Speaking with Elders

During Cultural Week, a few of the elders in the village came to talk to the kids.  It was very interesting to hear them speak about their past and history here in Alaska.  I thought I’d share some of their stories with you.

Old Koliganek

Koliganek has been moved twice.  There is what is known as “1st Old Koliganek” and “2nd Old Koliganek.”  1st Old Koliganek was located on the Nuyakuk River.  I’m not sure when they moved from 1st Old Koliganek to 2nd Old Koliganek, but in about 1964, they moved from 2nd Old Koliganek to New Koliganek (where we live now).  The village was moved due to flooding and an earthquake that happened on Good Friday that year.  During the flood, all the women and children (and eventually the men) were evacuated via helicopter to other villages (mainly New Stuyahok and Ekwok).  The first sno-go came to New Koliganek in the late 1960s (it “looked funny though”).  Electricity came to the village around 1968.  TV arrived came in the early 1970s.  The first phone was in the village council in the mid-1970s.  There was one phone for the whole village!  There was no airport.  Planes would land behind the village, and it was first come, first serve, just get in the plane!  No reservations!

Hunting

The drawing on the top is a spear and throwing board.
On the bottom in a kayak.

They used to use specially shaped boards, called throwing boards, to throw 3-pronged or 3-barbed arrows.  The boards would give them more leverage so they could throw the arrows harder and faster.  The barbs or arrows were usually made of walrus tusk because it is ivory and hard and would not break.  Sometimes, moose bone was used to make fish arrows.  They would hunt for fish after they turned red from spawning and were in the slews and no longer traveling upriver.  They also used these boards for spearing seals.

When it came to hunting to bears, they were very brave.  They would lay down in a bear’s known path with a handmade metal knife, attached to a long stick, and wait for the bear to cross the path.  They would stab the bear in the throat, because that’s the only area there are no bones. “They were so brave in those days.  Would you like to hunt a bear like that?”

Travel

There were not any sno-gos.  They used dog sleds instead.  They did everything with dog teams: hunting, gathering wood, traveling, etc.  Everyone had a dog team, even the women.  Dog teams were mostly huskies, no labs.  “It used to take forever to go to Dillingham!”

Measurement

They used their hands, arm lengths, and finger widths for measuring, not tape measures.  Everything was made for the individual, with their own body measurements.  Nothing was mass produced.

Making Kayaks

One of the elders, sketching a diagram of a kayak.

Moose ribs were used for the bottom of the kayak, and were slowly bent into the perfect shape so that the boat would not tip.  They were fitted into wooden frames usually.  Then, they were covered with stretched caribou hides that had the hair removed by keeping them wet until they almost turned sour, and then the hair is just removed.  The kayak is made waterproof by covering the hide with bear fat or sticky-head oil/fat.  The kayaks that were made with only one opening and mostly covered were used more for people by the ocean.  Those people would use seal-gut rain parkas.  The parka sits over the ring of the kayak when they sit in it, and seals around the ring.  This allows the person and the inside of the kayak to become completely waterproof, inside and out, if they tipped over.  When they made kayaks upriver, they wanted to make kayaks more open so they could use them for more storage (nets, fish, etc.).

Dishes

Dishes were made out of roots of trees.  Everyone had their own bowl and utensils.  No one ever did anyone else’s dishes.  You brought your own dishes when you went somewhere to eat.  (BRILLIANT!)  Before metal pans, they would heat rocks and put them in bowls of water to heat the water to boiling point.

Animals

The warmest furs are rabbit, otter, beaver, fox, squirrel, and muskrat.  They never ate fox or wolf.  Fox was used for bait or for dogs, but needed to be cooked very well.  They would use fox for coats or insoles.  Northern people would eat mink, otter, or wolverine.  Many parkas were made of squirrel and caribou

The elders also talked a lot about Yup’ik values.  Here are some of the important values they had to share:

Be Resourceful

When you go out in the wilderness without resources, you have to become resourceful.  Use whatever you have available to you.  If your shoes have a hole, sew it up right away.  Take care of things as soon as they happen.  Even now, you should have a survival kit every time you travel, even men.

Long ago, even men had a version of a sewing kit with a needle, thread, and tools that they would take out in the wilderness to fix things (such as mend furs and clothing) because they would be gone for a month or so at a time.

One of the students, using an ulu.

Do Not Be Wasteful

Do not waste food.  Do not be picky eaters.  Try food, even if you are not sure of it.  Do not be a fool being wasteful, just because it seem like it’s easy to get things.

Be Helpful to Your Neighbor

If you see someone that needs help, help them right away.  Do not expect to be paid; just help them.  It makes them happy.  It is a good feeling to help others.  If you see any elders, it brings you luck to help them.

Speaking Yup’ik

Listen closer, and you will learn.  Listening helps you learn.  The more you listen if your parents speak it, the more you learn.

Tool Usage

Young girls are not as good with ulus.  They should practice more.  They should also learn and practice sewing.

Culture Week

So, this week was Culture Week at the school.  Because it was the first week of moose hunting, we were going to have a lot of absences.  So, the staff decided that, instead of fighting absences and make-up work, we would alter our curriculum to fit the needs of our community.  We allowed students who wanted to go moose hunting to go out (and even offered adults a fuel stipend for each student they took out on a cultural activity).  For the kids that came to school, we had activities that were culturally relevant as well.

Peeled poles for the fish racks

One of the finished fish racks

With the middle school and high school kids on Monday and Tuesday, we built a fish rack in the morning.  In the afternoons, we had elders come in and talk with the students.  

On Wednesday, the kids went down and split fish with ulus (traditional Alaskan knives) in the morning, and then we went berry picking the in afternoon.  

A selection of ulus

Splitting fish with an ulu

A rack full of split fish

Thursday, the weather was bum in the morning, so we had the kids work on pictures slideshows of this week the morning.  Then the older kids taught the elementary kids NYO (Native Youth Olympics) events.  They taught them the events below.  (I’ll do my best to explain how they work.  Unfortunately, I don’t want to post pictures with my students’ faces because I don’t have their permission to do so.  Instead I’ve posted links, in case my description doesn’t make sense.)  On Friday, we had a small NYO event for the elementary kids to show off their skills to the community, then we had a big potluck to finish off the week.  It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun!

NYO Events

• Kneel Jump - Kids start down on their knees.  They use their arms as leverage to jump up and forward onto their feet.  The goal is to land on both feet, with as much distance as possible.
• Stick Pull - Two kids start out sitting, facing each other.  Their feet are propped against one another.  They are holding on to the same stick (they take turns with their hands either on the inside or outside so it’s fair).  They pull on the stick until they pull their opponent completely towrads them or their opponent lets go.
• Seal Hop - Kids start out in a push up position (usually, girls have their hands flat on the ground, and boys are on their knuckles.  For our purposes and the age of the kids we were working with, we only taught them with their hands flat on the ground).  The kids hop across the floor in this position.  If you were really being judged, your butt would have to stay down.  Time doesn’t matter, only distance.

All these kicks require a little set up.  There is a ball (about the size of a softball) attached to a string, which is hanging over the top of our basketball hoops.  The other end of the string is attached to a weight which is placed on the floor so the height of the ball can be adjusted.

• Alaskan High Kick - First, the kids sit on the floor, facing the ball.  They hold one foot with the opposite hand (e.g. they hold their left foot with their right hand).  They balance on their other hand and kick the ball with the foot they are not holding.  The height of the ball is raised after each kick until the competitor can no longer kick the ball.
• One Foot High Kick - This one usually has a small running start.  The kids jump straight into the air, bending their kicking leg and kicking the ball.  They have to land on the same foot they kicked with, and keep their balance.  
• Two Foot High Kick - Very similar to the one foot high kick.  This one, kids jump with both feet, keep their feet together to kick the ball, and land on both feet, keeping their balance.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Well, I received my contract for next year yesterday.  I suppose that’s a good thing.  I have a job in Alaska if I want it.  However, I’m having a lot of doubts of what I should do next year.  Might as well explain it all, since I don’t talk to most of you often...

The Good

The students here are awesome.  They have a lot of potential.  If you can reach them, appeal to their better nature, and build a good rapport with them, then you can truly tell that I picked a wonderful village to work in.  Maybe I got lucky because there’s two of us new teachers here.  Maybe I’m just a lesser of the two evils.  Who knows.  But it seems like they enjoy having me as a teacher.

The staff I work with is pretty cohesive.  Well...for the most part.  There’s 5 teachers, a special ed teacher, and the principal.  In a small school like ours, it’s important that everyone gets along for the most part.  Half of us live in very close proximity to each other, so it makes for pretty good friendships if you get along with them.

I make about $15,000 more up here in Alaska than I do in Colorado as a teacher.  That’s pretty awesome.  Who wouldn’t want to make more money?  Cha-ching!

It’s beautiful up here.  The weather hasn’t been “typical” Alaskan weather.  It’s been pretty warm.  All of our snow has melted and is just a thick layer of ice.  Even so, it’s still pretty.

We do have a bush airline that travels straight from Koliganek to Anchorage.  That makes things much cheaper in the long run, so I don’t have to fly through Dillingham.

The Bad

There’s not a lot to do here.  The village is VERY small.  I’m not sure anyone really understands how small it is here.  Less than 200 people in the village, and about 60 of those people are kids at school.  There’s not a lot of socialization opportunities here.  Very few people my age that aren’t already married with kids.

The economy here is pretty poor, much like most Alaskan bush villages.  In such a small village, jobs are hard to come by.  This puts a stress on the community as a whole.  Luckily, alcoholism isn’t very high here, however it can be a problem for some.  One of the jobs here is the dog-catcher.  Stray dogs are a problem for a couple of reasons.  They get into the trash, and when they can’t find food, they get violent.  They’ve attacked kids in the past.  So, they round up the stray dogs, take them to the dump, and shoot them.  Pretty crazy, right?  Guess who has that job...a high school student.  Other jobs include the trash man, the post office lady, the store cashiers, and a handful of village council jobs.

I’m the only teacher here that is single.  That’s pretty frustrating sometimes.  Being the only one without a family is sometimes hard.  It’s especially hard since I’m pretty close with my family in Colorado.  It can also be tough, since most of my friends are also in Colorado.  I truly miss going out for pizza and a beer after work with some friends.

Although I make more money up here, it also costs more money up here.  For example, a gallon of gas is $6.25 in the village.  Everything at our store is very pricey.  I have to ship everything in.  Transportation in and out is pretty crazy too.  The only way to come or go is via plane.  It cost me about $1400 to come home for Christmas (just for flights and hotels in Anchorage between flights).  So even if I am making more money, there’s a lot more expenses.

I’m still paying on my mortgage in Colorado.  Although I have a roommate now that helps with the cost of that, it’s still an added expense.  Everyone that wants me to stay here simply says “sell it!”  Easier said than done in a crappy, military-based economy.  Besides, I really enjoy having a place of my own to come home to when I’m not in Alaska.

The Ugly

The living conditions are decent.  But they’re not great.  I’ve gotten my rent knocked down quite a bit due to the condition of the housing here.  There’s an issue with mice where I live, which is disgusting.  They’re weird little mice too.  They don’t just eat things, they hoard it.  The mouse poison I put out, for example.  They started hoarding it under a blanket of mine and in a pair of jeans I had laying out.  Their trying to poison me back I guess.

In such a small school, if there’s anyone that you don’t get along with, it makes things very very difficult.  It’s hard to avoid people if you don’t see eye-to-eye.  And, at the end of the day, it’s not like you can go very far to escape the troubles of the day.

The Conclusion

Umm...I have no conclusion.  I have no idea what my plans are for next school year.  I’ve applied to all 11 Colorado Springs school districts, however, a lot of the districts are down-sizing.  Should I sign this Alaska contract?  Or not, and hope for a job in Colorado?  I have 30 days to decide.  Ultimately, it’s my decision, I’m aware.  I’m not sure if the good things outweigh the bad.  It’s just a shame more school districts won’t have jobs posted by then...