Cttnlira Cttnes
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 class matter under
the Act of March 3, 1879.
Tundra Times, Inc., publisher (Howard Rock. Martha Teeluk. and Alfred Ketzleri;
HOWARD ROCK, editor; Thomas Snapp, assistant editor; Vivian P. Spurgin, office
manager; contributing editors. Guy Okakok, Martha Teeluk, and Alfred Ketzler.
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EDITORIAL
Things We Love
(Continued from Page 1)
is a pretty nice thing to have. They are so used to it that
it is hard for them to give it up. If they are forced to give
it up, where will they go?
Many, many native folks are hunters now and they
will be hunters for a long time to come. Lots of them like
to make their living that way and in many cases they can
do it real good. Right now that is all they know how to do.
They cannot be business people overnight.
There are some bright young natives now who have
£ound out that they can be good business people. That's
fine, but they should also think that their parents are not
educated and there will be many uneducated natives for
many years to come, perhaps generations.
We natives should realize we are in transition from
one economy to the other. We have moved from a strictly
hunting economy to a semi-cash economy. And we are
moving more and more toward a cash economy. In order
to do so, we have to learn to use and develop our land
and its resources in other ways besides hunting, trapping
and fishing.
We natives should realize that we will not be able
to compete fully with big business for a long time yet.
Since we cannot do that now, we should try to hold on
to our lands because that is the greatest insurance we can
have for the well-being of the native children that will
come after us. Without land we can become the poorest
people in the world.
If the land is taken away from us we could, many,
many of us, wind up in slums of cities. The natives in the
villages are proud people and they wouldn't want to wind
up that way. The United States Government and the State
Government should respect the lands we claim and if they
allow us to keep them we can hold our heads high and
help to make the State of Alaska respectable in the eyes of
other states and nations.
This paper is not too worried about young people who
are getting a good education these days, because we have
hopes that they will help their folks at home in time, that
is, if they remember they are natives and have genuine
wish to help the folks at home.
This paper is worried about the folks back home in
villages where almost all of 43,000 of them are living.
All the leaders in all villages should think about that.
They should think of the well-being and welfare of their
people. Leaders in villages count a lot and the people
living in those villages should always try to get the best
leaders they can get.
The village of Minto has a good leader. He is working
hard to hold on to the land his people had for centuries.
He is Richard Frank, Chief of Minto. Big pressures are being
put on him by State Land people. It's a big problem for
the Chief to handle. Those of us who can should give him
all the encouragement we can muster.
Chief Frank is courageously standing firm on what he
and his people believe is the right thing to do. Not long
ago he said, "As long as I'm chief, we won't give up our
land."
Weak leaders don't say things like that. Richard Frank
is a strong leader. Let us natives realize that we need more
men like him and in having them will help us to hold on
to the things we love.
Land is one of those things.
NORTH STAR
AWARD
(In each issue, the Tundra
Times will single out for a North
Star award one who has made an
outstanding accomplishment or
done a meritorious act.)
Serving the public is an exacting
occupation and the rewards it af
fords the servants are not always
gratifying. But there are services
whose humanitarian efforts are
most gratifying to the public and,
we are sure, most gratifying to those
who performed them. Such an agen
cy is the State's Office of Vocation
al Rehabilitations.
The work of the Office of Voca
tional Rehabilitation is to aid the
severely handicapped persons in
Alaska, to help them overcome the
physical disabilities /the patients
have suffered so they may become
employable.
The accomplishments of the OVR
in this endeavor has been remark
able. thanks to the untiring efforts
of devoted servants like Miss Doro
thy Craig.
Before Miss Craig took over the
position of Rehabilitation Counsel
or for the OVR she was heading
the Health Education Office in An
chorage. Her area of operation was
Bristol Bay and the Aleutian chain.
In her present capacity of Re
habilitation Counselor for the Fair
banks branch of the OVR, Miss
Craig travels extensively in the
Arctic area of Alaska.
Miss Craig is an unusually hard
worker who believes in team work
to better accomplish the job of re
habilitation.
It is apparent that she has been
very successful in coordination, a
very urgent necessity in Alaska but
something that is often lacking.
Perhaps, the greatest single rea
son for Miss Craig’s success in her
line of work is her understanding
of natives; her awareness of the
inter-changing of cultures. This un
derstanding. we believe, is vital to
any public servant in dealing with
the natives of Alaska.
And so to Miss Dorothy Craig.
Rehabilitation Counselor for the
Office of Vocational Rehabilitation,
for her untiring efforts, her under
standing of native people, as well
as non-native people, in giving vi
tal assistance to the unfortunate,
goes the Tundra Times twelfth
North Star Award along with our
congratulations.
Eskimo Poem
Aging Hunter
By Howard Weyahok
He is sitting quietly, sitting quite
still.
His face unmoving but for his
brows
And the glimmer of light in his
eyes.
Ah, a faint smile steals across his
stolid face,
A strong face, powerful face,
Lined deeply with age and rigors
Of the northern climes.
The aged man is languishing,
Reflecting on his glory and his
fame, '
His great exoloits, his prime of
hunting life.
He is sitting quietly, sitting quite
still.
Reliving the days he conquered the
bear,
The days he roamed far o’er
the land.
The days he struck the great bow
head,
The mighty thrust of his harpoon.
He is sitting quietly, sitting quite
still,
His face unmoving but for his brows
And the glimmer of light in his
eyes.
EDITORIAL
Minto Claims Missing
Back in 1938, the village of Minto drew up a docu
ment, signed it and sent it to the Alaska Native Service in
Juneau. Alaska Native Service was the predecessor of the
present Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Again in 1950, the village drew up another document
and sent it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
These documents were very important. They were
documents drawn up by the people of Minto claiming their
historic land around them, the land that had been the
means of their very existence.
Previously the Minto people had not thought much
about written documents. There was no need for them.
The spoken word was honored.
With the arrival of non-natives, however, it became
important that written claims be filed for the land. People
began to move into the Minto Flats and claimed portions of
the land as theirs.
The Minto people drew up and turned over to re
sponsible BIA officials in good faith their written claims
and were given assurances on two different occasions their
claims would be filed. ^
What happened to those documents? Where are they
today? Why were they not filed with the Bureau of Land
Management as the law prescribes?
Some officials shrug off these questions, saying per
haps the documents were not in the right legal form. If so,
why were the people of Minto never informed?
This is indeed an intriguing and disturbing mystery,
one that needs to be solved for the people who are truly
concerned.
Since the claims were not recorded in the Fairbanks
BLM office, much trouble has ensued. Having no record
of them, this agency has classified the Minto area as "open
to selection" by individuals and by the state. The state has
taken advantage of this situation and has applied to select
land which the people of Minto have claimed as theirs.
Joe Lawlor, of the Fairbanks State Land Office, who
has made recently an on-the-spot study of the Minto Lakes
area for utilization, says the people are fully using the
area. In fact, he says the Minto people need a greater area
than they now claim.
He also makes no bones of the intentions of the state.
He says the state is seeking the Minto Lakes because the
area is valuable and is classified "open" by the BLM.
Lawlor's statements are diametrically opposed to the
recently released report of the Task Force that "The State
insists that it does not intend to seek title to lands which
the natives are clearly using or occupying."
Not only the Minto people, but also state agencies
have been disturbed because the claims were not filed.
Persons with the Fish and Game Department, since state
hood, and who were formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wild
life Service, over a period of ten years have been plan
ning a road halfway to Minto, to the edge of the lakes.
The road was planned to open Minto Lakes as a "recrea
tion area," but until recently the Minto people were never
consulted.
According to these Fish and Game officials, they
never knew Minto claimed the area until they protested
a state selection in the fall of 1961.
The chief of Minto and his council have copies of the
documents, proof positive that the papers were drawn up.
Minto people know and can testify that they were filed
with the BIA. They are now severely handicapped because
their claims were not filed.
Since they sent in their claim, individuals have made
claims of areas in the Minto Flats and many of these indi
viduals have been given title. Is this equality?
Where have the documents of the Minto claims gone?
Were they pigeon-holed in Juneau? Or were they taken
by some official to Washington, D.C. to gather dust?
Could someone be negligent in this important matter?
These are just a few of the many questions the people
of Minto would like to have answered. Is it asking too
much? Would it not be a good, humanitarian service if an
honest effort is made to locate the missing documents?