Everyone deals with death differently. When people die in Kalskag everyone gathers at the person’s house and they pray and sing for the person and the family. Some people make coffins or they buy (order) them. My uppa’s was ordered from Anchorage. The stores donate food, paper plates, plastic forks and spoons, tissue, paper towels, and a lot of other things. The body is put in the coffin and it is kept in the house for about three or four days and people go there and eat and talk with the family. People have to be in the house with the body and they have to be awake all the time. They have to do that because something might happen like it might run away or something. They have to stay awake so they can watch the body.

 

On the fourth or fifth day the body is brought to the church. It stays there over night and the next day the funeral begins. We have mass and if anyone wants to say something about the person that died they go to the front and stand by the body and talk. When mass is over everyone kisses the person’s hands or cheek or lips and they hug the family. We bring the coffin and body to the graveyard to be buried. We pray and sing at the graveyard and throw flowers on the coffin and people start burying with shovels.

 

After that the people go back to the deceased persons house and eat a big feast or feed. The person’s belongings are burned either down by the riverbank or up the hill.

The people in Kalskag deal with death by eating and talking at the deceased persons house. They also pray and sing at the house. People stay with the body until it is buried. After the funeral we have a big feast or feed where everyone goes to the house to eat.