ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
JOINT FEDERAL-STATE COMMISSION
ON
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS AFFECTING
ALASKA NATIVES
4000 Old Seward Highway, Suite 100
Anchorage,
Alaska 99503
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Witness List | PDF
Version
FATHER ELLIOTT: Now it's Mary, is it?
MR. IRWIN: Yeah.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Mary.
(Side conversation)
TESTIMONY OF MARY ANN OLYMPIC
My name is Mary Ann Olympic, from Igiugig. (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says her village is small. She comes from a little village called Igiugig. It's on the outlet of Iliamna Lake.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says she originally comes from Kokuklik (ph.), which is no longer in existence. Her folks were reindeer herders over -- when she grew up.
FATHER ELLIOTT: If you'd move the mike over toward you.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She used to herd reindeer till she was 15 years old.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Till the wolves moved in and decimated the herd. They literally just wiped them out.
MS. OLYMPIC: Nineteen forty-seven.
MR. ABRAHAM: Till 1947.
MS. OLYMPIC: The last one came (indiscernible) move all of that down Igiugig.
MR. ABRAHAM: That's when they moved to Igiugig.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Oh, she wants to tell you about what her grandfather used to say, or passed on to her, and she'd like to pass on to you people,
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah. She says her grandfather told her time -- their time would change, even the diets would change from normal living off the country to white people food, I guess.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: And the point she wants to make is, she's never going to change her way of eating, as long as it's off the land, there's no person in the world that's going to change it for her.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says the younger generation and the kids nowadays don't listen to the old folks and then they act more or less like they're sleeping.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: And that's what she's observed. And I guess she's more worried that subsistence way of life is going to disappear in due time, with the stroke of a pen.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says she's now realizing what her grandfather said that, even it wasn't written down, it was verbal, passed down through generations, what that (indiscernible). (Speaking Yupik.)
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: (Speaking Yupik.) I'm trying to get her to talk English, she can talk pretty - she can talk in English.
MS. OLYMPIC: I started (indiscernible) 1950. Just start listening and (indiscernible).
MR. ABRAHAM: Oh, you start....
MS. OLYMPIC: Mm-hm (affirmative).
MR. ABRAHAM: Well, you shouldn't be ashamed, because I always tell people, Alaska Natives ain't dumb. We're the only race of people in the world that are bilingual, that we have more bilingual people than any race of people in the world. And even the old people that's never gone to school took the time to learn English, everything else. So she shouldn't be ashamed of it. Be proud you're bilingual, because you'd look on the other side, there's almost hundred percent no bilingual people in the entire United States.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: (Speaking Yupik.) She says she'd like to put in place through their school systems to teach some of the old ways of life before they're all gone, such as snow conditions, weather conditions, stuff like that. It's not being taught to the younger generation, which was real essential for -- to be taught that at the older generation.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah. And one of the things that bothers her real bad is how people are discarding animal bones and stepping on them and everything else, where they should be piled in one place and treated with respect.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says she
wants the -- some of these old-time things brought back, because
it's fast disappearing.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Then
another thing is, she's dead against dope and liquor in the
villages for the younger people, because it's devastating
the younger generation.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: And she says that younger generation should be taught not to drink liquor or dope while they're pregnant and should -it should be stressed more in the villages.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah, she said the trophy hunters, when they come up here, the guides and stuff should be -- the meat should be given to the villagers instead of being left out in the country. She said they should be real thankful if they bring them to her village.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Now she's talking about the trout fishermen. Incidentally, she's the best rainbow fisherman in Alaska right here (laughter). (Speaking Yupik.)
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
FATHER ELLIOTT: Fly fishing?
MR. ABRAHAM: Anything.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: And she says that their catch and release business is not working, because they're killing too many fish. Some of the eyeballs are popped out and stuff.
Incidentally, that's the only place I ever saw, at Igiugig years ago, that blind woman, is she still alive?
MS.OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Oh, she died.
MS. OLYMPIC: Nineteen eighty-three.
MR. ABRAHAM: The most amazing thing you ever saw. She'd sit down on the skiff, they'd set it there, and she'd trout fish. And --
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah. And she knew what she caught, grayling or rainbow or char before she even brought it in, even salmon. That was one of the most amazing sights.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Oh, snagging.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah. And she said for two weeks when the salmon are going into -- pouring into Iliamna Lake, a lot of people really are starting to come in from Anchorage and all over, snagging fish and dipnetting fish more than they should.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She doesn't know what the limit is, but they take an awful lot of fish there.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She says she's real thankful to be -- you people came, that she came and had a chance to voice her opinions.
FATHER ELLIOTT: I have a question. Is Mary Ann familiar with what we heard yesterday about survival camps at Egegik, where they are teaching the things that she said should be taught about culture and language and Native ways of doing things? It's called survival camps.
MR. ABRAHAM: (Speaking Yupik.)
MS. OLYMPIC: Mm-hm (affirmative). Yeah.
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah, she's -- she heard about it yesterday.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: She's more man than most men. She could teach it, I know her.
MS. OLYMPIC: I could teach.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Also, does Mary Am think that because of the disrespect for the animals, the bones and that, this is the reason for some of the depletion of the stock? You know, the -- I've heard it said that some of the birds are hiding because of the lack of respect given.
MR. ABRAHAM: (Speaking Yupik.)
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah, they -- that it will deplete them, because (indiscernible).
FATHER ELLIOTT: Yeah.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah, she said they've got to be thrown in water or something, dry up and deteriorate, so...(Speaking Yupik.)
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
MR. ABRAHAM: Okay.
MS. OLYMPIC: (Speaking Yupik.)
FATHER ELLIOTT: Thank you both.
MR. ABRAHAM: Yeah.
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