Alfred B. Frank was born August 15, 1914 atold Minto. Alfred says that there's a mistake on the year that he was born, he was really born in 1913. A teacher who recorded the dates made people older or younger than they really were.

His parents were Justin Frank of Rampart and Lucy Albert of Minto. Alfred has one brother, Richard, and two sisters, Sarah Silas, and Lorraine Tennison, both of Minto. Alfred was never married and has no children.

Alfred says that some people have a hard time understanding his language because he grew up around the koyukon and Tanana dialects. He understands Koyukon but he doesn't speak it. Alfred went to school up until the 3rd grade. He attended St. Mark's mission in Nenana. From that time his father began teaching him how to hunt and trap.

past employment included working for Alaska Railroad, construction, boat pilot, and fire fighting. Alfred enlisted in the Army in 1933. In his civilian life we worked on the boat as a pilot and the army assigned him to a job on a hovercraft. He was stationed on Kodiak for seven months and Adak for twenty months.He also served overseas, he served for a total of 33 months. He got out on may 6, 1946. Alfred says that he could have been a sergeant but his education held him back from that.

Alfred enjoys living the subsistence lifestyle, he enjoyed hunting and trapping. He says that when it comes to subsistence he tells the game warden that he's one of the biggest law breakers.

Alfred enjoyed making sleds, snowshoes, fishwheels, paddles, and canoes.

Some advice that Alfred would like to share is that people let their kids go too much, they don't take them out hunting as much as before. They are not taught how to build things such as sleds and fishwheels.

Biography courtesy of Denakkanaaga Elder-Youth Conference, June 5-9, 2000 - Minto, Alaska

This page done by Craig Titus - Class of 2004 - Minto High School