October 20, 2010

Interdependence

Written by: Ruth Tong, Intake Specialist, Child and Family Services

Interdependence is a way of life in a village. Most of us are probably aware of how a whaling crew hunts a huge humpback whale and the whole village helps take it to shore, butchers it, and shares with the whole village, thus aiding in the village’s survival.

In my small, northwest Alaska village of Koyuk, we get belugas, usually, the smaller whale. Those are shared with elders and other village members. When I was in Koyuk in 1996 for my mother’s funeral, my sister, Lois, and I were getting ready to catch the plane in late morning to return to Anchorage and Hawaii, where I lived. My cousin, Roy “Peachie” Otton, had just gotten a beluga and was cutting it up on the beach. He gave a chunk of muktuk to Lois. She took it to my brothers’ house and cut it up in very small pieces so it would cook fast. We quickly relished it – my first time eating muktuk for years – then we went up the hill to catch our plane.

After my oldest brother, Billy, passed away in 2005, I learned some things I had not heard while he was living. He used to give money for gas to the children of a man, Sanky Charles, who had lost his wife to an accident, whenever they would go caribou or seal hunting, or berry picking. Billy was always able to get seasonal work in the village, and probably unemployment benefits as well. The Charles children would share the meat or berries with Billy and my brother’s family.

My sister, Lois, was eleven years old and I was five when we left Koyuk to move to Nome. She remembers a lot more than I do about village life. She told me about a woman named Nellie Cook who had come from the states to mine gold near Koyuk. Mrs. Cook lived alone out in the country near our berry and fish camp. As she aged, her arthritis got so bad that she couldn’t pick berries anymore, and she rigged up a stick to her comb so she could groom her hair. There were seven of us kids in my family, so in summer we’d all pick berries for Mrs. Cook. In turn, she’d make up a big batch of doughnuts for us, and let us eat as many as we wanted. That was a real treat! I can imagine my dad and brothers would also help her by chopping wood and hauling water, and very likely fixing any small mechanical item she might have.

Mrs. Cook also taught my mother and some of my aunts how to cook some “western” foods. My mother learned very well, because she was an excellent cook! She may have gotten our sourdough starter from Mrs. Cook, the one she used all through my childhood. After all of us children grew up and finished school in Nome, my parents moved back to Koyuk. Two of my cousins, pilots in Nome, would visit my mother in Koyuk early in the morning about once a month to have her sourdough pancakes and good ole Hills Brothers coffee, the village favorite.

From these few instances, one can see how interdependence is a way of life in Alaska’s villages and even more remote areas.