Maggie Hoelscher
(Lurvaleria)

Maggie was born at Qissunaq (Kashunak) on September 30, 1913. "I was the only daughter and I had only one brother. We stayed with my uncle and grandma who was very old. My uncle had no wife."

"My mom used to tell me never to stay with a person whom I didn't know well, or to go with some boy even though he wanted to go with me -- never to listen to him. While my mom was working I used to watch her and I learned what she used to work. She used to make parkas, Eskimo rain coats, and when she made them I used to watch her carefully even though I did not make these things.''

"I remember we had a wood stove they used to heat water on. My dad used to drink tea alone with me. My grandma and mother never liked drinking tea or coffee; my grandma didn't like baked bread either because a long time ago they never used to eat it. But my mother and I used to eat it because we liked it and we didn't get it very much. We only had it after my dad went to see the Gussuk over at Scammon Bay. When he came back my mom used to bake a lot of bread and boil hot water for tea in two big kettles. Then the men came over to our house to drink tea. Our house used to be full of men in those days because they really liked tea, and they really liked to eat baked bread too. The first time my dad saw shoes he bought me a pair that had some fur around them. Even though they were too big for me, I used to wear them. I really thanked him for buying me those shoes because I liked the way the heels stomped on the floor. I kept walking back and forth with those shoes on just listening to them stomp. My grandma and my brother and I used to play house too. We pretended to eat with play dishes and little bits of food my grandma gave us.

interview by Edna Lake

Manny's Summer

Dale ( Manny) Hunt came to Marshall from Kotlik to help with the A.V.C.P. house construction project. He is working on the 16 new buildings being put up on Yukon Ave. behind Marshall. Right now, all the houses are up, but they need things to be put inside.

Dale goes to work at 8:00 in the morning and goes home around 6:00 P.M. That means he has to get a lot of sleep to be able to get up real early! He likes his job. Recently, he came from the state Washington where he had been for carpentry training, and that's how he got his job here.

Dale "sorta" likes Marshall; "It's alright," he told me. Sometimes he gets homesick, because sometimes he has nothing to do. He says that hunting down in Kotlik is better than here because there are more marine mammals and game.

His summer was GREAT, he said. He traveled, hunted, went commercial fishing, visited with friends, hung around, and worked around his own house in Kotlik. Other villages he visited were Unalakleet, Emmonak, Alakanak, Mountain Village, St. Mary's, and Pilot Station.

Interviewed by,

"Garrett, Richie, Joel, Uppa-boy and I got ready to go out hunting on the 6th of September. Then we went up to Big Bend Slough just below Holy Cross. The night we got there we just missed two bulls. Then we pitched camp and went to bed because it was getting late. The next day when we went out hunting we saw nothing but a cow moose. The next morning we decided to look for moose in Raspberry Slough at the lower end of Big Bend Slough. But we didn't see anything, so we went up to Holy Cross. While we were up there we bought some grub and gas, then we went back down river.

Richie and I finally caught our two moose in Raspberry Slough. After we butchered them, we brought the meat back to our camp. That same night we all played at being Indians by dancing around the fire.

The next morning we skinned the legs and then cut the ribs off the backbone. After that, Loots and I went out again to see if we could find a moose for him, but while we were out our steering cable broke. We were able to jury rig it, though, and we managed to get back to camp. While we were coming back we saw a bull moose up at Paimiut Village, but we didn't catch him. Then we came back home to Marshall."

By: Nick Fitka Jr.

I had never seen as many moose on one boat ride as we saw when my dad took us out on a warm July evening. We stopped at Willow where my brother went rodding for a while, but when he didn't have any luck we left. Then dad went into a slough I hadn't been in before. By the looks of the trees, I thought we wouldn't see anything, but while we were driving along my dad saw a bull moose near the water. As we started towards the moose it ran into the trees. We idled into a little dead end slough, watching out for the moose we'd seen. Since the slough was a dead end, my dad stopped at the end. There my brother tried again to catch fish, but he didn't have any luck there either. I picked a couple of flowers to bring home. A little later we left that site and went farther into the main slough. My dad stopped when we saw the bull running onto the tundra. While we were watching him, my mom saw another small bull on the other side. My dad and I then started paddling over, trying to be quiet. We got pretty close to it, but it ran up onto the tundra like the other one did. When the moose stopped, my dad started calling, making sort of an "umph" noise with his hands cupped over his mouth. The bull then started coming back towards us. I thought it was pretty cool. The moose watched us for about ten minutes, but finally realized my dad wasn't a moose. After the moose was out of sight we started heading home. Along the way, though, my mom saw a cow and two calves. But when the cow saw us they disappeared into the trees. Then we continued on our way home. We all had fun on that ride because we saw so many moose.

During the month of March madness, Marshall basketball teams were playing every other weekend. Marshall also hosted the 2nd Annual Elem./Jr. High Basketball Tournament which was a big success. There were teams from Pilot Station, Russian Mission and St. Mary's, plus our own students. There were 125 students from the various schools.

In early March, we hosted our Regional School Board during their monthly meeting. We are always glad to see them visit our school.

In mid-March, the EIem./Jr. High basketball teams traveled to St. Mary's to their tournament. There the Jr. High girls' team placed 2nd, and the Elem. girls' team came home with a 1st place trophy.

Later in March, our high school girls' team traveled to Hooper Bay, and the boys traveled to Chevak for their district tournaments. We are happy to announce that both teams came home with the Sportsmanship Trophy. We are proud of our teams.

In-between the above events, we had our monthly Student of the Month Awards Assembly, presentations from Fish and Wildlife by Jacob Isaac and Moses Llttlefish, travel to Scammon Bay by the Marshall Traditional Dance Group, and our school Open House when we passed out grades to the parents for the 3rd quarter.

March was busy but fun. We are proud of our students and their many accomplishments. We have good students and good parents. Parents, pat yourself on the back.

We enjoyed our March Madness as we watched the accomplishments of our students and the support from their homes. Keep up the good work everyone.

Return to School News

Marcia worked all summer long at Hunter's Store from 9AM-5PM with an hour for lunch. She said that while working in Hunter's she'd try not to be bored and lazy. She said she likes working there and has been working there for a long time.

When she wasn't working, she would spend her time with her niece, help out at home, go out on boat rides to pick berries or rod and reel. But every time she tried she didn't catch a single fish. She also went over to the sandbar, but didn't swim.

Once when Marcia and Nick Boots went for a boat ride they went behind Nick's fishcamp to check for berries. After picking, they returned to Nick's boat, left and idled out on a slough. While Marcia was reading a book in the cabin, Nick saw a black bear swimming right in front of them. When he told Marcia to come and look, Marcia ran out to take a good look at it. Nick decided to circle it for awhile, then they left it alone and watched it walk up the bank. Marcia said that watching the bear was cool but kind of scary for her because she was outside of the cabin watching the bear as they circled.

After circling the bear, they went for another short boat ride and then came back home. She said seeing the bear like that was the best part of her summer.

Story by: Marcia George

Interviewed by: Mary Jane Shorty

"My summer was not that bad. I got to go on many boat rides, as usual, and went out berry picking. It was just the same old boring summer, but, you know, it turned out okay.

My friend, Angela, got to come home for the summer and turned my summer around. We mostly went to the pool hall, walked around and hung out. We talked about our youth and thought that nowadays it seems boring to be all grown up and have to worry about what to do.

I got a job too this summer. It wasn't all fun, but at least I had something to do. I started working down at the MFP as a laborer. I wasn't doing much, mostly easy work. I cleaned up after fishing and stayed around the office answering phone calls. And I cleaned the kitchen.

After my job ended, I got to stay with more of my friends and mostly hung out at the pool hall or I went to bingo. There's not much to do in Marshall. By mid-summer Zena Mae got into town and she made my nights fun. Zena, Bernice and I did the same old things, but as each night passed we were having more fun. We played card games most nights at the pool hall, talked about our past and our fun youth days. And we got to see drunks make fools of themselves.

I went to a couple of weddings and Vernon and Irene's 50th anniversary.

Babes and Barb got married, and they had a good reception; the fiddling went on until late that night. Also Joseph and Darlene got married the next weekend.

Vernon and Irene had their 50th anniversary on August 10. I got to help with decorating the gym along with some others. Zena, Bernice, Flora and I had fun that night at the fiddling. It's amazing to see a couple married for such a long time.

Well, this was my summer that I spent in little old Marshall. I got to watch two weddings, went to an anniversary, and hung out with my friends. It wasn't the best or the worst summer I've spent here, but it was okay. I especially got to know I had a good friend who stayed long enough to turn my summer around from being a drag."

By: Marie Papp

Interviewed by: Kathy Duny