FLOOD AT POINT HOPE—On October 3. the same day of the Bar
row storm, a heavy northwest wind along with a high tide, flooded
the village when huge waves washed over low banks. Little damage
was done but much needed meat in some underground meat caches
was washed away when the waves slashed into the old village where
the caches were located. If nothing is done to save the old village
from the wave action, it will eventually wash away, including the
famous and notorious Chief Attungowruk’s old home ruins. At left
are 19-foot jawbones of a whale caught by Allen Rock in 1961, set
up into an arch at the ancient whaling celebration grounds. Part
of the south half of the village can be seen at right.
—Photo by Frank Hall
PT. HOPE NEWS
Storm Struck on Day New Sea
Wall Made of Oil Drums Started
POINT HOPE. October 4—The vil
lage of Point Hope was flooded on
October 3 as far as the airstrip.
Waves caused by northwest winds
pushed water over the beach and
into the village. This was identical
to the flood in Point Hope on Au
gust 30, 1962.
By 7:00 p.m. the water had begun
to go down. Snow fell after the flood
and covered the ground w here there
was no water.
Water covered the ground on both
sides of the new school, blit no ser
ions damage was done to any con
struction equipment.
Aerial pictures made by Rev.
Dwain McKenzie shov-ed that the
water filled about five low trenches
through the village. All buildings
are on the ridges, so no significant I
damage was done to pe rsonal prop
erty except some .neat cellars owned
by individual families.
Meat Loss Serious
Water and sand covered meat in
some caches and washed some out to
sea. The old Tigara \illage sub
■— -— __
Hiker Now at
Fort Yukon
'
Word has been received in Fair
tanks that Richard Collins, 37. Pen
nsylvania adventurer, whom the
Tundra Times reported to be hiking
across the Brooks Range to the Arc
tic Coast has turned up in Fort
Yukon.
it has been learned that Collins 1
will probably spend the winter in
Fort Yukon. He originally intended
to walk from Beaver, on the Yukon
Biver to the Arctic, mostly in the
winter time.
He left Fairbanks eatly in Sep.
tember. for what he then described
as a two year trek.
1963 Salmon Pack
2.6 Million Cases
The final 1963 Alaska salmon case
pack totaled 2.678.300 forty-eight
pound cases according to Commis
sioner Walter Kirkness of the Al
aska Department of Fish and Game.
The pack by individual species
was 38,800 cases of Kings; 484,700
cases of Reds; 129,500 cases of Sil
vers; 1,606,900 cases of Pinks, and
418.900 cases of Chums.
The Southeast Alaska region
showed an increase of 256,445 cases,
■while the Central and Western re
gions showed decreases of 815.727
•nd 237,114 cases respectively over
■ ..isat-1
terranean houses are used as meat
cellars. That old village is being
washed into the sea mmo each year.
Dan Lisbourne. vill.ige council
president, states that there is less
meat in the village at the present
time than a any previous year. There
is not much hunting during fall be
fore the ice moves in so hunting
has not been good. If the caribou
don’t come down this fall, many will
have a difficult time this fall and
winter.
I Project Starts
1 On October 3, the village began
its Rural Development project, us
ing $4,500 from the State of Alaska
j Empty oil drums from the old Army
site were placed along the sea wall
and filled with gravel to form a
dam to keep out future waves of
water which flooded the village
this and last year.
ine drums should bo effective,
because the large waves from the
ocean will not hit th°m. The water
which flooded the Ullage should
gently roll over the high beach.
The drum will be placed in such
a way that they will pi event this
water from rolling over the top of
the beach.
Mice Flooded Out
During the flood, many mice wore
seen swimming near tne village.
Many ground squirrels, no doubt,
had to abandon their homes, too.
Midwives
Four villages midwives in Point
Hope are: Lydia Nashookpuk, Lilly
Oktollik, Daisy Oomittuk and Bea
tirce Vincent. They deliver an av
erage oi about one babv per month
Mr. John Cates of Alaska Rural
Development of Juneau was in the
village October 2, to talk to leaders
about the project to build up the
sea wall. The day after he left, the
village was flooded.
New School
Archie Harrison, construction
foreman, says the new school should
be finished by Octooer 11. Before
classes can be moved to that build
ing. approval must be given by the
Juneau BIA office.
Rusty Sanders, BIA light plant
mechanic from Nome, will come
1 soon to modify the new light plants
at school.
See-Saws and PTA
Titu.s Nashookpuk built see-saws
in three different parls of the vil
lage beside swings he built earlier.
The monthly PTA meeting was
held on October 4. Cooks and bakers
signed up to help with the school
lunch program for the next few
weeks.
The Halloween Carnival was tfis- j
cussed for November 1. Two eduCa
Monti films w«rr showm J
TANANA NEWS
Lots of Marriages, so
'Bachelor Beware'
By Alfred Grant
Tanana Reporter
TANANA. ALASKA. October 9,
19p,3—Dear Readers: This is my first
effort in editing the news of Tanana.
Hope you can all bear with the mis
takes I may make. This is the mark
of not enough education.
On October 5. Morris Thompson of
Tanana the son of Alice and Warren
Thompson, was united in marriage
to Miss Thelma Mayo of Fairbanks.
She is the daughter cf Mr. and
Mrs. Edward Mayo. The Reverend
Thomas Cleveland officiated in the j
wedding ceremony in the St. James
i Episcopal Church here in Tanana. |
After the ceremony the bride and
groom stood out in the rain of water
and rice. Yes, it was really raining.
, And it must have been quite windy
j too because the rice I threw at
them landed elsewhere,
j The Maid of Honor was Miss Mary
Etta Purvis of Fairbanks and the
best man was Albert Morgan. Mr.
Edward Mayo gave his daughter
away. Christy-Wayne Sommer w’as
the ring bearer.
Reception
Afterwards we all went to the
city hall and held a reception for
the newlyweds. They had a wedding
cake big enough to fill about 150
people. They received loads of gifts
from all the people and to top it off
Mr. Warren Thompson pave his son
and daughter-in-law $500.
Afterwards we danced till the
wee hours of the morning. Oh. yes
a lot of people came inio town for
this wonderful occasion. I couldn’t
start naming them all as it would
take too much space.
Bachelors Beware!
Some time ago last month, Philip
i Kennedy, Jr. was married to Miss
I Violet Nicholia. She is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Nicholia.
I This was a wonderful wedding too.
Seems as though the love bug is
pretty busy down our way, so you
bachelors beware!
Seems as though most of the hunt
ers got their moose this past Sep
tember. So we had a combined pot- |
latch for the newly weds mentioned
above.
This past summer our school was
enlarged so now the high school stu- j
dents are enrolled there also.
This will be thirty 'till the next
Tundra call.
Without doubt machines will be
able to determine the means and
avenues to goals, but men will con
tinue to set the goals themselves.
For what machine can ever apply
the considerations of compassion and
justice which, as man's enlightment
spreads • . . will enter ever more
into the decisions that affect his fu
ture ... in the universe?
Lewis L. Strauss
First Book of Eskimo in New
Written Language Using Letters
(Reprinted from The Whitehorse Star)
By Francis Dickie
Heriot Bay, B. C„ Canada
The first book in the new Eskimo
written language has just been
printed by Canada's Department of
Nortern Affairs. It also contains the
first creative fiction ever published
and written by an Eskimo.
The author is Leah Illauq, a 23
year-old girl from Pond Inlet on
Northern Baffin Island. Her book
is a fanciful story, based on Eski
mo mythology, of a polar bear that
incubates the egg of flighty Arctic
tern. When the egg hatches, a small
polar bear with wings crawls out
of the shell. Illustrated with amus
ing pen-and-ink sketches by the
author, the book is now being dis
tributed to Eskimos throughout the
north.
Another Purpose
The book has another purpose.
It introduces a new standard ortho
graphy—which is actually a com
mon tool kit of symbols (letters) to
be used by Eskimos to express them
selves in their own dialect. Once the
new system of writing is learned,
one of the dialects will emerge as
a standard literary Eskimo lan
guage.
In the past 100 years Eskimos
have used an unwieldly system of
syllabic writing. It looks like short
hand and only approximately con
veys the sounds of words. It often
creates confusion over words that
are very different in meaning but
only subtly different as spoken.
Several missionaries to the Eski
mos tried to replace the shorthand
with alphabetic systems, but their
efforts were colored by nationality.
A French missionary could hear a
throatly Eskimo sound like the
I1 “French", and an English mission
ary might miss it completely.
"They lacked objectivity.” says
Ottawa linguist Raymond Gagne,
“and for that reason none of them
have been an accurate reflection of
the language.”
The Department of Northern Ar
fairs constantly ran into problems
with the inaccuracy of the syllabic
writing. And to print anything (the
quarterly mayazine “Inukititut,” ed
ited by Eskimo Mary Panegoosho,
for instance) they needed special
type on typewriters and type-set
ting machines.
So they set linguists working on a
new system. Dr. Gagne, now in
charge of the project, talked to Es
kimos from points as far apart as
Aklavik and Frobisher. After listen
ing with his well-trained ear, he iso
lated 21 sounds basic to the lan
guage. To represent there sounds
the new system usese 15 different j
letters of the Roman alphabet, and
six combinations of them—three
double vowels, as, “ii,” “uu,” and
three sounds peculiar to Eskimo,
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AROUND THE CLOCK
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‘ng,” “qu,” and “mg.” Most of the
rest of the sounds are similar to the
English and French sounds of the
same letters. This alone, says Dr.
Gagne, should make it easier for
Eskimos to learn the two languages.
At present only about 500 Eski
mos know the new system, and
Northern Affairs hopes the book
will encourage new readers. The
department is now working on a
dictionary, and expects to publish
more stories, including some trans
lated from the syllabic. They feel
optimistic: most of the Eskimo stu
dents learned to read and write the
new alphabet in less than two
months: Said authoress Illauq: “I
studied it for about a month before
I used it. It is easy.”
The syllabic system now used is
based on the lialect of the eastern
Arctic. Although most Eskimos can
understand it when it is spoken, the
present written form is often in
comnrehensible.
Miss Illauq is self-educated and
has always had a keen interest in
reading and writing. At an early age
she moved north from Pond Inlet to
Resolute on Cornwallis Island,
where she persuaded residents to
allow her to work as a teacher’s
aide in the one-room school that had
been built by the community. She
helped at the school for nearly three
years. Her father is the well-known
Eskimo hunter, Josephie Illauq. who
is now teaching members of the
Royal Canadian Air Force how to
build igloos in the four corners of
the Arctic as part of the survival
training.
In 1961 Miss Illauq came to Ot
tawa and joined thp Welfare Divis
ion. She was the first Eskimo intro
duced to the new system of writing.
“I studied it for about a month
before I used it.” says Leah, who
had previously written her first dia
lect stories in syllabics used in the
eastern Arctic. “It is easy to under
stand and use.”
The title of her first book trans
lated into English is “Little Arctic
Tern and Big Polar Bear.”
Thus is marked a new era in Es
kimo life in Canada.
It is the strength of any emotion,
not necessarliy its pleasantness,
which makes a place important.
Stuart Cloete
CONSTRUCTION AND
GENERAL LABORERS
Local 942, AF of L
Wmund N. Orbeck, President
Joel Wiegert
Secretary-Treasurer
J 05 Noble St
Meetings Every 2nd EViday
7:30 P.M.
Hal GL 6-4582
One for the Road!
The
Northwest
Trovelguide
Filled with interesting
information on hunting
and fishing, history, vil
lages and cities in Alas
ka, Yukon and British
Columbia. A large Rand
McNally map included.
An ideal reference
book.
On Sale
at All Newsstands
Only $1.00