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Native Pathways to Education
Alaska Native Cultural Resources
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Indigenous Education Worldwide
 

Yup'ik RavenMarshall Cultural Atlas

This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He has wanted to share these works for others to use as an example of Culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned. These are available for educational use only.

 

 

 

 

Austin and his friend the Bear Cub 

One day a young 9 year old boy named Austin Roehl decided to take a walk into the forest to look for unusual animals. He was a boy who cared for animals, especially little animals. He didn't like it much when he saw baby animals left to die with no parents.

While taking his weekly walk he saw the same old animals over and over again. One day though he saw a baby animal that he had never seen before. He had heard stories from people about what bears looked like but he had never seen one. This little baby had the same description as a bear cub: heavy, short when walking on his hind legs and front legs, tall when he stands up to get something. Austin was very amused to finally see how a baby bear really looked. But something also looked wrong about this bear. He didn't look exactly like a bear at all. This little bear was looking for food and crying very loud like he was looking for his mother. Austin really wanted to go up to the bear cub and pet it, but he remembered what his father used to tell him about not going up to a bear cub just in case his mother might be lurking around the corner. So Austin and the bear cub just looked at each other in suspense, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

All of a sudden the cub talked to him. He said, "Why are you so scared of me?" Austin replied, "I ain't, but ain't your mom around the corner waiting to kill me so you guys can eat me for dinner?" When Austin asked that question the cub started to cry. "My mother was killed a day ago by a man just playing around trying to look big and all for his girlfriend! So you don't say bad things about my mother!" he said.

"So you're an orphan. Do you want to be my pet? If you will be my pet I will give you a name, a good place to stay and all the food you want to eat." All the cub could do was nod his head up and down. "Well, okay, your name will be, hey wait a minute, are you a boy cub or a girl cub?"

The cub answered, "I am a boy cub, of course!"

"Okay then, you didn't have to get mad at all! Your name will be Sterling, if that's okay with you? It's okay with me."

That day Sterling and Austin got to know each other very well. They talked, played games and all the other things that friends do to get to know each other. Finally, when it was getting late Austin remembered his mother told him to be home in time for dinner, and he and Sterling started walking towards home!

When they got there Austin told Sterling to wait outside while he went in and got his parents to tell them the great news. When he got inside the house his mother asked him what new animals he had seen. He didn't want to answer that question so he asked her where his dad was? His mother said in the living room watching T.V. When Austin went to get his dad, he said, "Come on dad, I have something to show you and mom outside, hurry up, this can't wait forever."

His parents didn't really want to see what he brought home, so they walked out very sluggishly. And when his father, Jeff, saw what Austin had brought home he told his wife to get back into the house. He then ran over to his son and grabbed him by the arm. Austin started screaming, and Sterling got very mad at his dad's reaction and he started to charge Jeff. Jeff got really scared and left his son alone. Austin then ran up to Sterling and gave him a really big hug to try to calm him down. He said, "My dad was only trying to protect me from you. He thinks that bears are mean and like to eat people." Sterling understood and licked Austin's face and started playing around. When Jeff saw what was going on, he started to laugh. Then he got enough courage up to go outside and have fun with his son and the bear cub.

As the years passed, Austin and Sterling became very close, telling each other everything they had done and everything they heard from other people. Austin fell in love with a girl named Melinda and got married, and Sterling continued to be their pet. Soon though the day would come for Sterling also to fall in love with another bear just like himself. But until that day came they all would live happily together.

 

By LaVerne Manumik

Austin and his friend the Bear Cub

Bear Fire


Creative Stories
from the
Imagination

From Galena to Barrow

- Flora May Evan

The Three Amigos

- Henry S. Manumik

The Great Legend of Shawn Johnson

- Tina Papp

Bear Struck

- Leslie Hunter Jr.

The Bear

- Palassa Sergie

The Magic Bear

- Marlene Papp

Austin and his friend the Bear Cub

- LaVerne Manumik

Carayak

- Billy Waska

The Bear Who Never Learned His Lesson

- Carmen Pitka

The Bear

- Olga Moxie

The Bear

- Theresa George

Grizzly Bear

- Katherine Duny

The Bear Attack

- Fred Alstrom

An Adventurous Day

- Gerilyn Fitka

A lot of Bears

- Victor Shorty

Grizzly

- Ben Peteroff

The Human Who Ran With Bears

- Yvonne Evan

The Grizzly

- Chris Fitka

The Bear That Was Swimming Across

- Teresa George

Bear

- Garrett Evan

The Big Bear

- John Tikiun

 

 

Bear Fire
Stories and Poems
about Bears

by Marshall High School
Language Arts Classes
Spring, 1992

 

Produced by 
Information about Bears

Creative Stories from the Imagination

True Stories from Experience

Poems

 

Christmastime Tales
Stories real and imaginary about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1996
Christmastime Tales II
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1998
Christmastime Tales III
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 2000
Summer Time Tails 1992 Summertime Tails II 1993 Summertime Tails III
Summertime Tails IV Fall, 1995 Summertime Tails V Fall, 1996 Summertime Tails VI Fall, 1997
Summertime Tails VII Fall, 1999 Signs of the Times November 1996 Creative Stories From Creative Imaginations
Mustang Mind Manglers - Stories of the Far Out, the Frightening and the Fantastic 1993 Yupik Gourmet - A Book of Recipes  
M&M Monthly    
Happy Moose Hunting! September Edition 1997 Happy Easter! March/April 1998 Merry Christmas December Edition 1997
Happy Valentine’s Day! February Edition 1998 Happy Easter! March/April Edition 2000 Happy Thanksgiving Nov. Edition, 1997
Happy Halloween October 1997 Edition Edible and Useful Plants of Scammon Bay Edible Plants of Hooper Bay 1981
The Flowers of Scammon Bay Alaska Poems of Hooper Bay Scammon Bay (Upward Bound Students)
Family Trees and the Buzzy Lord It takes a Village - A guide for parents May 1997 People in Our Community
Buildings and Personalities of Marshall Marshall Village PROFILE Qigeckalleq Pellullermeng ‘A Glimpse of the Past’
Raven’s Stories Spring 1995 Bird Stories from Scammon Bay The Sea Around Us
Ellamyua - The Great Weather - Stories about the Weather Spring 1996 Moose Fire - Stories and Poems about Moose November, 1998 Bears Bees and Bald Eagles Winter 1992-1993
Fish Fire and Water - Stories about fish, global warming and the future November, 1997 Wolf Fire - Stories and Poems about Wolves Bear Fire - Stories and Poems about Bears Spring, 1992

 

 
 

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Last modified August 21, 2006