On August 12, I went down to St. Mary's with my cousins David Andrew, Nick Fitka Jr. (Long), and Ray Alstrom Jr. The first night we got there we only went to the store and hung out for awhile. Then I went home until the square dance started at the community hall. My friends and I hung out there and watched people be square. The dance quit at 1:00 A.M. After the dance quit, my friends and I walked and talked and laughed and couldn't wait until Friday night for the teen dance. Later on that morning we all went home to get some rest for the next night.

On Friday morning Long woke me up. He came in and bothered me while I was having a good dream. Then we all got washed up and went to the store to have breakfast. After that we walked up and down the hills around St. Mary's all day. Finally, evening came and the square dance began. We stayed there and hung out until the teen dance started. When we heard that the teen dance had begun we walked down to the Townsite Hall and hung out. People were just starting to show up there, so the beginning was sort of boring. While we were waiting for people to show up, I bumped into a bunch of people I had known at Mt. Edgecumbe and friends I had met at either volleyball or basketball games or at the Bilingual Conference. When almost everyone had arrived we went in and danced. It felt cool to dance because we hadn't had a dance in a couple of months here in Marshall.

After the dance quit at 3:00 A.M., everyone gathered around the dance hall and chatted. We finally left the dance hall at around 4:45 A.M. and walked up town. I went home around 5:30 A.M. While we were walking up we bumped into a huge dog. We took off running. One of us jumped on the back of a truck. My other friend took off down the road, and I ran any old direction and bumped into the dog again. When I took off running again the dog didn't follow me; it just walked away. Then I said good night and went in to sleep.

The next morning I got up and went to the store again where I hung out and talked and waited for my other friends to come around. Not very long afterward they swung by. I hung around with them, and we went back and forth to the stores. Then we waited until the square dance started and hung out there until the teen dance got more exciting. Then we went down and danced the night away, since it was the last night for both dances and we knew we probably wouldn't have another teen dance in a long time.

The next morning we got ready to go home. After we got all of our passengers together and bought the gas, we took off for home. We all enjoyed ourselves so much at the dance we wished we could have stayed another night there.

By: Kimberly Fitka

During the spring time we always go seal hunting down at the ocean. But it is always dangerous when there is a lot of ice, and when high tide comes to shore the ice comes with it and that is why we go up on land very quickly.

Also during the winter time when there is a lot of ice it is dangerous to go seal hunting. When the tide comes up the ice on the mud begins to float. That is why we need to shove the ice away from the boat in order to make a path.

During the spring time we always hunt for bearded seals, harbor seals, and spotted seals. Whenever we see a whale, that is, if there are any around we catch them, too. Also during the winter time we try to catch bearded seals, spotted seals, harbor seals, and whatever we see in the ocean. Also during the summer time we go out to the ocean for clam digging when the tide gets low. When it is really calm and there are no waves it is a lot of fun traveling out, but when it gets really windy the water gets terribly choppy real fast. Waves are like, if you put water in a coffee can and let it stay put it will stay calm. But if you take the can and shake it the water will start getting choppy inside. That is how the ocean will get because we've seen it before and that's why we don't go out on the ocean when it's wavey. When it is windy out on the ocean it is not safe to be out there.

Upnerkami mai qamiiratukut imarpigmun ungavet. Taugaam alingaqluni cikuliiraakami uunaani kiteqvani wiitayunaunani. Ulaqan tagtuluni cikuq kelutmun. Tagaqluta cikuliarakan tamaa.

Cali uksuami cal cikuyuraakami alingnaqluni qamiirallek. Ulaqan marrai-am cikua puggtegteraami eglergaakami canuraqluku mana cikuq.

Upnerkami pissurakluta maklagnek nayirnek issuurinek-llu. Cetuanek-llu tangraqamta pitangqerkan tamaakunek piaqluta. Uksuagmi-llu maklagnek issuurinek nayirnek-llu canek wa tangllemtenek imarpigmi pitengnaqaqluta.

Cali kiagmi imarpigmun unaani entaqan qapilarcurluta ungavet imarpigmun aiyagluta. Quuniraakami cali anglanaqluni eglerrtellek taui kailuigpegnani taugaam anuukengaaqami egmian meq qailingevvkatua. Waten pankautellertun mermek imiikuvgu wiitaurceskuvgu quunircikuq. Taugaam teguuluku mengliikun angaalaskuvni qairvarluni ilua. Tuaten pankaucetun aiyuqluni imarpik. Wangnigua tangvallemtni aiyuqetuk. Waten angaalatellrani qairvarluni wiitayunaunani pankautem iluani. Imarpigmi cali tuaten anuqvarakami mermicunaunani.

Bruno Kasayuli, Sr.

It all started with a party that I was invited to on a Saturday night. The people who invited me told me that it was going to be great, so I asked them if I could invite a few friends of mine. They agreed and I called up a few of my friends and asked if they wanted to go to a party.

The next day we all met at our regular hang-out which was at a Chinese restaurant and we stayed there until 7 o'clock when we drove over to the party. When we got there we parked the car a few blocks away and walked to the house because there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. As we approached the house we could hear loud music, and when we opened the door everyone was dancing and drinking and acting really wild. When we went in we could see the place was trashed because of the huge numbers of people there. Then somehow we got split up, and there were so many people that trying to find each other in the crowd was almost impossible.

After the party was over I noticed one of my friends, Shelly, was gone. Somebody told me that she was with some guy and that they took off before the party was over. The next day when I saw Shelly I asked her where she had gone and she told me that she'd met this nice guy named Gilbert who took her to a movie. They got to know each other better and decided to go out together again. I told her that I was really happy for her.

For the next couple of weeks Shelly and Gilbert were always together as a couple and it wasn't often that we saw them apart. But as time went by we hardly saw Shelly anymore, and she wasn't showing up at her job either. I was worried about her and I asked her friend, Mary, if she could go and see if she was okay.

Mary went over to Shelly's house and when she asked her where she had been Shelly told her that she couldn't go out because she had twisted her leg when she fell off a stepladder.

After Mary told me Shelly was hurt I decided to go visit her too. When I reached her house Gilbert's car was parked out front and they were talking on the lawn. I watched them talk for a while until suddenly Shelly's boyfriend grabbed her and slammed her against the wall of the house and then started slapping her. When I saw this I got really angry and ran over to Gilbert and yelled at him to stop. But he didn't listen so I started slugging the crap out of him. Shelly screamed for me to stop but I was so mad that I didn't hear her. While Gilbert was down I went over to Shelly and helped her into the house. Gilbert stumbled back to his car and slowly drove away. Inside the house I asked Shelly what the fight was all about and if he had been like this for a while. She said, yes it had. But why didn't she call the cops, I asked, because he shouldn't have done this to her. Shelly said she didn't know why. She just put up with it

After a few months, Shelly got over Gilbert and eventually found another boyfriend. This time she made sure that he was a nice guy. But I told her if he turned out to be like Gilbert to let me know about it and I'd teach him the same lesson I taught Gilbert!

By Robert Pitka

Once upon a time There was a family of four. Liz was the Mother, Michael was the Father, and Justine and Mary Ann were the daughters. It was 1980.

Every year during the summer they would go camping up river. While they were at camp Justine and Mary Ann would help their Mom cut fish. Once in a great while one of the girls would help her dad fish.

One day when all their fish was cut they decided to go for a short walk. While they were walking, Mary Ann ran into a bee hive. She grabbed a stick and hit it so hard that it fell and broke open.

Thousands of bees came towards the girls. Justine was the first to run so she was way ahead of Mary Ann.

When Justine heard Mary Ann screaming for help, she ran back to where Mary Ann was and found her surrounded by thousands of bees and crying for help. Justine ran as fast as she could back to their camp and told her parents. She then showed them where Mary Ann was.

When they got there the bees were gone but Mary Ann was lieing there helpless. When Michael went over to her and pinched her she didn't react. Liz and Justine began to cry. Justine said over and over how much she hated bees, and how they killed her sister!!

After a few hours passed, finally they all reached their home town. A couple days later they had a service for Mary Ann.

Later that year, Michael and Liz talked to people about what had happened to their daughter, and they told them to watch their children more often when there are bees around.

Theresa George

Dave's Snowy Trapping Trip

One winter day many years ago David Fitka and Peter Elia were going to check their traps up on the Achuelinguq River. They'd been traveling in pretty stormy weather trying to get to Chuck's cabin in that area when it started blowing snow even harder. It got to the point where they could only see ten feet in front of them.

Along the way they came across a big snow drift and stopped behind it to warm up. It was a lot calmer behind the drift, he said, but the snow was so thick that it was hard to breath. When they took off their gloves the snow built up so fast that their hands became wet almost instantly.

They were both lucky to be traveling in country they knew, though, or else they could have gotten lost on their way to the cabin. From the time it got stormy until they reached the cabin they had traveled only 10 miles. But they finally made it to the cabin alright and waited out the storm there. When the weather was better they checked their traps and then headed for home.

By: David Fitka

Interviewed by: Fred Alstrom

David Evan
Heavy Equipment Operator

David Evan was born on the third of August, 1948, at Ingrak (Little Mountain). David, his mother Kathy, and father Alex, came to live in Marshall until David was seven years old. After that he went to school in Russian Mission. He attended Chiloco High School in Oklahoma and graduated from there in 1964.

David has been working with water and sewer projects since he was sixteen, and he plans to work as long as he is healthy or until he retires. At first he says he wasn't very interested in his job, but as he worked at it more, he started to like it more. Now he likes his job very much. He says he likes it because he works outdoors with heavy equipment.

The training he received was pretty straight forward. He had six months of heavy equipment training and another six months of welding. Then when he worked with the TAPS pipeline he had more training. There he learned more about heavy equipment and construction.

David says that his job keeps him healthy. He also says working hard takes his arthritis pains away. The best thing he likes about his job is his boss and the people he works with. What he doesn't like is redoing the mistakes that they make because they have to take apart everything and put it all back together again. He also doesn't like to build experimental structures because they sometimes don't work!

Cheryl Hunter