Erma Tomaganuk is originally from Scammon Bay, but she moved to Hooper Bay a long time ago. "I married when I was 19 years old," she said. "We lived in those days in sod and wood houses over in the mountains. Our windows were made with seal intestines, and grass was used as insulation in the holes of the houses; our blankets were made of bird skins (and feathers). We ate white fish and many other kinds of fish. We ate only fresh foods then. We used to travel by dog sleds, and we stayed at our fish camps in the winter time. In the summer time we used to go to Cape Romanzoff and there we caught herring fish and tomcods. Some other things we used to eat in the summer time were eggs, birds and clams. Now we miss eating birds because there are hardly any around these days. The men used to travel by kayak then. And people only burned wood in their stoves -- they had no gas or oil in those days. They never used to wear shoes, only mukluks and fish skin boots. Our parkas were made of bird skins (with the feathers) and muskrat skins."

"I did not go to school. At the age of 50, I was taught how to speak and write in English by Neva Rivers. But only for one year.

interview by Eleanor Tomaganuk Erma Tomaganuk sitting with her husband Tom Tomaganuk (Tumarneq) in their home in Hooper Bay