November 29, 2010

Roots

Written by: Dustin Madden, CITC Integrated Science Teacher, Bartlett High School

I’m going home for Christmas break.

Back to Nome...

The mere thought of returning crumples my insides into a tangled knot. A flood of different emotions courses through my body; the warm feeling in my chest that comes from a lifetime of memories of family and friends tussles with the sickening ache in my liver that I get when I think about seeing my friends and acquaintances stumbling down Front Street, eyes glazed, struggling to greet me through a haze of fetid breath.

In the end, the warmth of connection and the grounded sense of place wins the match. I think back to the day I graduated high school, when one of the town’s unofficial genealogists congratulated me on being the fourth generation of my family to finish high school at Nome Beltz. It took me a moment, but I realized it was true: me, my father, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother Frances all received diplomas from this same place.

Frances was quite proud to have been the first Alaska Native woman to graduate from Nome Beltz High School-- I could see it in her face when I was little and we would stop by to drop off fish heads, or to eat dinner, or simply to chat. She was a strong woman who believed in the value of education, and managed to raise eight children into intelligent, articulate adults. While her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are now scattered throughout the United States, they all share a common foundation created by Frances.

I say, “created” because although Frances was born in Nome, her mother died in the Spanish influenza epidemic, and so she was shipped to the Chemawa boarding school in Oregon. I never heard details about her time there, but I assume it wasn’t entirely pleasant, because even when asked by close family she would never share tales of her time there. When at last she returned to Nome at age 17, she plunged into life there, deepening her connection to her Iñupiaq culture, and then shared this bond to her heritage with her children. This is why to this day I am rooted not only to the physical location of Nome, but also to the story of heritage and education pioneered by my granny.

This is a tale of roots as I experienced it and as it was told to me by many of my family members throughout the course of my lifetime.