One day my friend Sam and I went to the city to see a movie. We lived in the suburbs of Anchorage, and we were driving in. While going to the city we got pulled over by the police for no apparent reason. I asked, "What's wrong, officer? I'm pretty sure I wasn't going over the speed limit."

"No, we think this car was stolen, a similar car was stolen from Eagle River yesterday. Can I see your license and registration please?" the office asked.

After I gave him the papers, he made us walk the lines and did a breathalizer test on us, then they sent us on our way. I said to Sam, "Them white cops sure are messed up." "Yeh," he agreed, "we need to have more Native cops around here."

Then we took off for the movie. Along the way we stopped at a service station to get some supplies and the clerks were constantly eyeballing us. After we got our stuff they even searched us. That really pissed me off!

When we reached our destination we met up with some friends and told them of our troubles. They all told similar stories, but for some of them their experiences were much worse. After we finished the movie we went to a club to hang out and have some fun. But when we got there some white boys were wating outside the building and they barred us from going in the door. "Hey what's up with you guys?" we asked. "Last time we came here they let us in."

"You guys don't get it, do you. We don't like you guys and we say you guys can't come in because you guys are nothing but dirty stinking Natives that hang around niggers!"

After they said that we grabbed their leader and threw him on the ground. That seemed to persuade them to let us in. We hung around the place for an hour until we saw the same guys at the door with more of their friends. We figured that they were after us so we took off. They took off after us and followed us down the road and onto the highway. Then I gunned the throttle and sped off. Suddenly they started to shoot at us with a 410. When we were 20 miles out of Eagle River a highway patrolman pulled all of us over. He took their gun away and asked what they were doing with it. We told them that they were shooting at us with it.

Now those guys are serving time in a juvenile center. As for us, we still go to the city.

By Garrett Evan

I was sitting in Mr. Stevens social studies class which was my first morning class, and Mr. Stevens was in the middle of a boring talk about the Declaration of Independence when someone knocked at the door. The principal walked in, said hello to the class and walked up to Mr. Stevens and started to talk to him. Then he went over to the door and brought in an oriental kid whom Mr. Stevens introduced to the class. The boy said his name was Stewart Loo. He said hello to the class but only a few of the kids responded to his gesture of friendliness.

Mr. Stevens brought Stewart up to date about our assignments, gave him some books and told him that he could sit in any of the empty seats. He chose to sit in an empty chair in the back of the class. Mr. Stevens then continued his lecture about the Declaration of Independence.

Half-way through his lecture the bell rang and we went to our next class. While we were going out one of the school bullies tripped Stewart when he passed in front of him. Then at lunch we ate out by a tree where we always sat and chatted small talk. Stewart came up and asked if he could sit down with us, and we said that he could.

When our lunch break was over we started to head for the front door of the school when the bully came up to us and started to tease Stewart. We told him to stop but he pushed Stewart and asked him what he was going to do about it. Just as he was starting to threaten him again a teacher walked out and saw what the bully was doing. He told him to stop then brought him to the principal's office. Since he was told many times before to leave the students alone, he was suspended.

As the weeks went on, though, things got worse for Stewart because some of the other bullies kept on teasing him. But when they started to beat him up a lot, it made me and my friends, mad, and we went up to the bullies and told them to leave Stewart alone. They didn't take us serious, though, because they knew that none of us would want to fight them because they were stronger. But they didn't bother Stewart when he was with us because we were getting tired of them bothering him and they knew we would stop them. When Stewart was alone, though, they would always bother him.

After a couple of months of this went by, one day I didn't see him in school anymore and I asked one of my friends where he was. He said that he had moved away. This shocked me because we were good friends. Man, I wish you luck wherever you are!

By: Robert Pitka

One day a young black boy was walking down the road and a bunch of boys who were up to no good went up to him and gathered in a circle and started to push him around. Then another boy walked up to him and punched him in the face. I was a block from the scene with other people who were watching the boy get beat up.

Most of the people watching were laughing at him. I started to run to help the boy but it was too far. I ran as fast as I could but there were too many people in the way. I pushed people out of the way but by the time I got there he was all bloody with cuts on his face. I noticed there was a boy in the gang that I grew up with. I went up to Jeff and asked why they'd beat the boy up. He said, because he was colored. I was so mad I went and called the cops. After that all the boys took off.

Five minutes later the cops came and I told them what had happened and why they'd done it. I went after Jeff because I knew where he lived and where he hung around. I caught up to him with the same boys that were beating up on the colored boy. They were outside of Jeff's house talking about what they'd done. As I went closer to them Jeff saw me and told the other boys to move off. I then asked Jeff why he'd done that to the boy. He said it was none of my business and tried to punch me. But he missed.

We fought for ten minutes until one of his homeys got him off me. When I got up we were both bloody. My friend, James, was just around the block, and when he heard that Jeff and I were fighting he got his friends and ran over to help me. Just as we were leaving Jeff started calling me names, and James got so mad he walked up to him and started to punch him. I ran over to him and tried to stop him but one of Jeff's friends jumped on me. Then I started punching, and everybody joined in the fighting.

Then we heard sirens, and the cops came and broke us up. But there were too many of us and the cops had to call for more back-up. Before the cops got to me I started running because I knew they would put me in jail . After I got away from the cops I started wondering about the black boy. I went back to where he was beaten up but there was no one there. So I went home.

Attending the RAHI program was a wonderful experience which gave me a feeling for college, new friends and more time to play basketball.

RAHI, which stands for Rural Alaska Honor Institute is a summer program that offers college credits to juniors and seniors. The college credits earned in a 15 week semester are squeezed into a seven week program. The program started in 1983 and students have been attending ever since. RAHI has a wonderful teaching and dorm staff that are more than willing to help the students.

While attending the program I had a great opportunity to see how college life really is. Countless hours were spent doing my homework, reading, and studying for tests. Deadlines were set and there were no excuses for late homework. At times it was hard waking up at 7:00 A. M. to prepare myself for my classes which went from 8:00 AM. to 5:00 P.M. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays were a little easier because we got out sometimes as early as 12 noon.

During the lighter days I found myself spending a lot of time with my friends. Friends were always very important in helping me relieve stress and cope with problems. At the end of a long day of college classes, nothing sounded better than to go to my room and sleep, but my friends were there to push me a little and help me out in anything I had trouble with. They were all going through the same experience with me, so they understood. Our most fun times were spent in the malls and playing basketball together.

There were many challenging basketball players who often went to either the recreation center or the outside court. Practically all the guys and some girls went there to challenge one another. Games were set up for teams of five and sometimes three to compete with each other. The RAHI girls had an opportunity to play basketball with the Upward Bound Students. I had a wonderful time playing basketball with the guys. They were always challenging because they said, "Girls can't play." I enjoyed playing basketball throughout the summer.

With the experience at RAHI, I am more eager to attend college. Meeting new friends and the preparation for college were the best things that the program gave me.

By: Darcy Kameroff

The Rainbow trout is special among American game fishes. They were first discovered in the early 1900's. The Rainbow trout has demonstrated an unusual ability to adapt to a wide range of living conditions and has been cultured more widely and successfully in hatcheries than any other trout.

Sea-going rainbows, known as steelhead, are the Pacific Ocean counterpart of their close relative, the Atlantic salmon. There is no physical difference between the steelhead and the rainbow trout except that the steelhead spends part of its life in saltwater.

Rainbow trout have a streamlined salmonid form, though body shape and coloration vary widely and reflect habitat, age, sex and degree of maturity. The back is usually a greenish color and the lateral line is usually pink. Below the lateral line it is silver colored, and on the bottom it is pure white.They have black spots on the upper part and on the upper fins and tail.

In Alaska Rainbow trout are now flourishing and they have been introduced in many lakes in Southeastern, Southcentral, and Interior Alaska.

During the late winter and early spring when the temperatures are starting to rise they look for a place to spawn, and some even spawn three times.

The female makes the nest or redd and she may lay 200 to 8000 eggs, depending on her size. The nest protects the buried eggs during the period of incubation. The eggs may take a couple of weeks to four months to hatch, depending on the water temperature.

Alaska has the world's record steelhead, taken near Ketchikan in 1970. It weighed 42 pounds, 2 ounces.

By Willie Paul Fitka

It is said that Raven once fell in love with a beautiful young goose girl. They stayed together all summer long, but when fall came and snow was soon to arrive, the goose girl wanted to join her relatives to fly south. Raven decided to go with her because he loved her so much and she would not stay.

Now Raven can fly as good as any other bird, but he cannot fly very far at one time. He tried to keep up with the large flock, but he was always growing tired and had to rest often. When the geese did stop to sleep and eat, they always stopped at places where there was no food for Raven. Because of this, he was becoming weaker every day.

The geese were in a hurry to get away from the coming cold and they did not like waiting for Raven all the time. His goose-wife let him ride on her back, but because he was so heavy she couldn't carry him for long. The girl's folks carried Raven for a while, too, but they soon grew tired as well. They took turns like that until they came to the ocean.

The girl's father told Raven that the ocean was very far across and that there would be no place to land and rest. He told him that they could not make it with him on their backs.

Raven thought about this and decided that he would have to stay. He said good-bye to his beloved goose-wife, and then he flew home where he has lived since. Now ravens live here all the time because they can't fly across the ocean like the geese.

Once Raven was very white like the snow on the tundra and so was Owl. One day, while sitting on a rock looking for rabbbits, Raven flew down and landed beside the white owl.

They had known each other for a very long time and were always challenging one another to see which was the strongest. Raven sat down on the rock next to his old friend.

"Let's wrestle," said Raven.

"I do not want to fight you today," answered Owl.

But the white raven did not listen.

"Let's wrestle," he repeated.

"I do not want to wrestle. I do not feel like it today" replied the white owl.

But Raven still would not listen and started to wrestle with the unwilling Owl.

They rolled around the ground and when Owl saw a mud puddle, he pushed Raven into it. The black mud covered his entire body. No white remained at all! Raven was very mad because he was so muddy and because Owl had pushed him in.

"Friend Owl," said the mischievous bird, "give me a hand so that I can get out of this mud hole."

But the white owl was wise to Raven's tricks and deceits.

"No." he said. "You are the one who started the fight. I said that I didn't want to wrestle today."

Raven thought for a minute and then said, "Friend, if you help me out I will give you half of my possessions."

So Owl reached down and pulled Raven out of the thick, black mud. Raven was still covered from head to foot and he was no longer white like the snow.

As soon as he was out, the black bird shook his feathers and mud flew all over the place. Some of it splattered on Owl's white feathers, leaving him spotted with small black specks.

To this day ravens are entirely black and owls are spotted.

Raven (Yeil) announced that he was going to give a feast. He carried a huge salmon up from the beach and all the time he kept calling, "My dear little nephews, my dear little grandchildren, I need your help. We are going to give a feast." As he called, little birds of every color and shape began to fly to him. There were red birds, yellow, brown, blue birds, hundreds of little birds that came to help him.

He dug a shallow pit and then said to the birds, "While I am digging the pit, you get skunk cabbage leaves and sea weeds for us to wrap the salmon in. And you, red and yellow birds, go and get twigs for the fire." The little birds flew away. They were back soon and Yeil had all the things he needed.

He asked the little birds, "My little nephews and my little grandchildren,

It was beginning to get dark when the little birds returned, each with a twig and very weary from their long flight. Raven said, "You were gone for so long that someone stole our salmon and ate it up." The poor little birds, weary from their long journey, just put up their little wings, up over their heads, sat in the light of the last glow of the coals and slept.

Among the birds was Blue Jay, Yeil's favorite grandchild. Yeil said to Blue Jay, "Come here my grandchild. Sit by me so I can comb your hair." Yeil while tying up Blue Jay's hair would sneak a bit of salmon which he had saved and put it in Blue Jay's mouth. That is why today blue jays have feathers sticking up in the back of their heads.

By: Elaine Abraham

Raven (Yéil) journeyed by foot along the coast from Dry Bay toward Yakutat in the early spring. A huge spring king salmon came near the shore with its silver scales gleaming in the sun. Yéil continued to walk along the shore with one eye on the water where the huge spring king salmon had been. Soon it came up again, silver scales gleaming.

Yéil could see it was one of the fattest salmon he had ever seen. His mouth watered. He rushed ahead and found a green stone which he put on another large rock and then waited for the fat salmon. When it surfaced, he called out, "King Salmon, listen to me and listen to the bad names this little green stone is calling you."

King Salmon ignored Yéil. He rolled on the surface of the water, dove and came up again. Yéil again called out, "King Salmon, my partner, this little green stone, is insulting you. Listen to the names it is calling you. You have such a big nose. You have a big mouth."

King Salmon glanced at the little green stone and dove, but he came right back up. Yéil called again, "My partner, I think you should come ashore now. The green stone says you have big eyes and you are a coward!"

This made the king salmon angry and he charged ashore where Yéil was ready with a club. He clubbed the salmon to death and prepared it for a feast.