 Marshall
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.
Two-legged
Creatures
I can still remember when I was born
in the spring of 1994. Immediately after I came out of my mother I
began to learn to walk. I got the hang of it after falling a couple
of times. Feeling proud about learning how to walk, I started walking
around in the meadow where my mother and I and a couple of other
moose were eating. Not too long after exploring my surroundings and
getting familiar with everything I soon became hungry. I hurried back
to my mother to drink her warm milk. It gave me more energy but also
made me very tired, feeding like that. Right after I drank my milk,
my mother and I walked into the trees where she said we'd be harder
to see, and that's where we took our nap. I didn't understand who she
wanted to hide from until four months later.
During those four months, all my
mother and I did was roam around the countryside eating and sleeping.
Life was going so well until the season when the leaves fall from the
trees. After eating some bark from aspen trees my mother and I were
walking to the river to get a drink when we heard an annoying noise.
We stood still for a while to listen to what it might be. Soon it
disappeared and we continued our walk to the clear, thirst-quenching
water, which I later heard from older moose was part of the great
Yukon River. As we were drinking water, the noise suddenly started up
again and startled my mother and me. We were so surprised that we
didn't know what to do, and just stood there hoping the noise would
disappear again. Soon, another moose came by. He was about my age or
a little older, but he looked different, like he'd seen something he
would never forget. My mother noticed it too and motioned for us to
run into the trees to hide and not come out until we heard her call
us. We did as we were told and hid so deep in the trees that we
couldn't see her. As the annoying noise grew louder, I began to have
the feeling that something bad was about to happen. I really wanted
to check on my mother, but since she didn't call for us, I didn't
move.
About five minutes later I heard a
loud bang, and I heard my mother grunt like she was badly hurt. The
young bull and I ran just far enough out of the trees to see what was
happening, but it was too late. My mother was bleeding from the side
of her body, and there were a couple of two-legged creatures down
near the river carrying sticks. After I saw all this, the annoying
noise stopped. It was quiet for a while. I guess everyone, even the
stick-carrying two-leggeds were caught up in the moment. I know I
was. That was my mother lying there on the ground, dying. I was so
frightened, I didn't know what to do. The only thing I could think of
was to run away. As I ran, I never looked back even once.
That was a long time ago. I don't
know why, but I still remember that same bad feeling vividly, like
something terrible is suddenly going to happen without warning, as it
did after I heard the loud bang. I haven't seen any of those strange
two-legged creatures again and I hope I don't get to. I've already
had a couple of children, but they've grown up and I had to force
them to leave me so they could learn to survive on their own just as
I had to. I'm back in the same meadow my mother was killed in, and
this is the first time I've been here since I saw her lying on her
side waiting to die. I'm feeling very mournful just thinking about my
mother, and feeling guilty for just abandoning her when I should have
run up and asked her if there was anything I could do for her. While
thinking these thoughts I slowly dozed off and fell into one of my
deep sleeps.
When I woke up I thought I was still
dreaming because I could hear that same annoying buzzing noise I did
before my mother was killed. Then when I saw those strange two-legged
creatures running toward me with their fire sticks, I felt a surge of
anger boiling up inside me. I think it was because I'd never really
gotten over my mother's death and I wanted to revenge her. I didn't
care if they were pointing their fire sticks at me, I ran straight at
them and didn't stop until I knocked them down and kicked them. I
heard a loud bang just like the one I'd heard before my mother lay
bleeding on the ground. My knees got weak and I almost fell to the
ground, but when I realized nothing was wrong with me I got up and
looked around for the two-legged creatures. When I saw that one of
them was still alive I charged over and, with no mercy, crushed its
head with my hoof. Then I stayed in the meadow for a long time,
thinking that I was no better than the creatures I had just killed.
Meanwhile, a lot of birds and little ground critters came by and
started eating pieces of their bodies, so I walked away and didn't
look back. I hope I never have to run into those two-legged creatures
again.
Rose Lynn Fitka
(Alces
alces) The Moose
Moose
Fact Sheet
Student
Stories
Stories
By Parents
Stories
By Elders
Stories
By Successful Hunters
Stories
By School Staff
"If
I were a Moose…"
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 |
|
