Our culture, our way of life

It may seem cliche universally, but it is so vital for the youth to learn our way of life. For the Yupiaq Eskimo people of the Southwest region of Alaska, it is very important for us to teach our younger generation on how to survive using the very resources we have on our land, lakes, rivers and ocean. These things we have learned from generatation to generation and will not die off as long as we have our parents, granparents, and in our culture, our uncles and aunts who are very vital in passing down the knowledge and skills to hunt, fish and gather from our land.

In the summer, we go fishing for salmon. We use nets in this case, because it is what our generation knows. This photo or rather video clip shows my husband teaching my son how to fish, how else do you learn but by doing. We have taken our son fishing since he was a toddler, he is learning the ways of the river and ways on land in travel and has learned to identify places by using landmarks.

I remember as a young girl, I must have been about eight years old, I laid hands on an uluaq or better known as an ulu in most cultures. My mother, at my young age would let me scale the white fish when I would ask to help her. I loved sitting by her while she worked ever so faithfully on what my father would bring home from his spring hunt.

My father would pull up on snomobile and sled and as he settled in with something hot to drink, he would brief my mother on his catch. He would often go to the coastal area to trap, hunt and fish. It would be a blessing when he brought home a walrus or a couple of seals. We not only ate them, but the seal skin and other furs, my mother would make into hats, mittens or other warm clothing.

I remember at a young age, watching my mother skin the seal in a shed behind our house. I wanted to try. She handed me the uluaq and told me to try. I was so excited. I started skinning. I did good for a bit, but in some places I had pushed a little too hard and tore some of the skin. "Oh no", I would proclaim, but my mother would say in my language: "canrituq; it's ok, I will sew that torn part, no one will be able to tell." She was so very patient and loving.

Back to the fishing story. I used to go fishing with my mother. My father would go to Bristol Bay to commercial fish for salmon, while my mother moved us from the village to fish camp for the summer. One year my father wanted to bring me, but my mother wanted me to stay home to be her help. I love going to fish camp, up to this day we will go end of May to first work on smelt, white fish and await the salmon to return to the river in the mid-part of June. We will work on fish all the way into the end of August when the silver salmon start running.

As older women and men, it is vital to teach the younger, our way of life, not only in the subsistence lifestyle, but leading by example. My mother and father were very good examples for me to follow. As I have grown, I have not left the things they have tought me. As a mother and a grandmother, I also need to set a good example for my children, grandchildren, nieces and newphews. If we want to teach our younger generation our "Way of life", we must first and foremost teach them by example.