THE LAST OF THE DOGTEAM MAIL CARRIERS—Chester Noongwook, who was designated the last
dogteam mail carrier in Alaska, left, is shown clutching a certificate award presented to him Friday
by Assistant Postmaster General William J. Hartigan, right, who had flown in from Washington, D.C.
to dedicate a new post office site and to award the certificate to Noongwook. They are shown petting
the leader of a dogteam that was driven to the airport in Fairbanks for the occasion.
—Tundra Times Photo
Dramatic Dog Sled Era Ends...
(Continued from Page 1)
round trip between the two vil
lages.
Dangerous Trip
The most exciting event ever to
occur during their carrying of the
mails was in late February of 1960.
Edwin became caught in a blinding
blizzard about six miles from Sa
voonga and eight of his 12 dogs
went off the trail and over a cliff.
The quick - thinking Eskimo
whipped out his sled anchor, an
iron hook attached to a rope, and
quickly clawed it in the ground. He
knew it was no use trying to pull
the dogs over the cliff. They
weighed too much and in all likeli
hood if he had tried, the dogs
would have pulled him over with
them.
So the dog musher, clad in seal
skin pants and heavy parka hurried
back over the trail by foot to Sa
voonga. The wind was severe and
the tempeerature about 30 below.
Rescue
When he arrived at the village,
he summoned his brother, Chester,
and six other men and they quickly
set out by skin boat for the place
where the dogs were hanging pre
cariously over the cliff.
Extensive Summer
Programs Planned
At least four extensive summer
programs will be carried on by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska,
according to Robert L. Bennett,
area director.
About 40 high school graduates
who are going on to college this fall
will be enrolled in a special pro
gram of college preparation at the
University "of Alaska this summer.
Emphasis will be placed on the
language arts of writing and read
ing comprehension and adaptation
to college life.
A second program involves a
course in power plant operation in
which 24 to 30 native people in vil
lages are being transported to Mt.
Edgecumbe.
“This work used to all be done
by our janitors in the schools but
the equipment is getting to be more
complex,” Bennett said.
There are also summer enrich
ment programs with stress on
music, art, and the humanities that
are being carried on at Kotzebue
and Barrow.
Three hours later they found the 1
dogs hanging quietly over the top 5
of the 30-foot cliff. Below them j
were treacherous rocks covered
with snow.
It took all the strength the eight
men could muster to pull the dogs
from over the cliff.
In the dog sled run, Noongwook
used 10 dogs when the trail was
well packed and 12 dogs whc. the
trail was soft. The trip took 7 to 10
hours by dogsled; six hours by skin
boat; and l\i hours by speed boat.
Family
Noongwook, wh6 is married and
has four children ranging in age
from 2 to 5, has never traveled out
side of Alaska. He was in the Army
for 2 years but was stationed at Ft.
Richardson, near Anchorage, and
now is a member of the Savoonga
National Guard. In addition, he is a
hunter. His brother, Edwin, is a
hunter and ivory carver.
While Noongwook was on the
trail from Savoonga to Gambell, he
would stop, anchor his team and
eat lunch of walrus, reindeer and
seal sandwiches, and usually took
along a thermos of steaming hot
coffee.
First Mail Plane
On December 8 last year, Wien
Alaska Airlines established the
first commercial airplane based
on St. Lawrence Island at Gambell,
to carry mail and passengers be
tween there and Northeast Cape.
The plane, piloted by Thor Tjont
viet, a former SAS pilot familiar
with the Arctic who had been with
Wien several months, made its
first landing at Savoonga.
The people in the village marked
a strip about 600 feet with empty
barrels and stakes. When the plane
using skis touched down, it was the
first airplane landings at Savoonga
since a series of them in the 1940’s.
The village was excited and prac
tically the entire village turned out
for the occasion. The people of the
village welcome the better postal
service, three times a week instead
of once a week, and the opportunity
for cheaper transportation to Gam
bel. The plane fare is $15 :dog
sled fare is $35 per person.
Stamp Collectors
Savoonga is almost entirely popu
lated by Eskimos. The only non
natives are the school teacher, his
wife, and children and the minister
and his wife. There are 360 people
there, 34 families. There is only
one store, a village cooperative, no
theater, hotel. The largest building
is the church.
The National Guard Armory is a
quonset hut. The only visitors are
occasional government officials. The
post office is located in the small
home of John Waghiyi. Stamp col
lectors from all over the world will
have sent letters to the postmaster
to hav’e them remailed from the
last remaining place served by a
dog team mail carrier.
The people of Savoonga subsist
mostly from meat—walrus, seal,
muktuk, and migratory waterfowl.
The favorite food of the people is
reindeea, but there are only a few
left on the island and most of the
reindeer meat has to be purchased
from other parts of Alaska.
Savoonga was started in 1920 as
a reindeer camp. For several years
reindeer was grown there in great
numbers until they became over
populous for the range and it was
destroyed from over grazing.
Recreation
Recreation at Savoonga? Occas
ionally movies are shown in the ar
mory or the church and Eskimo
dancing is held in private homes.
Also there are dog races and Eskimo
games are played on holidays. This
summer a library is being built.
According to Noongwook. the
biggest change that has occurred
in the village has been the switch
to outboard motors. He says they
are extremely popular and almost
everyone has them—and puts them
on umiaks as well as speed boats.
Also he says tape recorders are
popular.
"We want many things that are in
the catalogs but we have no money
to buy them,” said Noongwook.
Exciting Drama
And there is still a final happy
surprise to the Chester Noongwook
story. Although he is being re
placed as the primary mail trans
portation contractor, he is still be
ing retained on a supplemental
basis. Whenever the planes can’t get
through because of bad weather,
Chester will make the trip with
his huskies.
He is also being employed by
Wien as their station manager and
haul mail from the plane to the
postoffice. And how will he do it—
by dog team, of course!
Thus last week the curtain was
drawn on an exciting, dramatic era
—of carrying the U.S. mail by dog
team—was amid a host of happy
surprises.
Native Groups Unite ...
(Continued from page 1)
said he could visualize the day when
natives all over Alaska would be
organized.
“Tonight I am happy because I feel
at last his dream has been fulfill
ed,” Hotch said.
Later, Hotch added, when the
official ANB emblem was designed
another leader suggested cf hav
ing an arrow drawn through the
letters. “ANB.”
The leader explained that be
fore we native people had guns, we
defended ourselves and killed our
enemies with bow and arrows," said
Hotch.
“He predicted in our convention
of 1912 the arrow some day would
land westward and keep on de
fending the native people and I
believe his prediction has come
true here today.”
Other highlights of the meeting
was strong disagreement with Sec
retary of Interior’s Alaska Task
Force report on land claims and
needs.
Citing the land recommendations
as "inadequate,” the Indian orga
nization made a series of concise
but far-reaching proposals of its
own including changes in the cur
rent Native Allotment Act to al
low securing several tracts of non
contigious land, the need for leas
ing for native benefit reserved tri
bal lands and future withdrawals,
and the need for Congress to define
aboriginal land rights of the natives
and to establish a forum in which
their claims may be heard.
The organization, made up of
delegates elected or appointed by
the governing bodies of 23 villages,
also recommended that the U. S.
not divest itself of its title to the
STORY
She Digs Tunnel
To Save Husband
By Augusta Marie .Miller
) A man and a woman lived in a
j sod igloo. Her husband went out
every day to hunt seal. As soon
] as her husband left, the woman dug
a hole in the wall. When her hus
1 band came back, she cooked sup
1 per. She did this every day. One
; day her husband came home and
brought a seal. He had previously
gotten other seals and he asked his
i wife. "Why didn’t you cut up the
seals?” His wife did not answer
him.
When her husband left, she kept
working on the hole in the wall.
She worked on it for three days
each time her husband went hunt
ing. On the third day. before her
husband came home, she hung a
straw rug over the hole so her hus
band wouldn’t see what she had
done. It was dark when her hus
band came home. She cooked some
seal meat and made some Eskimo
ice cream. She told her husband to
eat.
After eating his dinner his wife
told him to get his snowshoes and
bows and arrows. He looked around
out doors. He saw many people
had surrounded his igloo and he
hurried inside. His wife said to him.
"Take your snowshoes and bows and
arrows and go through that hole on
the wall.”
She then said, "Wait for me when
you come to the end." She packed
a lunch, and she went through.
She came to her husband and said
to him, “Kick the mat and you will
open tile door. Run out and run
through the sand dunes and climb
the mountain.”
When they got to the top. the
people started a fire to their igloo.
Two men came and began tracking
their trail. Then they lost the trail
and couldn’t find them. The man
and his wife were watching the
people from above.
He said to his wife, “Let’s go the
village of Pesterlick." That was the
way the woman saved her husband.
state of Alaska or any division
thereof until natives gain title to
their ancestral lands.
The group further asked that con
gressional hearings be held in Al
aska concerning any legislation af
fecting land claims.
Most of the villages represented
gave reports in a special section,
of the conference regarding diffi
cult land problems confronting their
villages.
Hunting and fishing problems in
cluded changes in the moose season,
excessive license fees for taking and
selling fish in small numbers, and
some delegates stressed the need of
stronger conservation measures and
local control in the making of gama
laws.
Practically all the delegates stress
ed the need for taking ducks and
the inappropriateness of the fall
season when ducks are not avail
able for taking in Alaska. They also
brought out strict enforcement by
federal fish and wildlife agents was
hurting their attempts to earn a
livelihood.
Lester Oliver, tribal cnairman or
the White Apaches, White River,
Arizona, showed a technicolor movie
illustrating the tremendous strides
his people have made in economic
development.
In a talk afterward. Oliver stress*
. ed that his people progressed very
little years ago when they were
hostile to the Bureau of Indian Af
fairs and the state of Arizona He
said he slowly reversed this trend
by having projects and ideas come
\ from the people instead of govern
| ment officials, and by urging co
i operation.
i Oliver said his people worked
' with the state through a Commis
sion of Indian Affairs made up o{
an equal number of Indians and
persons appointed by Arizona’s
governor.
j Later in the conference. Robert
L. Bennett. BIA arear director, sug
I gestcd that much might be accom
plished by such a group, an Alaska
Commission on K.ative Affairs.
He said the group could ‘‘push’’ .the
state to action concerning native
i problems.
The one highly controversial item
\ discussed at the conference, the
proposed Rampart Dam, that could
| have been a “bombshell" turned
. out relatively quiet.
There were practically no com
I ments by delegates against the idea
j of the project or the project it
| self. Colonel Kenneth Sawyer, head
of the U. S. Army Corps of Engi
| neers, however, was questioned for
j a lengthy period concerning the af
I feet upon the people in the area
j that would be covered with water.
Particular concern was repeated
ly expressed that adequate compen
sation would not be paid for lands,
property .and intangibles.
Upon close questioning, Colonel
| Sawyer admited that the cost esti
I mate of relocating and compensat
I ing people was only a “shotgun”
guess. He also said that he did not
know about, nor take into con
sideration, large blanket ancestral
claims of the villages in the Ram
part Area.
He pointed out these were not
shown on the records on file in the
Bureau of Land Management office
in Fairbanks.
Officers of the Dena Nena Henash
elected for 1963 were: Alfred Ketz
ler, of Nenana, president; Ralph
Perdue, Fairbanks, vice president;
Secretary-Treasurer, Charles Ryan,
Matlakatla; and Sergeant at Arms,
Richard Grant, of Tanana.
In addition to the president and
vice president, the following were
elected to serve on the organiza
tion's executive committee: Louise
Tansy; William Fredson; Markle
Ewan; Joe Newman: and Benedict
Jones. Ewan was elected chairman.
Tanana was selected as the place
for the 1964 meeting of the organi
zation. ■ iii j