Athabascan Legends
Why the Raven Is Black;
Teal Ducks Happily Married
Teal Ducks
By Anonymous Author
Once upon a time, a long, long
time ago, all the boy birds thought
a little girl teal duck was the best
sort of a girl to have.
Why? Because she was a real
little lady.. She never raised her
voice; she always kept herself very
neat. And, well, she was just na
turally pretty.
All the boy birds would try to
go with her and, of course, there
were some very bad fights over her.
So, to settle the problem all the
boy birds decided to have a big
potlatch and have wrestling
match. Whoever won the match, he
would would win the little lady
teal duck.
The potlatch was held and the
wrestling match lasted many days.
Finally the big boy swan had
beaten everyone except the little
man teal duck. Mr. Teal duck was
not even going to bother wrestling
the big swan but one of his friends
said, "Go ahead and try. You have
nothing to lose,”
So, the little teal wrestled the |
giant swan and won too!
And so, through all the ages little
Mr. and Mrs. Teal Duck have still
lemained toget
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Raven
By Anonymous Author
A long time ago, before any of
us on this earth were born, all the
birds were the same color, or more
correctly, had no color.
They were, at that time, sort of
a "dirty white” shade.
Now the Raven always thought
he was the greatest bird alive. He
always dressed fancy and wore no
thing but the best. When there was
anyone he thought would see him,
he would show off so that all other
bird people would think he was a
big. big chief.
He tried to give the impression
he knew everything and how to do
anything.
One fSly he was paddling down
the Yukon. After some time he saw
a village populated with nice look
ing young girls, bird girls, of course.
The Raven paddled back up the
river a ways, got out of his canoe
and set up camp. At once he start
ed to gather other birds around
him. They were all young men
birds, of course.
He told them of the village of
pretty women farther down the ri
ver and suggested that he paint
the boy birds different colors so
they would look nice. All the birds
agreed that his suggestion was a
good idea.
The Raven painted the birds and
gave each one different markings
and colors.
When he finished, he told the
birds that it was their turn to paint
him. One bird tried. He put a
little red here, a little yellow there,
and so on.
When he was finished, the Raven
j walked down to a clear pool and
looked in. He looked on this side,
j that side, this way, that way, but
it was no use. It wasn’t good enough.
After all, he, the Raven, had to be
the best painted bird of all.
Another bird tried and tried his
best to please him. But again the
Raven was not satisfied. Another
bird tried, then another, but the
Raven was not pleased.
This went on and on for about
three days and finally all the birds
got tired and angry and threw
black paint all over him. Of course
the birds all ran off and left him
there by himself with no one to
do anything about the black paint.
So that is why, to this day, the
Raven is black. If one watches him
a while, one can tell that the Ra
ven still thinks he is a very high
class bird.
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Porcupine Poses
Needle-Sharp,
Painful Problem
By Howard Rock
Times Editor
Anyone who has had the unfor
tunate experience of coming into
contact with porcupine quills knows
how painful and difficult it is to
try to pull them out after they have
become embedded in the skin.
The wily conspirators, nature and
the porcupine, have cleverly co
operated in devising an ingenious
defense weapon in the quill.
The quill has many tiny barbs
that point back and away from the
point of the quill. Equipped with
this bristling cover on its surface,
it begins to burrow, with purpose
ful intent, upon penetration of the
tissue of an animal or man.
It loves nothing better than mus
cle twitches, even tiny ones. They
help the quill to bury itself deeper
into the flesh.
Nature and the porcupine, in pro
ducing the finished product, came
up with a quill that was pneumatic.
According to some natives, that is
the conspirator’s downfall.
Some natives advise when one
becomes victim of the quill, all he
has to do is to cut the end of the
quill protruding out of his skin and
deflate the pesky thing.
Upon deflation, the barbs retract
or flatten to the surface of the
quill, which makes the surface com
paratively smooth, at any rate,
much less bristly.
After debristling the quill, one
is advised by natives to simply yank
and out come the pesky thing.
Wrangell Pupils
Await Times
| The Tundra Times was more than
pleased to read about itself in the
lastest edition of the Wrangell
Eagle student publication of the
Wrangell Institute Bureau of In
dian Affairs school for Alaska na
tive children.
The Eagle wrote:
“Each issue of the Times finds a
ready group of students and teach
ers at Wrangell Institute. In one of
our classes alone the teacher ask
ed "How many of you recognized
the names of someone that you
knew in the paper?”
“Fifteen hands went up out of a
class of twenty-eight.
“The teacher’s next question was,
“How many of you saw the names
of someone related to you?" Ten
of the fifteen hands went up again.
“The teacher concerned had made
duplicated copies of all the names
of Alaska people found in a cer
tain issue of the Times. A lesson
was underway to encourage use of
the library reference room.
The students and teacher of
Wrangell Institute are especially
pround of the excerpts from our
school paper that the Times printed
in their issue of December 3.”
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I Canyon Village Gets Teacher
Climaxing a strenuous search,11
the Bureau of Indian Affairs has
procured a teacher for Canyon Vil
lage, one of Alaska’s newest settle
ments.
Frank Brady, educational special
ist and former teacher at Wrangell
Institute, arrived at the village
Wednesday to take up his duties.
Brady, one of the directors of the
BIA-University of Alaska summer
program for native children, is con
sidered by the BIA as one of the
best teachers in the state.
The people of the village are
getting along fine and were en
thusiastic over the arrival of the
teacher, according to Miss Beatrice
Towne, BIA social worker who was
at Canyon Village Wednesday.
Miss Towne took emergency
clothing and food to the Stanley
Jonas family whose cabin home
was demolished by fire shortly be
fore Christmas. A request for as
sistance dated December 22 was not
delivered to the BIA in Fairbanks
until December 31st. The village
has no regular mail service or sche
duled plane service, nor radio fa
cilities.
"Lack of communication in case of
Indians Had
Thriving Birch
Bow Business
By Alfred Starr
' Times Staff Writer
There is a place below Starr Point
on the left bank of Tanana River,
about 20 miles from the town of
Tanana, that has a very fine patch
of birch trees.
Indian men long ago came from
long distances to buy birch for bows
there. For fine bows, the birch has
to have the right grain so it will
have the right “give" when used.
Many people came from outlying
villages to Starr Point to trade for
birch.
This trading was as important as
trading for high powered rifles to
day. When one hunts for big game
with bows, he has to have good
wood.
The oldtimers had two bows, one
for big game and one for smaller
| game, just the same as our use of
high powered trifles and 22 rifles
today.
Probation..
(Continued from page 1)
Any person convicted of a viola
tion growing out of the use of alco
hol or other intoxicants are placed
on probation:
1. For the first offense not less
than 15 days nor more than one
year.
2. For the second offense not less
than 30 days, nor more than one
year.
As a mandatory provision, the use
of alcohol or other intoxicants are
prohibited a person on probation.
Other conditions may be imposed
at the court’s discretion.
The name of each person under
probation is made known to the
community by posting a notice in
the canteen along with the date of
probation expiration.
A person assisting a probationeer
to violate the orders of the court
through sale, contribution, or other
means of furnishing alcohol to a
person is also made a violation
punishable by fine and probation.
All persons on probation are re
quired to report weekly to the
Chief of Police, responsible to the
St. Paul Council as its chief proba
tion officer.
The ordinance was signed by
Gromoff, president, Gabriel Stepe
tiss, vice president, Stephan Dop
off, corresponding secretary, Step
hen Lekanoff, treasurer, Vassilli
Stepetiss, treasurer, and Gabriel Te
tolf, assistant treasurer, _ t___
accident or serious illness could
prove a problem,” she said.
Part of the Jonas' nine children,
ranging in age from 9 to 15 years,
were in bed when flames broke out
behind a wood stove in their paper
lined cabin. The home was quickly
engulfed in flames. They saved only
a cook stove and a sewing machine.
Recently trapping has not been
good principally because of minus
35 degree weather accompanied by
high winds. The winds are making
it difficult to heat their homes and
school.
In other villages, Miss Towne re
ports:
Chalkytsik has selected a new
chief, Albert Williams. Chief Wil
liams and new council members
gave a potlatch for the village on
Wednesday.
Birch Creek village is getting
along fine but Wednesday the mer
cury dropped in the village’s only
thermometer to 60 below zero.
INDIAN FISHERMEN
PRACTICE CONSERVATION
AT RAMPART DAM SITE
By Alfred Starr
Times Staff Writer
Interior Alaska Indians had many
rules and regulations about fishing.
Long ago Indians made nets from
willow bark. They stripped off the
bark, made it into strings, and
from the strings they made nets.
At the proposed Rampart Dam
site there are two or three places
where one could stand on rocks
and use dip nets.
In the old times when there were
no canneries, there were great many
fish in the Yukon River. Each man
was allowed to catch two fish. It
took about 8 to 10 minutes to catch
two king salmon.
As soon as one dip net fisherman
caught his limit, another man took
his place. This type of fishing went
on 24 hours a day during July.
When fishing was completed, each
family’s share was about two bales
of dried salmon. Each bale weigh
ed about 100 pounds. This fish help
ed to supplement the people’s meat
supply during the long winter.
In August, as soon as the fish
dried, Indians left the fishing
grounds and returned to their vil
lages and camps to hunt game to
be dried for the winter.
In the old days, Interior Alaska
was thickly populated. Just a few
people from each village went to
the fishing site in the Rampart
area. A part of each village's popu
lation went to fish camp; the other
part remained in the village.
The people who remained in vil
lages built fish traps and other
means to get fish for the winter.
Rescue .;:
(Continued from page 1)
about every ten feet. Finally, he
lay down and couldn’t go anymore.
We stayed with him about a half
hour . . . but it was too cold, we
knew we had to keep going or we
would die too,” said Angusuk.
Shortly after being spotted, a
plane dropped them food.
The two men were released this
morning from the Nome Hospital
where they have been since being
picked up. Both are suffering only
from frostbitten noses.
The two men will stay for a
while at King Island village on the
outskirts of Nome before returning
to their homes on King Island.
From sunset to daybreak, during
their six days on the ice, the two
men found shelter behind a wind
break.
“We tried to sleep but could not
sleep more than ten minutes at •
time,” said Aoguiuk. _ ,j