Gabe works at the Fortuna Ledge Co-op Store. You will most likely see Gabe behind the counter helping to get what the customers want or stocking in the shopping aisles. He works eight hours a day, mainly with Marlene. His boss is Alex Nick. Gabriel doesn't know what's the best part of his job but comments, "At least I don't get hollered at!"

He doesn't plan to work at the Co-op for very long since he is planning to join the Air Force. He may be leaving after he takes his physical in Anchorage. If he passes his physical, we may not be seeing Gabe for a while.

A few of Gabe's responsibilities are: being kind to customers, seeing that customers get what they want, keeping the store clean and stocking. He dislikes the fact that the hours go by too slowly and that he gets only $6.00 an hour.

For anyone who would want a job like Gabe's, here's advice from a person who is experienced: study, memorize and practice your math skills. It helps a lot to challenge yourself, and instead of using a calculator, use your head, you'll learn faster.

Interviewed and written by

Angela Kameroff

Gabriel Duny
Bookkeeper

Gabriel Duny was born in Anchorage in 1974 and he grew up here in Marshall. He also attended high school here. He did not attend college because he had no interest in further education.

Gabe has worked in the Co-op Store for four years and doesn't know how long he plans to work there. He likes his job because he gets to work with numbers. He was first interested in this job as bookkeeper because he wouldn't have as much contact with people as he did when he was a retail clerk. To get the job he only needed on-the-job training from his former employer, Leslie Hunter, and some from Roberta Fitka who had the same job as he does now. If he is unable to complete his paperwork, he gets help from his boss, Willie Fitka, or he calls the ANICA office in Seattle for advice. Gabe's job keeps him stimulated because there is always something for him to do on a daily basis, such as reconciling accounts, monthly and quarterly taxes, etc. The best thing about his job is that he doesn't have to be around people as much, and the worst thing about it is when customers bother him with questions that the clerks can answer while he is trying to do his paperwork.

Gabriel Duny. lives with his sister and two brothers, and they affect his job performance in more than one way. Some days they have a negative influence on him and some days they have a positive one. "It all depends on the outcome of the day," he says. "When I am stressed, they seem to know it and don't bother me as much. But when the day's gone fine, it usually lasts 'til I go to bed."

Rose Lynn Fitka

Gail is the Special Education Aide here at the Marshall school. She works for the LYSD and her boss up here in Marshall is Roger Adams. She had to attend some Special Ed. workshops for training.

Gail has a high school diploma and 43 credit hours of college. She works in the school 6 hours a day, five days a week. She would like to work at this job until she returns to college. She spends most of her time with the Special Ed. students.

The responsibilities of her job are: to be on time, do the work well, help educate the children with learning problems, and to keep information confidential. The best part about her job is seeing the children learn. The worst part about her job is when the children in the Special Ed. program are not in school.

Gail's advice to the younger students is to come to school on time, respect others, treat others the way you want to be treated, turn in all your work on the due date, and to participate in as many activities as you can.

Interviewed By:

Gerilyn Fitka

Gail Ann Fitka
Teacher Aide

Gail was born in Bethel, Alaska, 1971. She was raised by her gram, Anna Teganlakla. She grew up here in Marshall and has lived here all of her life. She went to school here for eleven and a half years and to Mt. Edgecumbe for a half year. She graduated here on May 12,1989.

Gail went to college at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and studied Elementary Education, but she did not graduate. She has worked here at Marshall School as a teacher aide since October,1991. She plans to work here until she is ready to go back to college. She really likes her job because she's always wanted to be a teacher. She also likes her job because it gives her experience before she becomes a teacher.

Before she got her job as a teacher aide she worked as a computer aide here. At that time she was trained in how to use the four Atari's the school had. After a few months Olga and Gail switched jobs and then Gail was trained in how to be a Special Ed. aide. Now that Gail has her job, she still has to attend workshops held by the L.Y.S.D. where she learns about I.E.P.'s and all the other paperwork in Special Ed. She feels very strongly that her job keeps her stimulated because she is working with children whose special needs must be met. She says that you have to teach them in special ways in which they will learn and understand, and that you have to reteach everything.

The best thing about her job she says is seeing the children interested in learning. The worst thing is having to take the children to the office for bad behavior.

She has a family of three boys and one girl. She feels it is very difficult to work sometimes, especially when she has a hard time finding a babysitter.

Tassie Fitka

This summer Gail didn't do much, but she did cut some fish and go out boating to places like Owl Slough and Kuigutak. Her summer went by slowly, and it was boring because she hardly did anything different.

In June, Gail went to Tuntutuliak for her cousin Lisa Fitka's wedding. It was interesting because Lisa got married in the Russian Orthodox Church in a different way than we do in Marshall.

She also got to go out commercial fishing with Luther Nick. It was the first time in her adult years that she had ever gone commercial fishing.

The most fun part of her summer was her trip to Anchorage to have knee surgery. She stayed over there for six days. Before she went to the hospital she went out shopping. Then she was in the hospital for four days recovering from her surgery. After that she came back home. She has to have her knee strap on for nine months more so her knee will heal well. She will miss playing basketball this winter especially during the women's tournament.

By: Gail Fitka

Interviewed by Lois Moore

Gail says she didn't do as much as she did last summer. She started off her summer by going spring camping near Ohagamuit right after school got out. Gail's whole family got to go on their first spring camping trip together. She also cut and dried king salmon, dog salmon, chum salmon, and silver salmon so she could put them away for the winter. Other things that Gail did over the summer were boat riding, rod and reeling at Kuik, Willow, and Wilson for pike and humpies, and drifting above Goose Island for king, dog, chum, and silver salmon. She also went blueberry picking once in back of Marshall. "It was pretty much a boring summer," said Gail, "I didn't do much."

By Gail Fitka

Interviewed by Charlotte Alstrom

Gail Fitka's Vacation

Gail didn't do as many things as she wanted to this past Christmas because she hurt her knee playing basketball, and also her daughter, Ardiss, had the Chicken Pox.

Before she hurt her knee Gail played some basketball with the Marshall Blazers. They played a few games against the Marshall Bobcats and the Pilot Station Ladyhawks.

On the first day of moose hunting Gail went for a ride with Roy. She had a good time out in the wilderness and she enjoyed it a lot even though they didn't see anything.

Gail said she enjoyed Christmas and Slaviq with her family but she said Slaviq came and went too fast!

Something happened to Gail this summer that she will never forget. She was in an emergency crash landing on the tundra 30 miles out of Bethel with Yute Air. The people who were in the plane with her were her daughter, Ardiss, Victor Shorty, Matthew and Martin Kozevnikoff and the pilot. Not too long after going down, they were rescued by a National Guard helicopter and taken to Bethel where they had to answer a lot of questions.

When they got back to Marshall, Gail cut a lot of fish with Julia Fitka. Roy Fitka caught the salmon they cut by drifting on the Yukon. She also went rod and reeling with Roy and her kids over in Wilson, Willow Creek, Kwig, Kuyukutak and Nuksuk.

Then she went berry picking in Kwig, Willow Creek and back behind Marshall with her friends and relatives.

Gail finished her exciting summer by going camping at Arnarluq with Roy, Gerilyn, Aaron, Scott, and baby Art.

By: Gail Fitka

Typed by: Tanya Peter

The best thing about my summer was when Roy and I bought a new boat and motor for our family. We got to go more places. We took the boys rod and reeling, berry picking, to the sand bar, and camping.

This is the first time my family got to go camping to pick salmon berries. We went behind the Pilcher Mountain by way of the Takchak Slough. We stayed back there for one night and two days. As young as he is, even the baby got to pick berries. The boys had fun seeing baby ducks and chasing them. That was the first time the boys went back there.

Roy and I also cut and put away salmon. We got to put away more dried fish than my first two years. This is my third year cutting fish in Marshall.

By: Gail Fitka

Interviewed By: Darcy Kameroff

Garrett Evan

"Hi, I'm Ralph. Which ship are we on?"

"We're on the British S.S. Mackerel," the British officer told me.

"Well, I got to go and see SamnEric. By the way, keep an eye on Jack and Roger," Ralph said, as he left the room.

The ship was so big it seemed about half the size of the island. There were big artillery guns on the ship and a landing strip for airplanes and choppers. The airplanes were single-engine planes with .50 caliber machine guns for shooting at enemy planes.

"Hi SamnEric. What's the news? Is Jack planning anything?" Ralph asked the two boys as he closed the door.

"Jack said he still wants to get you."

"He is planning something then? You two go back and find out."

Jack and his boys were in a room on the other side of the ship. The smaller boys wanted to join Ralph because Jack was getting too mean and hitting them to try to keep them from leaving him. Since there was no beast on the ship, Jack needed something else to try force the boys to follow him as chief. So four boys plus SamnEric wanted to join Ralph.

One day, when Jack and the others went out, SamnEric and the four boys left to join Ralph's little outlaw band.

"Ralph we have come to join you, to help you fight Jack and Roger in case they come for you," Sam said.

"How are you boys? Everything all right? Have you found out what Jack has been planning?" Ralph asked the boys.

"He said that he is planning to get a gun from one of the officers or steel one from the rooms," Sam said.

As Jack and the others walked around the ship looking for a gun, they found a room that said "weapons" on the door. They went in but only found shells for the big cannons plus some missiles with nuclear warheads . The shells were about one and a half feet wide and three feet long and the missiles were about one and a half feet wide by six feet long. The room was huge and completely filled with shells and missiles and several passageways to move the ammo around. So they went on searching the ship for a weapon. They went down to the brig and then up to the navigation room but without any luck. The only weapons they found were a couple of knives from the kitchen. So they asked the guard.

"Excuse me, officer, we would like to know if there are any hand guns or rifles on the ship?"

"Only the officers have hand guns and rifles. There are no other guns on the ship," he said to the group of boys.

So the boys went back to their room empty-handed to plan their attack on Ralph anyway. But when they got back to the room they found that the other boys had gone to join Ralph. Jack got mad and threw a fit and began hitting the boys. Then they all prepared to drive Ralph and his boys to the bow of the ship and beat them up. Meanwhile on the other side of the ship, Ralph, Sam, Eric, Jon, Joe, Edmen, and Bill were getting ready for their attack.

Jack and his boys sneaked up on Ralph and the others, then rushed in with their weapons and tried clubbing them. But Ralph was expecting them with a little trick of his own. They had found some stout sticks and fought back with them. But because Ralph's group was smaller they had to retreat to the bow of the boat where they continued their fight until the officers came and broke it up.

"Who started this?" the captain demanded.

"It was Jack! He tried to kill us!" Ralph replied to the captain.

"Is this true, son?" the captain asked.

"Yes, it's true. It was me," Jack said.

"Then I have no choice but to throw you boys in the brig!" the captain said.

The rest of the way home there was no more trouble, and Ralph and his boys could relax for the first time.