The most exciting thing I did this summer was cut fish by myself. I didn't know it was so much work to cut fish alone. I had to keep the fire burning so no flies would go on them. Then after they dried I took them down and cut them into pieces to put them away. After that I cut a few more for half dried fish so I can cook some this winter. Then I tried picking berries but there seemed not to be that many so I didn't pick many. Then it started raining and I can't do much when it rains.

By: Nancy Fitka

Interviewed By: Carmen Pitka

Nancy works as the post mistress of the City of Marshall. She works with the Anchorage Post Office which is in charge of our village post office.

Nancy works seven hours a day, five days a week. Her job responsibilities are to sort the mall, send the mail out, serve the customers and send used equipment like sacks and boxes back to the Bethel post office. She also works with Bruce Hunter who delivers the mail to the post office and takes outgoing mail to the planes.

By: Marcia George

"This summer before I started cutting fish I had to clean my fish house and wash all my fish hanging poles. Then the next day I cut a tote of Chums because there were a lot of Chums on the river. After I cut the fish Nick hung them up and got me some alder trees to smoke them. I let them hang for about two and a half weeks, smoking them all day. Then about a week after I put my smoked Chums away in a bucket and some zip-loc bags, I started cutting King salmon strips. The first time, I cut fifteen Kings and it took me over twelve hours to put them up in strips. The second time I made strips it took me six hours because I had only twelve Kings. The reason I took so long was because King salmon are very large fish. I also had to let them hang a little longer because they were too oily. It was a lot of work but it was worth it in the end.

After cutting fish strips was over I started thinking about berries. The first berries I thought about were salmon berries. But there weren't very many salmon berries where we looked and I only picked two quart bags full. Then it was blue berry season. And they were fun to pick because there were lots of them. So far I must have picked about 25 quart bags full. I could have had more but I kept on making agutak. The next berries I'm thinking about are black berries, but I won't pick those until the first frost comes because they are sweeter after the first frost. It was a fun summer for me."

Interviewed by: Carmen Pitka

Story by: Nancy Fitka

Sunrise at Hooper Bay

The sun is coming up,

Making beautiful shades of colors in the sky;

The birds are singing their beautiful songs;

The sea is calm and quiet;

A lone boat is going out to sea;

A few people are walking around town.

It's a peaceful easy feeling.

Akerta mayurtuq,

Tangnirqelrianeng qaralineng pililuni qilagmi;

Tengmiat aturait nicugnarqelriit ivaarut'eng;

Imarpik qunirtuq neppainani-llu;

Atauciq angyaq imarpigmun ayagtuq;

Qayuturraat yuget pektut nunami.

Qinuitnameng imangqernarquq.

Clement Smart

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF "NASQUPAGUA". THERE IS A MALE AND A FEMALE KIND. THE MALE HAS A STEM STICKING OUT IN THE MIDDLE. AND THE FEMALE HAS NO STEM.

YOU CAN PICK "NASQUPAGUA" IN THE EARLY SUMMER FROM THE SHORES OF RIVERS, OCEAN AND PONDS. YOU CAN ONLY COOK "NASQUPAGUA" ALONE. YOU CAN EAT IT WITH SEAL OIL AND ALSO WITH FISH THAT YOU HAVE COOKED IN A SEPARATE POT. WE CAN ALSO EAT THEM RAW. THEY ARE DELICIOUS COOKED OR RAW.

BY DICK BUNYAN

INTERVIEWED BY IKE TALL

Nasqupaguaq
"Head plant" or Arrowleaved Sweet Coltsfoot
Petasites sagittatus

Found: On the banks of rivers and creeks

Edible: yes

Preparation & use: Can eat it raw with seal oil or cook it then eat it with any meat.

Credit: Lizy Strongheart

By Steven Walker

This spring Nick and Nastasia went up to fish camp and cut and dried salmon. The King salmon was too fat so she mostly cut Dog salmon. But before they went home she also cut strips from the King salmon--just enough for her family. After Nastasia brought the fish down river to her house, they got ready again and went out berry picking. But there were hardly any berries when they went out picking.

After their first batch of dry-fish had dried, her daughter, Barbara, got married to Willie Duny Jr. on July 21 at the Russian Orthodox Church. "It was real exciting for me and everyone else," she said. She was happy her daughter and son-in-law, got married.

After that they wanted to go camping and pick more berries for the winter. But her son-in-law went to work for the gold company at Donlin Creek, so they had to put it off till later.

They also went up to Russian Mission for a Russian Orthodox Church conference in July, and it was pretty good. Afterwards they went up to Ohogamiut and camped there for a couple of days. Two weeks later they went down to St. Mary's for John and Martha Thompson's 50th anniversary. While they were down there, they went to church where they had a 50 year blessing for John and Martha Thompson. In church the altar boys and men had gold kuspaks that looked real nice on them. Later that day they went to the St. Mary's Catholic Mission and had a big potluck. It looked real nice. There was a gold table cloth, and a lot of decorations and balloons. After the potluck they had a square dance. There were a lot of people there and it went on all night, and the next night too. "It was really nice down at their anniversary," she said.

By: Nastasia Andrew

Interviewed by: Kathy Duny

Nastasia Turet's Busy
Vacation

Christmas vacation was long and lonely for Nastasia, but other than that it was okay.

During the vacation she spent a lot of time getting ready for the Russian Orthodox Christmas to begin. She also followed the big star to a couple of houses, and when it was getting close to her house she had to hurry home to cook. She did a lot of baking and she was kept busy until the star reached her house. The star was brought into her house at 11 P.M. and taken out at 7 A.M. After the star was gone, she followed it to Andy Boots' house. After they sang in his house, she went home and went straight to bed. The next day there was a lot of cleaning to do which got her pretty tired.

All in all, though, Nastasia enjoyed her vacation, especially spending time with her sons, Maurice and Jake. It was nice having them home for a change.

"My summer was great! This summer I cut a lot of fish. I hadn't cut fish since 1969. I was cutting fish down below the pool hall on the shore of the river. Most of the time I was pretty tired doing most of the work by myself. Only Vernon Evan helped me out. It was hard getting the wood for the smokehouse and keeping the fire burning, but I was happy just cutting the fish so I can store them for the long winter months.

I also picked a lot of berries to put away. At first I picked blueberries, then this month I picked a lot of cranberries and blackberries to store for winter. I enjoyed picking berries so much I picked them for too long and I came home tired.

What I really liked the best about my summer was having visitors from upriver and going to square dances on the weekends or whenever they had one."

Told by: Nastasia Turet

Interviewed by: Theresa George

Nastasia's Summer

This summer Nastasia Turet came back to Marshall from Seattle where she had been living for many years. When she came back she first went up to Ohogamiut for Youth Camp. Ohogamiut was the place where she was born (in 1945). It had been 12 years since she had been to this place. She said it's been interesting to be with children she hadn't met before. While she was at the camp, she cut fish which she hadn't done since 12 years ago. And it was very hard to handle the fish and the ulu,she said. Even the scent of the fish was bad because it had been so long. Another thing that bothered her was when she had to pluck ducks and all the lice from the ducks crawled all over her hands. And another thing was when she had to use the bathroom, it was hard for her because she was too used to flushing the toilet. Even the flies annoyed her. And when she had to go to bed it was hard for her because it was too bright, and the dogs were always barking outside. She was too used to cars beeping and going by and people hollering or screaming outside.

She said that while she was going up to camp in the boat it was scary for her because she hadn't been in a boat for 12 years. After the Youth Camp was over she went berry picking at a place where she used to go when she was a little girl.

She also told me that the old church up at the camp is now being torn down and will be rebuilt by next year.