"It happened during the winter about five or six years ago while I was going to Russian Mission to play basketball. I was between Ohagamiut and Russian Mission when I started having snowmachine problems, so I decided to turn back to Marshall. It was about 25 to 30 degrees below zero, and near Kwik my snowmachine broke down and I had to start walking home. On my way home I had no water because I didn't want to eat snow since snow slows the body down. But while I was walking I found a bag of dry fish, so at least I had something to eat. When it got dark out I was still walking and it was hard to see the trail.

When I got to the end of the Marshall airport I walked down the road and stopped at the spring to get a drink of water, then I went home. It took me about eight hours to walk from Kwik to Marshall.

The next day I found a ride to go back and pick up my snowmachine. The only problem on my snowmachine turned out to be a broken chain case."

By: Joseph Peter

Interviewed by: Tanya Peter

"Last year when I went to Chuilinuq, my husband Frank took me up with our snow machine, then left me and went wolf hunting. There were a lot of others there with me, including Terri and Bill Manumik and some people from downriver. Where I was there were no fish, but I sadly sat on the ice and manaqed any way. A little while later I felt something on the hook. It didn't feel like it was a bite because it didn't pull. It felt like something was stuck, so I started pulling up the hook. It was really heavy, I had to wrap the string around my arm three times. When I finally got the stuck thing out of the hole in the ice I saw that it was a fish-- a big fish! It turned out to be a pike, and it was really heavy. When I held it up it was a little higher than my waist. After that I caught two or three other big fish in a row. I was really happy."

By: Angeline Coffee

"In 1982 I used to fish in the Y1 district at the mouth of the Yukon River. I used to fish 24 and 36 hour commercial fishing openings all by myself, and I never used to have a helper. One time during a 36 hour King salmon opening I caught an 86 pound King salmon. That was the biggest fish I ever caught."

By Camille Boliver

Before the water and sewer system were put into the houses people packed water from the Yukon and the spring. During winter they would also melt ice and snow.

The 1975 water and sewer project took about 3 years to build and cost around $850,000. This money came from the State and Federal Governments, with 95% being payed by the U.S. Public Health Service. While constructing the project the planners put the water plant too near the gas station. This was a very bad plan because of the possibility of contamintion as the years go by. The well was also drilled too close to the gas station which in Fall,1990, led to contamination of the aquifer and of our water with benzene. It cost the State and Federal Government $350,000 to construct a new drilling site and water line to rectify the problem.

The monthly payment for water and sewer is $35.40. Elderly people, 65 and older, pay only $7.40 a month. If customers do not pay on the first notice but pay on the second notice, they have to add a 1.5% late penalty. And if they fail to pay after the second notice the city will cut off their water and sewer until paid.

If the aquifer ever dries up and there is no water in the ground, the city will have to get water from the Yukon River. It would cost the State and Federal Government even more money to construct a water treatment plant similar to the one in Emmonak.

Person Interviewed: Richard Oney
By: Barbara Andrew

We Forgot!

Last weekend when Annie and Larry were coming up from Mtn. Village the weather was very windy and it was snowing hard. The weather was so bad that they could only see a little ways from their snow machine. It took them one hour from Mtn. Village to Pitka's Point. When they finally reached Pitka's Point they were very wet. They stopped at Ephrim and Kate Thompson's house for two hours to dry their clothes. After their clothes were all dried out they continued on their way home. Along the way they traveled alone but Annie knew there were other people a couple of miles behind them. On their way up they used the portage trail. Annie said the portage trail was better to travel on in bad weather because they were in the trees and the trail markers were easy to see. Even so, Annie started thinking about what they would do if something went wrong and what they would eat if they broke down?! They forgot to bring along food, but they had a thermos bottle partly filled with coffee. They had also forgotten their rain gear. Annie said the experience taught her not to forget to bring along rain gear when the weather was warm, and also to remember to bring food and a warm drink.

Told by: Annie Hunter

Interviewed by: Theresa George

The sky was overcast and it wasn't to cold for a winter day. We were running low on wood, so, my dad decide to go across to Owl Slough and get some wood. My dad filled up his old "300" Ski-doo with enough gas for a round trip run, grabbed his chain saw and took off. It took him 30 to 45 minutes to get to Owl Slough and a half hour to cut down the tree and cut off the dead branches. My dad tied the tree to his snow machine to drag it home, then he began to try to start his snowmachine. It did not start after pulling on it for awhile, so he changed the spark plugs, but it still wouldn't start. So, he started working on the engine to see what was wrong with it, but he still couldn't get it to start. It was getting late and that's when my dad started to walk home. It was around 4 p.m. when it started getting dark and Fred's axe was starting to get heavier. It started to get windy and then it started to snow. My dad was getting very thirsty but he didn't want to eat any snow. As soon as my dad got to the slough he started to clear the snow from the ice and started to chop the ice. He grabbed a couple small pieces and started chewing on them. By now it was dark, snowy and windy. The snow was getting deep and he knew that he had to stop somewhere and make a fire because he started to stagger. He saw a dark outline of tall cotton woods and he headed for them. Once there, he found some dry cotton wood branches and made some shavings with his pocket knife and made some kindling with his axe. After several attempts his fire started burning. He kept it going through the night with dry cotton wood from nearby. Sometime in the night the wind stopped blowing, the sky cleared up and it started to get colder. He managed to keep the fire going until dawn and as soon as it became lighter he started walking home. He didn't realize it the night before but he had reached the mouth of Owl Slough and made a fire. The sky was clear as the sun came up and the ground was sparkling white because of the freshly fallen snow from the night before. As he neared the slough Ed came by with his snowmachine and gave him a ride home.

5th grade

One day Robert, Walter, Joel, Ray, Nicholas and I decided to walk up to the gold mine.When we we got to Wilson Slough we were tired and thirsty. We found a little open hole and we drank until we were satisfied. When we got up to the little ditch Nicholas, Ray and I turned back because the wind got worse. Robert, Joel, and Walter kept walking up to the gold mine. When we boys that turned back, got to the starting of the airport we caught a ride home with Bruce Hunter.

When the other boys reached Willow they were not that tired. When they got by the gold mine trail Walter and Joel nearly fell in the slough. Robert, Joel and Walter saw an old-looking jeep. Robert, Joel and Walter also climbed a pile of rocks and they slid down the snow. They went in the old shop to warm up. When they went back outside the wind got worse. They ran back into the shop and stayed in for about thirty minutes. Later they went back out of the shop and noticed it was getting dark. So they walk back down to the beach.

Richard Ellis called a search and rescue party to look for the boys. Richard noticed a light or a reflection on Robert's coat. When he found Robert, Walter and Joel he told them the search and rescue party was looking for them. Robert told me the story and how windy it was at the gold mine.

5th grade

Weather Story

One day in the summer me, my sister, my mom, my dad and I were going to take a boat ride all day. We were going in one slough behind Pilchure. We stopped on a bank and we made a little fire. We cooked some food to eat and my mom and dad had some coffee and tea. We waited for a little while then we started our engine and we took a ride again. My mom, sister and I were having fun in the boat while my dad was driving. We looked around for animals. We only saw two glowing eyes with our spotlight. I was kind of scared when we saw the two glowing eyes. It got windy and rough in the slough. We got scared and had to put on our lifejackets. When It got darker my mom and I got scared for awhile. My sister and I quite being loud because our mom told us to be quite and we listened to her because we knew our dad would get mad at we girls if we didn't listen to our mom. We found our way out of the sloughs. The river was really rough. We still had our lifejackets on when we hit the sandbar. My mom tried to help our dad get the boat off the sandbar. After we got off the sandbar we started to head home. When we looked at our time it was 12:30 A.M. When we reached home it was ten minutes til one and my sister and I were really sleepy.

5th grade

Weather Story

When my mom was small she was getting wood and she started putting all the branches she cut into her sled. When she filled her sled with branches she tied them on to her sled. Then she started to walk out of the woods. A little while later she came out of the woods and a snowstorm suddenly came up. She didn't know where she was. All she could see was white snow. She started walking even though she didn't know where she was. She started to follow the river towards her house. She remembered the trail she used when she got wood and followed it. It led straight to her house. They were living in mud houses at that time and she was ten or eleven years old.

4 th grade

A long time ago when Willie Fitka Jr. and Willie Paul were moose hunting the wind started to blow really hard. They couldn't see 20 feet in front of them. They spotted Alvin Owletuck looking for Alo Coffee. They helped look for Alo and only found his snowmachine tracks heading for Marshall. They started to head for home. At Lower Muddy Lakes they couldn't see 5 feet in front of them.They followed Alvin across the lake. Alvin had a compass which helped them cross the lake in the snow blizzard. The rest of the way to Marshall was not as windy as it was in Lower Muddy Lakes. They did not need the compass anymore and they all made it home safely.

5th grade