Cttn&ra CtmrS
Owned, controlled and edited by Tundra Times, Inc., a corporation of Alaska
natives. Published at Fairbanks, Alaska, twice monthly, on the first and third
Mondays.
Address all mail to Box 1287, Fairbanks, Alaska. Telephone GL 2-2244.
Entered at the Post Office at Fairbanks, Alaska, as second cla&;s matter under
the Act of March 3, 1879.
Tundra Times, Inc., publisher (Howard Rock, Martha Teeluk, and Alfred Ketzler);
HOWARD ROCK, editor: Terry Brady, assistant editor; contributing editors,
Guy Okakok, Martha Teeluk, and Alfred Ketzler.
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EDITORIAL
The Sounds of Laughter
At hearing someone laugh, most of us respond to it
with a feeling of wanting to laugh too. Yes, sound of
laughter is contagious. Good old Mother Nature certainly
did a wonderful thing when she endowed us with laugh
ter. She did such a thorough job in installing the mech
anism of laughter in all of us that we just wouldn't be
what we are without it. Can one imagine a people without
the laugh? We just wouldn't be fit to live without the up
lifting and all-pervading human sound of merriment.
More than once, through the years of this editor's
life, he has been struck with the strangeness of the sound
of human laughter. It comes out as pure animal sound
man being one as you all know. If you don't believe it,
take a good listen to your husband, wife, friend, prima
donna, your doctor, your congressman, your senator, yes,
even your President. Laughter that comes out of anyone
of them is animal sound, pure and simple.
Man, being what he is, a reasoning animal, has pro
gressed from stone age to what he is today. To wit—he is
fixing to go to the moon and beyond. Yes, man had made
tremendous advances since his caveman status but—he
hasn't been able to modernize human laughter. The funny
bone in the human being persists in wanting to be primi
tive. It just doesn't understand relativity and all the other
great sciences. In being the most ignorant facet in the
human system, all it asks is to be allowed to five on bliss
and keep right on being an animal sound. Sometimes it
does sound dumb but it does it in a nice way. It's something
like a pretty girl with no brains.
How interesting it would be to go back in history to
listen to Khubla Kahn, to Ivan the Terrible, Hannibal, the
ancient Eskimo, Charlemagne, the ancient Indian, the Man
chus, Henry the Eighth, and Nero. This writer wonders
whether their laughter had more animal sound. He sup
poses not though. They must have sounded like we do
today.
Although it is not general, fortunately, it is amusing
to hear a highly civilized man laugh at his iess fortunate
brother. It just doesn't seem right for a person who can don
a space suit to whiz to Jupiter, let out a laugh of derision
at his brother who travels by dogteam. Yes, laugh of a
derisive nature must be more animal sounding than other
kinds of laughter. It's a good thing that most of the civil
ized folks don't do that.
Most sounds of laughter are really fun to listen to.
The one that comes out from pure pleasure, is probably the
best. It's fun to listen to cute laughter too, like when you
tell your best girl friend how cute and pretty she is and
she responds with a titter of giggles.
Yes, laughter, outside of the derisive kind, that re
fuses to be civilized, is one of the really fine things in life
Mother Nature has established in all of us. She did it in
such a way that no matter how civilized we get, we can
never go all the way.
Let us not worry how we sound when we laugh. Let
us keep right on doing it because it is one of the most
pleasant sounds in the world. __ TZ™
NORTH STAR
AWARD
“He heard cries for help not far
from him. Mike looked up and al
most directly in front of him was a
small girl clinging to the edge of
the ice where she had fallen
through,” reported OTZ Sound
Waves, Kotzebue Day School paper.
The paper was talking about
Michael “Mike" Mendenhall, 15
year old Eskimo boy who saved
the life of a little girl.
Friends, Blanche Lincoln and Jo
Ann Ipalook, both 11, had ben
skating together on the ice in front
of the main part of the town of
Kotzebue.
They had “skated a ways on the
ice. On the way back they discover
ed a large pond of water had form
ed on the ice. Thinking it was solid,
Blanche skated over to it and fell
in. Jo Ann turned around and skat
ed over to the pond but did not
stop soon enough; and, as a result,
she, too, fell in.
“Blanche was in the center of the
pool of water while Jo Ann was
holding onto the ice," The Sound
Waves continued.
“Neither of us could scream, but
after I gained my senses, I yelled,”
Jo Ann said later.
When Mike Mendenhall heard Jo
Ann’s cries for help he quickly
skated over, took his jacket off
ana used it to reach the girl. Jo
Ann couldn’t hold on to the coat
i probably because of numb fingers.
Disregarding his own safety, Mike
crawled to the edge of the danger
! ous ice and grabbed Jo Ann by the
shoulder and pulled her out. She
was safe, but her little friend,
Blanche Lincoln, drowned.
Mike Mendenhall is a high school
freshman in the Kotzebue Day
School Directed Studies Program.
Previous to this year he was at
Ihe Moravian Childen's Home in i
Kwefhluk. Alaska; and. before that,
he attended grade school in Kotze
bue.
And so to Michael “Mike" Men
denhall, whose presence of mind
figured greatly in his heroic rescue
of Jo Ann Ipalook, while endanger
ing his own life, goes the twenty
seventh North Star Award along
with our deep sympathies for Rod
ney, Lincoln and his family.
POEM:
Indian Prayer
(Editor's Note: The following
poem is an Indian prayer “chant
ed on shores of Puget Sound be
fore the coming of the White
man,” according to NAVAJO
TIMES. It was translated into
Esperanto, the international auxi
liary language. It was translated
by (Hiahl-tra) Shining Feathers,
Hariette Salton Williams.)
(Reprinted from The Navajo Times)
Oh Thou Great and Mighty Spirit—
All-seeing, All knowing, All Per
vading—
Again this day we stand in rever
ence
And earnestly beseech Your bless
ing on us,
Your poor and desolate people.
Let the Light of Your Everlasting
Compassion and Love
Shine in our hearts and guide us
right
Through the long and misty paths
of this life.
With precious breath of life—We
entreat
That Thou. Great Spirit on High—
Let the Light of Your Everlasting
Compassion and Love
Shine in the hearts of the weak,
the suffering, the afflicted,
And give them strength and cour
age—
To take one more breath, one more
step,
Help us to be worthy of the magni
ficent
Gift of life given by Your Ever
lasting hands.
Hok-ye (It is finished)
EDITORIAL
Olaus Murie: Alaskan
Alaskans were saddened to hear of the death Oct. 21
of Olaus Murie, conservationist, biologist, author and il
lustrator. He died in a Jackson, Wyo. hospital at the age
of 74. h '
Even in Alaska, where many men earn the title "real
man," tall and strong Olaus Murie stood out. He spent
many years hiking, boating and flying Alaska's wilderness,
making friends with its wilderness people, and studying
its wildlife resources.
He arrived in Alaska in 1920, already with a career
of northern exploration and scientific work behind him. He
had worked in the Hudson's Bay area and Labrador be
ginning in 1914.
Not long after arriving in Alaska he met and married
a Fairbanks girl, his beloved "Mardy" who last year pub
lished a book, "Two In the Far North," that told of their
life together. Olaus Murie illustrated the book.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of his great
career was his key part in establishing the Arctic Wildlife
Ranqe, on a nine million acre area of northeast Alaska.
Though it is now only a part of a much larger wilder
ness area, the day will come when much of our Arctic
area has been usurped, and only this piece of Arctic Alaska
is left. Then people will appreciate the struggle he and his
many friends had in making it a reality.
As an author he wrote, "The Elk of North America," in
1951; Field Guide of Tracks, North American Animals,"
in 1954, and was the contributor of many magazine arti
cles dealing with wildlife.
He spent more than 25 years as a biologist for the old
U.S. Biological Survey, which is now the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
Olaus Murie was instrumental in founding the Wilder
ness Society, made up of the nation's leading conserva
tionists, and served as a director and president of that
organization.
Many people have a better appreciation of this earth,
due to the work of this man, because he truly appreciated
our earth himself.
We believe his legacy of appreciation and enthusiasm
will tell us this over and over, especially in the trying
c|ays ahead, when Alaska's unique natural gifts that Olaus
Murie loved will be attacked again and again, by those too
selfish or too blind to see.
His will be a^spirit that will show the way for all
true Alaskans, now.and in the future.
Olaus Murie is survived by his wife Margaret, of
Moose, Wyo., and three children. Also surviving is a bro
ther, Adolph, himself a famous Alaskan naturalist.
EDITORIAL
Train, Hire Alaskans
A recent article appearing in the Daily Alaska Empire
of Juneau, quoting the Army Corps of Engineers, which
stated that two medium size hydroelectric projects slated
for Alaska will require many workers with skills not now
found in Alaska . . . has aroused our curiosity.
It seems the projects, Snettisham, in southeastern, and
Bradley Lake, on the Kenai Peninsula, will be something
entirely new in design and type than Alaska has ever
known before.
New jobs in the field of surveying, engineering, hy
drology, geology, steelwork, concrete finishing, mining,
heavy equipment operation, truck driving, linework, time
keeping, administration, clerical, etc, will be created by
the project.
It doesn't seem to us that these job titles are so new
to Alaskans; or so strange to our way of life. Though, per
haps we don't have enough people in these fields in
Alaska (though we seem overrun with promoters) to ful
fill the jobs on Bradley Lake and Snettisham . . . we'll
bet a good poke that we have the nucleus for this type
work, and we have plenty of fellows who would like
to learn.
If somebody doesn't teach our unskilled these trades,
3nd give them a chance to make a living from these pro
jects . . . then the contracting agencies will just qo "out
side" for help . . . Again.