are the major means of
travel in
winter, while in summer river
boats are used as trans-
portation. In Spring, log-rafts
ere used in returning
to the village from the hunting
grounds. It certainly
is a striking scene to see a.
parade of log-rafts floating
down the river, each raft having a
tent and smoke curling
up into the air from each one. On
another raft their
dogs are kept and also their fish.
There are no such things as cars
here and
the majority of the people
wouldn't know one if they saw-
one. A few years back, when an
airplane was sighted,
everyone thought it was the coming
of Christ and several
of the old folks who werent quite
prepared for judgment
day, kneeled on their hands and
knees and set forth a
storm of prayers asking for forgiveness and mercy!
The school teacher sees to it that
every
one is a law-abiding citizen and if anyone fails to do
77
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so, they are either sent to
Kotzebue or Nome to the
United States court, and finally
end up at the Federal
jail.
There are very few contacts with
other
people in the village itself, but
in the spring most
everyone goes down to Kotzebue and
stays there for the
summer. Here they get a chance to
meet new people that
have come down from Noorwik
[Noorvik] , Noatak, Kivalina, Wain-
wright, and other places, for the summer.
They also
meet tourists from the outside. In
the village there is
one telephone belonging to a
storekeeper with which
calls are sent to Kotzebue. The
teacher and the store
keeper have radios also.
#
The sanitary conditions are very
poor and
could be much improved. The school
could be run on a
little better basis also. It seems
the teachers dont
make a great deal of effort to
push the deserving chil-
dren ahead and some students stay
in the same grades
when they really should be advanced.
Due to this fact,
many children have quit school,
rather than going thru
the same grind.
Doctor and nurses would be very
welcome as
there are neither here. In most
sicknesses hardly any-
thing is done and eventually the
person dies. In
more severe cases, the patient is
taken to the hospital
at Kotzebue where, under the
excellent care of the
staff, the patient recovers.
The people should be induced to
take re-
ligion less seriously and have a
preacher who doesnt
fill their ignorant heads full of
false ideas.
When I was there it was a sin to
wear anything red, to
drink coffee, etc. according to
the beliefs of our
preacher.
We should have better hones with
more than
one room. The houses consist of
one room only where the
family lives. It is very crowded
this way and is not
good for the health of the family.
[signed] Irene Frost
78
My home is on an island about
three miles
long with an inlet, on the south
side. The climate is
very cold in the winter and warm
in the summer. There
are about 275 people in
Shishmaref; for a living the
natives hunt for fish, seal, fox,
ducks and deer. Some
of the young men also work at the mines in the summer.
The natives are always having a
good time
dancing, playing football, baseball,
running races,
racing dogteams and wrestling.
Most of these things
and others are done during
Christmas week, lasting
until New Years night.
Traveling is done mostly by
dogteams in
winter and in the summer by skin
boats or by steam-
ers which come around about three
tines during the
summer season.
Mail is carried by mailboats in
the summer,
twice a month, but in the winter
dogteams or planes
bring the mail.
In the Spring the men go out with
their
families to hunt on the outside of
the island and
usually stay out two months. In
the summer nearly
everybody goes up to Serpentine to
pick salmonberries,
blueberries, blackberries,
cranberries and straw-
berries.
The village is governed by nine council-
men and two native marshals.
[signed] Ralph Sinnok (de)
79
____________________________________________________________
My home is on Nushagak Bay, and it
is about 340 miles from
Anchorage. On one side of the
river is Kushagak village, Clark's Point,
Creek Cannery, and on the other is
Kanakanak and Snaa- Point. The last is
the biggest town in among the others.
In the summers it gets up to 80°
above and it hardly ever gets
dark there; I guess we have about
one hour of darkness. In the winter,
however, it goes to about 30°
below zero. Then we have to wear fur boots
and parkas.
The population there is about 250.
But around June we have lots
more people because the cannery
boats start coming in and the Eskimos
come from all the small village to
set net. Most of the people there
fish for a living during the
summer, tho some work in the canneries. In
the winter most of them trap.
For recreation we dance, skate and
ski in the winter, or got to
moving picture shows. In summer we
can play baseball or go on picnics.
If we want to send a message we
have to go to Kanakanak radio
station. We go there by plane,
cars, boat or on foot as its only six
miles from Snag Point. We have
both a U. S. Commissioner and a Deputy
Marshal to govern us at Snag Point.
Anfesa Goley
80
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My home is located on the Yukon
River; the climate is somewhat
like that here
at Eklutna, but much colder in the winter.
Stevens Village is just a small
place with a population of about 100 people.
In the winter most of the people
trap and hunt for a living. In the
spring
theu hunt muskrats, and after they
get the
skins dried, they buy sugar,
butter, flour,
bacon, and other things. Instead
of paying
with money they use the muskrat
skins in trade.
Fishing is the main industry in the summer.
Recreations are dancing, swimming,
skating, skiing, and many other
outdoor
sports.
Dogteams are the winter way of
travelling; boats are used on the
river in the
summer.
Mail is brought to Stevens Vil-
lage by dog teams in the winter;
occasionally
by airplanes, and by boats in the summer.
The people should send their chil-
dren to school when they are
younger than the
age when they start now, so that
they may
have longer in which to learn to
live a better
life and to care for their health.
[signed] Eugene John
81
____________________________________________________________
St. Mark's Mission is located on
the banks of the Tanana River
about a mile from the town of
Nenana. Between the town and the Mis-
sion is a little Indian village
whose population is rapidly diminish-
ing.
The climate is like that of any
little northern interior village
of Alaska. In the winter the
temperature drops to thirty or forty
below zero and quite often to
sixty below. During the summer the tem-
perature is very comfortable
except for the few times when it is un-
comfortably warm.
Being in the Mission doesn't mean
that we get everything on a
silver platter. The children do
everything we can to make things
easier. In the summer large areas
of land planted with vegetables
yield a great deal of food for use
during the long winter months.
Besides the gardens there are the
two fish wheels which keep us busy.
The fish are cut and dried for the
dogs. We have never had much
success with canning the fish. We
also pick and can as many blueber-
ries as possible. If the fish run
is good and the berries plentiful
we are sitting pretty, but if it
isnt we just tighten up our belts
and wish for better luck next summer.
The most wonderful river in the
world runs right past our
front door. In the winter we skate
and in the summer we swim. The
water is very muddy and swift. We
children seem to be the only ones
who enjoy swimming in it. The
staff members say it's too cold. We
also do a lot of climbing for the
opposite side of the river is a
mass of hills. Skiing is popular
among the boys and some of the
girls but they are too steep for
most of us. Something that we can
do both in summer and winter is
dancing and we do plenty of it.
Nenana is quite a busy little town
during the summer. For
here it is that the trains are met
by the steamers to carry mail
and freight to the people along
the Tanana and Yukon rivers, so we
have the privilege of traveling by
either train or boat. In the win-
ter our dog teams are invaluable to us all.
The mission is governed by the
Bishop of the Episcopal church,
while the village has a chief, and
the town a Mayor.
We keep in touch with the outside
world by radios, newspapers
and newsy people who arrive from
other villages by dog teams, boats,
and trains.
Diane Westerlund
82
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Tanana is a small town on the
banks of the
Yukon, four miles below the Tanana
river, which
is located in the central part of the territory.
The winter months are quite cold,
the temp-
erature often falling from 40 to
60 below zero.
The summers, however, are very
warm and mild.
The Yukon freezes over in November
and is usually
quite solid by the 15th when the
mail planes
service starts. The river is used
for a landing
field until the last of April when
the ice along
the edges begins to thaw and become
dangerous.
The breakup is usually in the
middle of May or
even later.
People always look forward to the
time when
the river is free from ice and the
steamers
come in with fresh fruit, frieght and mail.
The mild summers permit bountiful
crops--
the chief one being potatoes.
There are about 95 people living
in Tanana,
mostly natives. These natives make
their living
by "ratting" in the
spring, fishing during the
summer, and hunting and trapping
in the winter.
Their favorite recreations are dancing,
dog-
racing, and the giving of
potlatches. They usu-
ally give potlatches whenever any
one of their
relatives dies.
The potlatches last for about a
week, the
women cooking up big tubs of meat
and soup and
every day people fathering in the
dance hall to
eat and make merry.
Sometimes, too, when the chief has
a big
catch of furs he gives potlatches
and they give
many things away to their friends
and neighbors
such as blankets, dress goods,
clocks, calico
and muslin.
[signed] Jenny Larson
83
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Tanana
My home is Tanana, at the mouth of
the Tanana River,
on the banks of the Yukon River.
The people there aren't many because
the people do not stay in town.
They are always out fishing, trapping,
or hunting.
During the summer the people are
all out fishing and
they never come into town unless
it is necessary, altho they all come
in for a couple of weeks in July.
The climate there is very cold in
the winter and so hot
that it is suffocating in the
summer; at least it seems that way for
the people up there.
During the winter the people are
again out of town on
the traplines. They usually stay
away on homesteads where they are close
to their traps.
The things they do for recreation
isn't very much but
it is enough; such things as
gambling, dancing, skating, skiing, swim-
ming, and most common reading in their leisure time.
Their ways of travel is by dog
team in winder and boats
--mostly motor--in summer. For
passengers and mail they have the river
steamers which are the Alice,
Nenana, and the Yukon. We get all three
boats at home because we are right at the turning point of the river.
The town is governed by the
Commissioner and the Mar-
shal. In the last few years most
of the governing has been done by the
Commissioner.
Their ways of communicating are by
telegrams, radios,
mail, and airplane. They used to
carry mail by teams of horses but in
the past two years they have been using planes mostly.
The town, however, could be made
better by keeping con-
trol over the people and if by
chance they can get more white folks in
town. There should be a lot done
there in the way of cleaning up some
places so they won't have so much sickness in town.
[unsigned]
84
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Tatitlek is a little village
located half way between Valdez
and Cordova. I think it is the
nicest little place in Prince William
Sound.
My home is half-way surrounded by
trees, while out in front
is the water and an island about a
mile and a half long. There are a-
bout sixteen houses and about eighty-five people living there.
My people make their living by
hunting, fishing and trapping.
In the winter we have dances every
Friday and Saturday, and quite often
we have our school programs. In
the summer it gets so warm that most
of the people do their cooking outside their houses.
The government school teacher
governs the village with some
help from a person from the
village. There are no electric lights there
so we use gas lamps for light.
Most of the houses have radios which we
listen to to pass away the time in the evenings.
So whenever you get to Tatitlek
drop in to one of the houses
and see what kind of entertainment you get.
Paul Vlassof
85
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Teller, the place from which I
came,
is located on the Seward Peninsula
about 90
miles from Nome. It is built near
the sea and
it has a very good harbor. The
ships anchor in
Port Clarence in the summer, but
the smaller
boats anchor in Grantley Harbor.
The climate in winter is
cold--down
to 50 below at times. In the summer
it gets
really warm, altho last summer we
had lots of
rain.
The popultaion is approximately
125.
The majority of the people are
Eskimos or
mixed-bloods but there are quite a
few whites,
too.
In the winter most of the men hunt
foxes for a living. There are two
or three
fox ranches in Teller, too. A few
people are
in the mink business. In the
summer the men
work on gold dredges, in mining
camps, and
many of the natives go fishin. The
Alaska
Road Commission had a camp in
Teller, but it
was transferred to the Kougarok.
Ways of travel in winter are by
dog-
team and airplane. They use boats
and airplanes
in the summer. There are a few
trucks and cars
in Teller, too. The first cars
were brought in
last Summer. Mail was carried by
dogteam in
the past winters but this year it
will be carried
by plane twice a month. It is
carried by boat
in the summer.
There is a commissioner in town,
and
also a reindeer unit manager for government.
For recreation we dance, play
games,
si, skate, coast, swim, hike and
go camping.
Many radios are owned by the
people, and there
is one radiophone.
[signed] Grace Blatchford
86
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Unalakleet lies on the west coast
of Norton Sound in "Seward's
Ice Box". When the vegetables
are just sprouting and when the flowers
are in bloom, the village looks
very beautiful, but I must admit that
from the top of the hills the place really looks like a dump pile.
As for the climate I can truly say
we have very cold winters.
The summers are nice, but could be
better if there were no insects such
as gnats and mosquitoes.
There are about 68 homes in
Unalakleet, and a population of
about 370. Our best pastimes are
skating in the winter and hiking in the
summer. There is also a good baseball team.
There is no work at Unalakleet
except fishing and gardening;
but we are noted for our
vegetables. In fact all the nearby villages,
including Nome, buy their vegetables from us.
Since there are so many others who
could write better about
Unalakleet I won't say much except
that the whole truth is that the vil-
lage could certainly stand a little more excitement.
Ruth Ivanoff
87
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Unalaska, my home town, is located in
the Aleutian Islands. It is the
largest town on
Unalaska Island and, the population
is about 300 or
350 people.
The town is on the seashore and is al-
most surrounded, by mountains. The
climate is fairly
warm there due to the Japanese
Current. The ground
around there is grassy with but a
few willow trees.
Altho there are many odd jobs at times,
the people mostly hunt foxes,
fish, or work in a herring
saltery for a living.
For recreation there are talking pictures,
shows, dances, a few sports such
as swimming, skating,
skiing, tobogganing, hiking,
playing tennis and so
forth.
About the only way of travelling is by
boat and the ways of contact with
other places and
villages are by mail boats, radio,
and telegraphy.
They have a court there, that takes care
of the troubles that come up.
The appearance or the town can be improved
if some people would. make their
homes more attractive.
a number of the houses have stood for years without
being repaired or repainted. The
people should raise
gardens, as there is quite a bit of
land that can be
used for such, and there is
practically no gardening
done in the village at all.
[signed] Herbert Pape / Mike Stepetin
88
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UNALASKA
My hone is at Unalaska, and it is
one of
the largest islands of the Aleutian archipelago.
Unalaska village is located on the
north
side of the island and has a
population of 300 people.
The climate id fair due to the
Japanese current and
the winters are not extremely
cold, the coldest weather
recorded is 10 degrees above but
usually it is around
freezing. In summer the temperature
is about 70Ί F.
There are large amounts of rain
fall during almost all
the year around.
From the first part of July to the
latter
part of August the people pack
herring and some of them
salt codfish in the Spring. During
the winter the men
trap fox on the other islands
where there are blue,
red and cross foxes.
For recreation the people go to
ball games
and tennis games, talking
pictures, and dances. There
is also skiing, skating and coasting in the winter.
Boats are the main source of travel
all
the year around. In summer from
April or May until
September the harbor is very busy.
The village is
governed by a marshal and a commissioner.
There is a naval wireless station
about
one mile and a half from the
village and those who can
afford a radio have one.
The steamer Starr brings our
regular mon-
thly mail, to contact with the
other villages we either
walk or go by boat.
Our town could be improved by
applying a
little paint on some of the homes
and by better
ways o living and better ways of preserving foods.
[signed] Walter Dyakanoff
89
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Wainwright is a little village about 100
miles south of Point Barrow. The climate is very warm in
summer and very cold in winter. There are approximate-
ly 250 people there; of these about six are whites and
the rest are natives.
The natives make their living by trapping
and hunting whales, walrus, seals, etc. They trade the
furs of the animals for flour, sugar, tea, coffee from
the very few stores at the village.
The people have their own Eskimo dances
on Christmas and on other important holidays. The chil-
dren learn to skate on their own home-made skates.
Dog teams are the most important ways of
traveling. Every family has its own dog team. These
teams are make up of from 5 to 15 dogs. In summer trav-
ling is done in small boats.
The village has its own commissioner. When
anything bad happens it is taken up by him with the help
of the village council.
Wainwright has very little contact with
the outside. Only in summer, we see ships from outside
as the ocean is frozen up all winter. Once in a great
while, an airplane lands at Wainwright. Very few people
have radios.
There are many ways in which the village
could be improved; for instance, the proper disposal of
garbage, proper sleeping quarters, better drinking water.
A hospital would be a great help to the people.
[unsigned]
90
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White Mountain is a little village of
approximately 250 people. It is located on the Fish
River 15 north of Golovin, about 25 miles south
of Council and 75 miles east of Nome. The village is
built right in between two mountains with spruce trees
behind that make a perfect shelter from snow storms and
high winds that are quite prevalent in that region. I
think it is the most beautiful little spot Ive ever
seen or ever hope to see. Everywhere you turn you see
beautiful scenery.
The climate is quite normal. In the winter
it ranges from 20Ί to 32Ί below zero. The coldest it has
been known to get was 60Ί below zero. I haven't noticed
the temperature in the summer, but it doesn't get too
hot.
In the spring some people go to their
mining camps to dig for gold while others stay at home
to wait for the fishing season when they go up the river
to their various fishing camps to spend the rest of the
summer catching and drying fish for winter. In the fall
when the herring season comes along, they go to Golovin
to work at the Golovin Bay Packing Company plant or
fish herring for themselves
Blue berries, blackberries, salmonberries,
cranberries, and currants are picked by the women and
children and stored for winter use.
In the spring and fall, men go to the Fish
River Flats to hunt ducks, brant, and geese which are
either canner or put in cold storage for the winter.
With the coming of winter, men and boys
get their traps, guns and snared ready to try their luck
and skill at trapping and hunting fox, wolverine, land
otter and rabbits. The skins of the fox, wolverine and
otter are sold or else traded for goods. They also go
seal hunting.
For recreation purposes in the summer,
swimming heads the list of the young people. In the
winter, Eskimo football is played by everyone in general
who like a good healthy bit of exercise and activity.
Basketball and baseball are also played. A good deal of
skiing and skating is done, not the speak of tobogganing
or sliding down hills on sleds. Parties and dances are
91
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scattered throughout the winter. Christmas, Thanksgiving,
and New Years are celebrated by everyone in a big
way. Eskimo games and entertainment fill up the
evenings between Christmas and New Years Eve.
In the winter time the chief means of
travel is by way of dogteam. Airplanes are chartered from
Nome on emergency cases. River scows and motor boats
carry the mail, freight and passengers from Golovin as
far up the river as Council.
The government of the village is taken care
of by the Mayor and the village council with a little
help from the teachers.
We are kept pretty well in time with every
thing thru mail, radio, and the Nome Nugget paper.
We get our water from the river all the
year around. I think if we had a better water
system, the community would be better off. At the
present time there are no doctors or nurses at the vil-
lage. It would be helped a lot if there was at least a
nurse. The winter evenings wouldnt be so monotonous
if there was a theatre. Otherwise I think my home town
is the best village in Alaska.
[signed] Kitty Amberfelter
92
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White Mountain
White Mountain village is
located on Fish River on Seward Penin-
sula 75 miles east of Nome,
It sits on the side of two mountains and
there are spruce trees in
back of' the village and across the river.
From the village and across
the the river you can see a low chain of
mountains about 12 miles
away.
In summer we have very warm
weather in June and July. In July
and September we have quite a
bit of rainfall. During the latter part
of September we have some
snow but it melts; about themiddle part of
October the river freezes
over and we have about 6 inches of snow on
the ground. Some winters
there is very much snow but some winters
there is not, so much. In
winter months December, January and February
are the coldest months. The
temperature ranges from 20 to 30 below
and 60 below at its coldest.
Daring the winter months we
wear mukluks and parkas for out of
doors. In the Summer we wear
light clothing.
There are about 250 people at
White Mountain. During the summer
the people leave their homes
and go to their camps. The women folks
spend the summers at fish
camps where they put up fish for winter use
for themselves and the dogs.
The women also pick berries in August and
put them in barrels with
sugar for winter use.
The men usually go to mining
camps and find work or else they
ship. They also go on
reindeer round‑ups and work during the butcher‑
ing tune. During the
winter the men freight and trap.
For recreation we have many
kinds of ball games. We have a large
gym and auditorium where we
play basketball, volleyball and besides
have many native stunts. For
out of door spots we have baseball,
skiing, skating, football and
sleighing besides dog teaming. Besides
we have picnics and hiking
also dances thruout the winter.
During the summer mouths we
travel mostly with motor boats and
scows on the river. Along the
coast a mail boat comes every week.
They also have airplanes over
about once a week at Golovin which is
15 miles south of White
Mountain.
During the winter we travel
by dog teams. The average teams have
about 9 to 13 dogs.
The village is governed by
the mayor and the village Council with
the teacher's help. About one
third of the families have radios. There
is also two telephones to
Nome which are a great help when the doctor
is needed or when some one
wants a plane. I am sure there could be
many improvements: for
instance a better place to get water. The gar-
bage disposal should be
better, and we should have more books and na-
tive teachers as well as an airplane field.
[unsigned]
93
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Wiseman is north of the Arctoc Circle about 100 miles up the
Koyukuk River.
The climate of Wiseman is warm during the summer when the
average temperature is about 60 or 70 degrees above zero. During the
winter it doesn't get very cold, probably not more than an average of
20 ° or 30 ° below zero.
There are only about a hundred people around Wiseman. They
make their living by mining, cutting wood, sawing wood, hunting and
working for wages.
About the only recreation we have is a dance once in a while,
and a show sometimes during the winter.
In the summer people hunt and fish up in the lakes about 25
miles away. Sometimes they get wolves when they go hunting for the cari-
bou up there. They do some mining all the year around. Sometimes they
get as much as thirty ounces of gold and come to twon, get drunk and stay
until they have no more money to spend.
The town council takes care of the school kids so they don't
get drunk and so they don't get hurt by drunks, and see that they get
punished if they are bad. There is also a U. S. Commissioner in the
village.
Wilson Winer
Harry Jonas
94
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Yakutat, a little village in
south
eastern Alaska, is situated
between two big ports,
Juneau and Cordova. The
village itself is located on
a forested hill facing the
bay.
In general, the climate is
about average:
in summer hot enough to make
one sweat, and in winter
cold enough for one to
freeze.
The population summer is
about three
times as large as in the
winter. People from outside come
to fish, work in the cannery
and a few for vacation.
In April everybody gets their
nets ready,
their dories in shape and.
find a place for their tents.
There are fine fishing locations
which are independent-
ly operated or run by groups,
in which case, two or
three families get together
and all the able boys and
girls fish for their parents
and grandparents. In this
way all get a share of every
load of fish. As a rule
boy and girls under 18 years
of are and women are not
allowed to fish. Women and
some of the girls work in
the cannery making from two
to four hundred dollars
in a season. A few exceptions
are made in the case of
a boy or girl who goes out to
school in the fall. They
are allowed to fish if paying
their own tuition, buy
their own clothes, etc. A
fisherman usually comes out
800 dollars clear in a
season, altho some seasons fish
ermen can come out 1200
dollars in the clear.
After fishing season in September
is over,
the natives go out and fish
for their winters food
supply. They dry, smoke and
salt the fish. Then
others salt fish for the
companies.
Starting in November the men
go out trap-
ping and trap for mink,
marten, etc. thru February.
Usually enough money is made
so that Spring supplies
can be bought and some money
left over for luxuries.
In February and March a
chosen group of
men go out seal-hunting and
stay for two days. If the
men come back with seal then
anybody is free to go.
On one occasion eight men
went out and all brought back
from 5 to 8 seals. One man
and his son killed 20 seals
between them . The meat and
fat is used for food and the
skins for Moccasins.
95
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Between all these seasons for
fishing,
trapping and seal‑hunting
time is found for recreations.
Every Saturday they have
dancing which is very much en-
joyed by young and old. The
music is up-to-date with
a good orchestra consisting
of 2 saxaphones, 3 gui-
tars, 2 violins, a. banjo,
drum and piano.
On Thursdays basketball games
are played
between different teams. On
rare occasions, when
coast guard cutters, halibut
fishing boats and destroy-
ers come in, the town's team
challenge them and u-
sually come out ahead with
flying colors. A free dance
is always given for these
outside teams.
In the Winter, alternately on
Friday nites,
practice dances and games are
held. If one doesn't
know how to dance they can
learn on these nights, while
on the other Friday nites the
young and old believe in
having a little run by
playing games such as: three
deep; squirrel and Flying
Dutchman. Also square dances
and Virginia reels are danced
on these nights.
In the way of transportation
and contacts
with people living in the
same community, you can
travel by automobile, foot,
water and railroad. In
contacting with people there
are telephones in most of
the homes. In the summer the
steamers, the Yukon and
Alaska and cutters call in
twice a month. In the
winter the steamer Victoria,
cutters and destroyers
call in and people have
radios for news of outside.
The village boasts a Judge,
Mayor, Village
Council, and Alaska Native
Brotherhood organization,
chief of police, 4 marshals
and a preacher who all have
a say in any trouble or
misunderstanding that arises.
With all these to help in any
trouble it looks as though
the people should be
law-abiding citizens and it is quite
true of most of the natives .
The village has a power plant
so that all
homes have electric lights
but I think it could be
improved if the lights were
left on all night but as
it is the power plant is
turned off a t 11:00 every
nite and on Saturday at 2:30
after the dance.
In the winter the steamer
calls in only
once a month of account of
the weather. I think that
if the steamers called in
twice a month the town would
grow faster. As it is the
town is growing slow but
sure.
The village has a hospital
and a doctor
in summer. Natives need a
doctor just as much in
winter,
but so far we havent had a doctor in winter.
[signed] Margaret Bagay
96
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