traditional yup’ik knowledge— lessons for all of us · e-mail: [email protected] newsletter...

VOL. 4, ISSUE 4Sept/Oct 1999

A newsletter of the Alaska Rural Systemic InitiativeAlaska Federation of Natives University of Alaska National Science Foundation Annenberg Rural Challenge

Traditional Yup’ik Knowledge—Lessons for All of Us

by Esther Ilutsik

What kinds of “experiences” and “practices” do we pro-vide within the school setting that transfers to the real

world? Are “experience” and “practice” an important element oflife? Can we teach something that we have not experienced orpracticed ourselves? If so, how effectively?

A Yup’ik Elder, John Pauk, a well-known nukalpiaq (a great hunter),shared the following information dur-ing a discussion with other Yup’ikmembers at a conference in Aleknagik,Alaska in January, 1999. He said, “Ex-periences and practices are very im-portant parts of the learning process.Without experience and practice youwill not learn how to do somethingbetter or understand it very well. You

(see “Knowledge” page 8)

“Here is the mouse cache . . . ” L to R, Elder Henry Alakayak, Sr. of Manokotak,teacher Ina Bouher of Dillingham City Schools, Elder Helen Toyukak of Manokotak.

In This IssueTraditional Yup’ik Knowledge—

Lessons for All of Us .................... 1

Fall Course Offerings forTeachers in Rural Alaska .............2

Southeast Region ............................3

Yup’ik Region .................................4KuC 1999 Graduation Address .....4Newhalen Cultural Heritage and Video-editing Class ............6Subsistence and Contaminants .....7

Alaska RSI Regional Contacts .......... 5

Iñupiaq Region ............................. 12

AISES Corner ................................ 13

Village Science .............................. 16

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2 S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S

AlaskaRural SystemicInitiative

Ray Barnhardt, Co-DirectorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksANKN/AKRSIPO Box 756730Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730(907) 474-1902 phone(907) 474-1957 faxe-mail: [email protected]

Oscar Kawagley, Co-DirectorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksANKN/AKRSIPO Box 756730Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730(907) 474-5403 phone(907) 474-5208 faxe-mail: [email protected]

Frank Hill, Co-DirectorAlaska Federation of Natives1577 C Street, Suite 300Anchorage, AK 99501(907) 274-3611 phone(907) 276-7989 faxe-mail: [email protected]

Sharing Our Pathways isa publication of the Alaska Rural SystemicInitiative, funded by the National ScienceFoundation Division of Educational SystemicReform in agreement with the Alaska Federa-tion of Natives and the University of Alaska.We welcome your comments and suggestionsand encourage you to submit them to:

The Alaska Native Knowledge NetworkUniversity of Alaska FairbanksHarper BuildingP.O. Box 756730Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6730

(907) 474-5086 phone(907) 474-5615 faxhttp://www.ankn.uaf.edue-mail: [email protected]

Newsletter Editor: Lolly [email protected]

Layout & Design: Paula [email protected]

Fall Course Offerings forTeachers in Rural Alaska

by Ray Barnhardt

Just as the new school year brings new learning opportunitiesto students, so too does it bring new learning opportunities

for teachers and those seeking to become teachers. This fall ruralteachers and aspiring teachers will have a variety of distanceeducation courses to choose from as they seek ways to upgradetheir skills, renew their teaching license, pursue graduate studiesor meet the state’s Alaska Studies and Multicultural Educationrequirements. All Alaskan teachers holding a provisional teach-ing license are required to complete a three-credit course inAlaska Studies and a three-credit course in Multicultural Educa-tion within the first two years of teaching to qualify for astandard Type A certificate. The following is a list of some of thecourses available through the Center for Distance Education thatmay be of interest to rural educators.

Alaska StudiesANTH 242, Native Cultures of

Alaska; GEOG 302, Geography ofAlaska; HIST 115, Alaska, Land andIts People; HIST 461, History of Alaska.

Multicultural EducationANS 461, Native Ways of Know-

ing; ED 610, Education and CulturalProcesses; CCS/ED 611, Culture, Cog-nition and Knowledge Acquisition; ED616, Education and Socio-EconomicChange; ED 631, Small School Curricu-lum Design; ED 660, Educational Ad-ministration in Cultural Perspective.

Cross-Cultural StudiesCCS 601, Documenting Indigenous

Knowledge Systems; CCS 608, Indig-enous Knowledge Systems.

Enrollment in the above coursesmay be arranged through the nearestUAF rural campus, or by contacting

the Center for Distance Education(CDE) at (907) 474-5353, [email protected], or by going to theCDE web site at http://www.dist-ed.uaf.edu. Those rural residents whoare interested in pursuing a programto earn a teaching credential shouldcontact the rural education facultymember at the nearest rural campus,or the Rural Educator PreparationPartnership office at (907) 543-4500.Teacher education programs andcourses are available for students withor without a baccalaureate degree.Anyone interested in pursuing agraduate degree by distance educa-tion should contact the Center forCross-Cultural Studies at (907) 474-1902 or email [email protected].

In addition to the above coursesoffered through the UAF campuses,the following distance educationcourses are available through the

(continued on next page)

S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S 3

Alaska Staff Development Network(ASDN) under arrangements withAlaska Pacific University: AlaskaAlive (which meets the state AlaskaStudies requirement) and CreatingCulturally Responsive Schools: A Stan-dards-based Approach (which meetsthe state multicultural education re-quirement.) A new multicultural edu-cation course aimed at administratorsis also under development by ASDN.Information regarding enrollment inthese courses can be obtained fromthe Alaska Staff DevelopmentNetwork at (907) 364-3801, [email protected], or at the ASDNweb site at http://www.asdn.schoolzone.net/asdn.

Welcome to the last school year ofthe 20th century and the first of thenew millennium.

(continued from previous page)

Southeast Regionby Andy Hope

Work on the Cultural Atlas initiative in the Southeast Region began in 1997 during the Indigenous Science

Knowledge Base initiative. The Project Jukebox staff at the OralHistory Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks providedtechnical support. Mary Larsen of the Project Jukebox presentedan orientation on designing web sites and web pages in Sitka inlate April 1997, concurrent with the annual Alaska Native RuralEducation Consortium meeting.

Teachers and students fromChatham, Hoonah and Sitka Schooldistricts participated in the trainingorientation. That spring UAS Juneauliaison, Tom Thornton, hired JimmyGeorge, Jr. as a student assistant forthe Southeast Cultural Atlas project.Jimmy traveled to Fairbanks for website training at the Oral History Li-brary. Lydia George (Jimmy’s mother)an elder of the Angoon Tlingit Ravenmoiety Deisheetaan clan, came to

Juneau as Elder-in-Residenceand lectured Tom Thornton’sEthnopsychology class.

In the summer of 1997, Lydia,Jimmy, Tom and Michael Travis be-gan working on the mapping andsound files for the Angoon Tlingitplace names.

On the technical side, this projectwas proof-of-concept that educa-tional multimedia can be donewithout resorting to expensive,proprietary development systems.I hope this encourages others to‘get their feet wet’ and start ex-perimenting with what can be doneusing HTML, JavaScript, and othercross-platform web technologies.

Michael D. Travis

Working on the atlas for me was areal eye-opener. The thrust of theAKRSI is to promote Native waysof knowing. So much of this re-volves around looking at how in-formation is woven and connectedthrough image and symbol. TheAngoon cultural atlas CD-ROM al-lowed us to explore these linksthrough Tlingit images and sym-bols—regalia, art, crests, placenames, personal names, etc.—aswell as through oral history. Lydiaand Jimmy George’s work with

clan houses helped me see howAngoon Deisheetaan Tlingits con-nect their regalia and crests to per-sonal and social identity and howthe threads of Tlingit identity al-ways lead back to the land. Themultimedia format also allowed usto do this with Native voices andto connect Tlingit traditions tomodern science and geography inways that are just not possible inconventional expository writing.When we showed it to teachers inAngoon, they immediately saw po-tential applications in their class-rooms as well as ways to extendthe links to other areas of the cur-ricula and Native culture. All thisis very exciting and, I think, goodfor education, heritage preserva-tion and enhancement, and cross-cultural communication andcollaboration.

Tom ThorntonAssociate Prof. of AnthropologyUniversity of Alaska Southeast

Work on the atlas project will con-tinue. The participants at the August9–13, 1999 Indigenous CurriculumInstitute in Sitka will continue workon the Klukwan and Kake atlas projectsand observe a presentation of the SitkaTlingit place name project. Instituteparticipants will work on integratingother curricula, i.e. the bioregional,thematic Axe Handle Academy andthe One Reel Salmon curriculumproject.

Many individuals and organiza-tions have contributed to the devel-opment of the cultural atlas project:University of Alaska Southeast,Chatham School District, Universityof Alaska Fairbanks, Oral History Li-brary, the Southeast Native Subsis-tence Commission, the AngoonCommunity Association, the ChilkatIndian Village, the Organized Villageof Kake, Interrain Pacific and SealaskaHeritage Foundation.


Yup’ik RegionKuC 1999 Graduation Address

by Cecilia Martz

Teggnerulriani—quyana tailuci maavet ukut ilagaryarturluki

graduate-alriit. Quyanaqtuuci tangernaugaqavci waten

quyurtaqamta.

Graduates, Regent Croft, Dean Gabrielli, faculty, staff, students,parents, friends—especially those of you who traveled to Bethelto be part of our graduation ceremony—welcome and quyana

cakneq for coming.

For you, the graduates, this is aspecial day. You will remember thisday, April 30, 1999, as a significantexperience in your lives. It markswhat you have accomplished and com-pleted up to this time in your life, butit does not mean that you quit accom-plishing and completing other objec-tives you have for tomorrow, the nextday, next year and five years fromnow. Days such as this one elicit rec-ollections of other significant experi-ences from our past.

Our past experiences have madeus who we are today, shaping how wethink, what values we have, how wetreat other people and how we viewthe world around us.

Certain people figure prominentlyin our lives—people who have had atremendous influence on our lives—and we give those people a very spe-cial place in our hearts. One personwho helped shape my perspective ofother people, religions, races, regionsand anything different, was a religionteacher I had when I was going toschool at St. Mary’s High School. Wehad nuns (sisters), priests, brothersand later, lay volunteers as facultyand support people. I was in juniorhigh and we had been studying about

heaven and hell—places where we goafter we die. I had been told that onlyCatholics would go to heaven. Thatreally bothered me for years becauseit went against what my dad andother relatives had taught me aboutjudging other people. Anyway, Iraised my hand (we had to raise ourhands to be recognized and once rec-ognized, we had to stand up to ask ourquestion or say what we had to say).The nun (her name was Mother John),looked at me with a martyr’s look onher face. She was probably thinking,“Oh, dear, not her again!” but shecalled my name. So I stood up andquickly said, “Mother, if only Catho-lics go to heaven, I don’t want to gothere.” I could hear the other stu-dents’ loud intake of breath and Icould also imagine them thinking,“Surely, she is going to be excommu-nicated and she certainly is going tohell.” Well, Mother John looked atme and the other students verythoughtfully and said, “Cecilia, no,that is not true.” The other studentsagain did their audible intake of breath. . . surely Mother John was also goingto hell. She continued: “There aremany religions in the world. Allpeople, whether they are Baptists,

Methodists, Zen Buddhists or what-ever, will go to heaven if they livegood lives according to how theirreligion and their cultures dictate.” Isaid, “Good, then I’ll go to heaven.” Iwill never forget the lesson in toler-ance she taught me. She also taughtme to do my best in everything that Ido—washing dishes, writing a courseoutline, cutting fish, making a pre-sentation or giving a speech.

One other very influential personin my life and one who has the mostspace in my heart, next to my hus-band and children, is my father, whopassed away 23 years ago. He alwaysknew the appropriate times to say tome what he felt I needed to know. Heshowed me and other young peopleproper conduct by his actions and bypointing out the actions of others.

One morning at camp, when I wokeup, he said to me, “Tacung, (a specialname just for me from him) anqaa (gooutside).” So I went outside and stayedout there for a while and then wentback in the tent. I had no idea why hewanted me to go out. When I wentback in, I had my tea with milk andfry bread. After a while, my dad asked,“Which direction is the wind blow-ing from?” Had I checked where thewind was blowing from? Of coursenot. I had just gone out like he told meto and came back in. Some time later,he again asked me to go out after Iwoke up in the morning. So, again Iwent out, and what did I make sure I

Our past experienceshave made us who weare today, shapinghow we think, whatvalues we have, howwe treat other peopleand how we view theworld around us.

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Alaska RSI Regional ContactsElmer JacksonIñupiaq Regional CoordinatorPO Box 134Kiana, Alaska 99749(907) 475-2257e-mail: [email protected]

Barbara LiuYup’ik Regional CoordinatorBox 2262Bethel, Alaska 99559(907) 543-3467e-mail: [email protected]

Amy Van HattenAthabascan Regional Coordinator5230 Fairchild AvenueFairbanks, Alaska 99709-4525(907) 474-0275e-mail: [email protected]

Andy HopeSoutheast Regional CoordinatorUniversity of Alaska SoutheastSchool of Business/PR11120 Glacier HighwayJuneau, Alaska 99801(907) 465-8776e-mail: [email protected]

Teri SchneiderAleutians Regional CoordinatorKodiak Island BoroughSchool District722 Mill Bay Road, North StarKodiak, Alaska 99615(907) 486-9031e-mail:[email protected]

did? I checked where the wind wasblowing from. I went back in and hadmy tea and fry bread. A while later,my dad asked, “What do the cloudslook like?” Oh dear, did I look at theclouds? No, I had not looked at theclouds.

Still later, he again asked me to goout in the morning before breakfast.This time what did I make sure I did?I made sure of the wind direction,made sure I could describe what theclouds looked like and I went further.I looked to see if the river tide was upor down, if the mountains looked highor low, if there was a blue reflectionwhere the sea was, what birds wereflying, what animal sounds I heard. Imade sure I could answer any ques-tion my dad asked. After a while, Iwent in and had my tea and bread, atthe same time waiting for “the ques-tion.” While I was eating, my dadsaid, “When the clouds are stretched,the wind will pick up that day. If yousee shimmering on the horizon, theground is pushing the heat from thesun upwards. When you see whatlooks like fog rising from the lakesand ponds, their heat temperature isbalancing with the air’s.”

From that day on he started teach-ing me about the weather in differentseasons because he knew I had learnedto observe my environment. To thisday, I still take careful note of mysurroundings and can tell, generally,what the weather is going to be likeeach day.

My dad was giving me scientificknowledge about our environment.In the same way, he taught me socialstudies by alerting me to differentpeople’s behavior. He taught me toread and write my own language. Hetaught me environmental biology andhe kept teaching me until the timecame for him to leave us. He alsoapproved of Mike, who later becamemy husband.

He also gave to me what has be-come one of the cornerstones of my

personal values, a solid foundationfor who I am. When I started leavingfor school at St. Mary’s, one of thosetimes, he said to me, “Tacung, learn asmuch as you can about the Kass’aqa,they are here to stay. Their numberswill increase over time. Taugaamangurrluqapiareq qaneryaraput,cayararput-llu nalluyaguteryaqnaki.”

Angurrluk is a very strong wordwhich translates roughly to “Never,never, no matter what!” or as NitaRearden said, “Ever, ever, ever, not,not, not!” It’s that strong of a word.My father said, “Never, never, nomatter what, are you to forget ourlanguage, traditions, ways of doingthings.” (The English language some-times is very inadequate to conveyequivalent meanings.) So I follow thatstrong directive to this day to the bestof my ability.

Many of us who are following thatdirective in our lives and our work,especially people of my age, are start-ing to retire. Those of you who followus must take up the responsibility toensure that our language and culturecontinues to thrive. Our Elders have

repeatedly begged us to do so. TheYukon/Kuskokwim Delta is the heartand soul of the Yup’ik language andculture. It is imperative that you re-main vigilant and outspoken so thatagencies, especially the educationalinstitutions, will continue to show us,the people they are here to serve, thatthe continuation of our language andculture remains one of their highestpriorities. This is a heavy responsibil-ity that should never be ignored.

There are many more people whohave taught me and shaped me towhat I am and affected how I think,and I thank those people from thebottom of my heart and soul. As youreflect on your own lives, think ofthose people who have influencedyou and thank the Creator for them,and if you have the opportunity, thankthem in person.

So our lives go on. We keep onaccomplishing and completing. Wekeep on learning. We keep on believ-ing. We keep on hoping. We keep onbeing sincere. We keep on thanking.Most of all, we keep on loving oneanother.


Yup’ik Region, con’t.

Students learned howto capture digitalvideo to computersand edit using adigital camcorder andFirewire

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. . . there wassignificant emphasisfrom the NewhalenTribal Council on oralhistories provided byvillage Elders.

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Newhalen Cultural Heritage andVideo-editing Class

by Michael Roberts

This past school year, 1998–99, with a grant by the NationalScience Foundation through the Alaska Federation of Na-

tives and the Newhalen Tribal Council, the high school seniors ofNewhalen have been involved in the Newhalen Cultural HeritageProject. The idea was to integrate the community and culture intothe curriculum. Two classes were created and cultural heritageand video-editing curriculums were constructed. The compo-nents involved archaeological fieldwork, collection of oral histo-ries and pictorial histories. The culmination was the creation ofa video production depicting the three components that servedas the summary report for the grant to AFN. The report deadlinewas January 31, 1999. Video and computer equipment for editingwas purchased for the class through Newhalen Tribal Council.

On September 14, a group of U.S.Park Service archaeologists DaleVinson, Becky Saleeby and MarthaOlympic Crow and an archaeologistand a former LPSD student of mine atIgiugig, arrived to carry out fourweeks of archaeological fieldwork. Itwas not an excavation but an exami-nation of an existing disturbancecaused in an ancient site by road build-ing. Mapping, radio carbon dating,soil samples, stratigraphy and sur-veying for other local sites were amongsome of the activities. The senior classof Newhalen School provided thework force and were taught tech-niques that lead to the designation ofthe site on a listed state registry. In theapplication process, the students wereable to officially name and numberthe site. A concerted effort by the

village and the students is leading topreservation of this site. As the stu-dents did the work, they also video-

recorded the process using a digitalcamcorder provided by the grantmoney.

When the weather no longer per-mitted fieldwork, we turned to videoediting. The archaeological portion of

the video was constructed first. Stu-dents learned how to capture digitalvideo to computers and edit using adigital camcorder and Firewire (IEEE1394). All of the special effects in thevideo were created using computers.The narrative for this portion wasalmost completely written by the stu-dents. It describes the process theytook part in. The narration matchesvideo clips which they chose as ap-propriate from hours upon hours ofvideotape. The completed video wasthen returned to videotape (VHS,SVHS, 8mm and DV) from the com-puter. They also learned how to burnCDs of the movie for use on Macintoshand Wintel PCs.

In the second portion of the video,there was significant emphasis fromthe Newhalen Tribal Council on oralhistories provided by village Elders.

In the late fall, Elders from surround-ing villages were flown in for a pot-latch and roundtable story-telling.This was all recorded on video. Onmany of the oral histories, the stu-dents acted out or added portions ofthe stories which were superimposedagain using various computer editingtechniques to enhance the story. Instories told in Yup’ik, translation wasprovided by Father David and GladysAskoak.

The third part of the video was acollection of stills from the IliamnaLake area. The village of Igiugig wasof great help in allowing the use of afine collection. John Branson of theU.S. Park Service was also of greathelp. Part of the video was actually a


The third part of thevideo was acollection of stillsfrom the Iliamna Lakearea.

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captured slideshow presentation byJohn.

After the credits on this movie, thestudents inserted a bloopers sectionthat is revealing. It shows amongstother things, the recording of some ofthe narratives on the movie. It alsoshows the amount of fun we had com-pleting the project.

Finally, the video was duplicatedfor sale. The Newhalen Cultural Heri-tage Project, A Culture In Motion, canbe purchased through the NewhalenTribal Council for $15.00 per copy.Contact Joanne Wassillie, VillageAdministrator, Newhalen TribalCouncil, P.O. Box 207, Newhalen, AK99606. Phone: (907) 571-1410, fax:(907) 571-1537. The proceeds will gointo a fund to continue the partner-ships, school curriculum and mostimportantly, collection, documenta-tion and preservation of cultural ma-terials and archaeological sites.

I don’t think you can watch thevideo without realizing the educa-tional cross-curricular value theproject contained. The elements ofrelevance, choice and creativity madeit more meaningful than the tradi-tional classroom. The school/commu-nity partnership involved in thisproject greatly enhanced the existingrelations with the village and the class-room, school and Lake and PeninsulaSchool District. It has provided coop-eration and a better channel of com-munication. I have never beeninvolved in a project that has beenmore fulfilling.

Subsistence and Contaminantsby Tauni Rodgers, Jeff Dickson, Molly Patton and Larry Duffy

Several years ago Elders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K)drainages wondered if metals such as mercury posed a health

threat to Delta residents. They knew mercury could accumulatein bottom feeding fish such as lush fish or predatory fish likepike. Mercury has always been present in the environment.Mercury can be found in the environment from (1) globaldistribution of industrial wastes through the atmosphere and (2)point sources, such as erosion of geological deposits and miningactivity.

Senka Paul, a former University ofAlaska Fairbanks (UAF) student whoworks as a grant writer for TribalServices, obtained a small grant fromthe National Institute of Healththrough the University of Washing-ton Ecogenetics Center to beginbaseline measurements. Collectionsites for freshwater fish were at fish-ing and ice-fishing sites in the Y-Krivers with subsistence users donat-ing fish for the study. The collectionof fish was managed by the Y-K HealthCorporation Office of EnvironmentalHealth and Engineering (OEHE).

Results of this preliminary studyhave given state and federal officialsmore information to design futurestudies. Of the sixty-six fish sampled,sixteen (mostly pike) were foundabove the 0.2 parts per million (ppm)level of concern set by the Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA). Butthese results are below the Food andDrug Administration (FDA) standardsof 1.0 ppm and lower than most mer-cury levels of fish found in the lower48 states. It’s believed a diet consist-ing of large fish (greater than 20 inches)eaten twice a week is not a cause forconcern. The main concern of neuro-scientists and toxicologists for the lev-els of mercury observed in a few of thefish in this study is on the develop-

ment of a healthy human fetus. Themost sensitive time is during the firstthree months of pregnancy (first tri-mester). Pregnant women should notworry about eating pike. At this timeit is not recommended eating largepike seven days a week.

It is not known how much mer-cury is passed on to humans. Physi-cians within the Y-K HealthCorporation are working with the CDCin Atlanta, Georgia to address thisissue. It should be noted that there islikely a positive effect from eatingfish oils. Studies have shown fish oilsblock the uptake of mercury. Thereare many interactions between dietand mercury absorption, with fishprotein, Vitamin E and Vitamin C pos-sibly modifying the toxicity.

About the AuthorsTauni Rodgers is the lab supervi-

sor for OEHE in Bethel, Alaska. LarryDuffy coordinates the Partners-in-Sci-ence program for the Alaska RuralSystemic Initiative and is a member ofUAF’s Department of Chemistry andBiochemistry. Molly Patton is an En-vironmental Health Specialist withTanana Chiefs Conference inFairbanks. Jeff Dickson is a PublicHealth Service (PHS) sanitarian work-ing for the Yukon-Kuskokwim HealthCorporation, OEHE in Bethel.


will not be able to teach and shareyour information with someone un-less you yourself experience and prac-tice it.” He shared that observationafter many years of hunting while hewas looking back at some of the hunt-ing implements he had made in hisearlier years. At the time, he thoughtthey were good. But examining themnow, he found them inferior and im-perfect. His many years of experienceand practice were not reflected in thisearlier work. He emphasized that ex-perience and practice bring about anunderstanding— an educated under-standing—that brings other experi-ences and practices together.

Why is it that when we, the Nativepeople, bring up the idea of teachingthe local indigenous culture in theschool, we still hear comments like,“They should just teach it at home ifthey think it is so important.” Manyof the things we want our children tolearn we, as Native parents, haven’tlearned. So how can we teach thecultural knowledge that we feel isimportant to our children when wehave not been taught these thingsourselves?

Many educators or even commu-nity members do not realize that wehave a generation of parents who havenot had the opportunity to engage inactivities that would make their cul-ture more meaningful to them. Theysense that it is important and knowthat it is something that will help theirown children gain a better under-standing of who they are. They see itand hear about it, but since they havenot experienced and practiced it them-selves, they are not able to pass it on.

Therefore we, as educators at theuniversity and public school levels,

have an added responsibility—theresponsibility of educating those whomissed out on these traditional learn-ing opportunities. Those of us whohave had the opportunities to be edu-cated by our Yup’ik Elders need topass the information on. We need toexplore ways we can share this infor-mation with those who want it, but donot have the financial capacity to payfor workshops or university-spon-sored classes. Many people do nothave the financial capacity to pay thetuition costs or participate in a pro-gram that will once again educatethem in their own cultural practices,so we need to seek other avenues.

Traditional Yup’ikLearning

Let’s take a look at a traditionalYup’ik learning situation. In the past,the Yup’ik people learned a lot byparticipating and observing. This doesnot imply passive observing as de-fined in the Webster Dictionary (towatch attentively), but rather immers-ing yourself in the activity. This couldbe with immediate family or extendedfamily members or at the communitylevel. Consider the following sce-narios:

Scene 1A young girl plays near her motheras her mother is making a squirrelparka. She is playing with her dolls.Her mother gives her some scrapsof fur to make a simple piece ofclothing for her doll. She tries herhand at sewing with her mothershowing her how to thread, tomake a knot and doing the firstfew stitches for her as she observes(this time the Webster definition is

valid.) Then she finishes what hermother started and has her helpwith tying the knot.

Scene 2The young girl is outside playingwith a few older girls as well asgirls her own age. They are allseated in a circle each with a yaruin(a story knife) and are taking turnstelling a story. She watches as theother girls draw a squirrel parkadetailing all the parts of the parka,sharing the stories and meaningbehind each design and pattern.She also draws as she watches andlistens. When it is her turn, she ishelped by the other girls.

Scene 3The young girl is with her motherand father at a gathering and ob-serves and listens. She notices thather mother and father greet cer-tain people as relatives. She no-tices that the parkas that they wearare all similar. One part of theparka stands out as the importantsymbol that signifies relationships.She also notices that those with themost similar designs are invited tothe home as overnight guests.

Scene 4The young girl is a little older andagain sits with her mother as shesews a parka. The girl indicates toher mother that she would like tomake a small parka for her dolldetailing some of the family pat-terns. The mother shares with herthe most significant part of theparka design, then shows her howto make it and has her make one forher doll.These scenes are played out over-

and-over again until the young girlhas reached marriageable age. She hasall this knowledge, experience andpractice which she brings to her earlyyears of marriage and now, with herown family, continues the cycle.

Yup’ik Region, con’t.

(Knowledge, continued from front page)


Education andWestern Influence

To what degree has traditionalYup’ik education been influenced bythe Western world? Let’s take a lookat the following scenarios:

Scene 1A child is playing at home near hermother. Her mother is working ona parka. But the child and motherare both distracted by the televi-sion. The child is playing with aBarbie doll or other manufactureddoll. This doll doesn’t need home-made clothes. All the clothes arepre-made.

Scene 2The child is playing with otherchildren at a preschool. They havepuzzles and other toys they areplaying with. They are acting outroles they see within the commu-nity: going to church, going to abirthday party or even going shop-ping at the local store. A teacher issharing stories, showing the chil-dren different social skills. She hasthe children participate in art ac-tivities and reinforces certain typesof behaviors. The teacher modelsthe behaviors that she expects ofthe children.

Scene 3The child is with her mother andfather at a gathering. She observesand listens. She notices that hermother and father greet certainpeople as relatives. But all thepeople at this gathering are dressedin Western clothing. She makes anassumption that certain people arerelated to her based only on howher parents greet these people.

Scene 4As the child gets older, she enrollsin the local school. Her whole dayand many evenings are spent at

the school. She rarely spends timeat home and when she is at home,she’s doing homework or watch-ing television.Western education and influence

have taken over the responsibility forraising these children. It is no longerthe mothers, parents and even peerssharing and teaching each other. Ithas been replaced by another methodof learning. No wonder there is a“gap” between the parents and thechildren. Neither of the participantsknows what the other is doing. Theparents want their children to learnand understand certain things fromtheir own culture, but the school isnot teaching these skills.

Let’s take my own personal expe-riences as an example. I grew up andwas educated within the school set-ting. My parents knew that educationwas important for survival, but theyhad little idea what was being taughtin school—only a vague understand-ing. They knew that reading, writingand mathematics were all very impor-tant. They assumed that some of thethings they were doing at home werebeing taught at school, such as the artof cooking and preparing food. Butlittle did they know that the foodpreparation that was taught had verylittle to do with how food was pre-pared in the home.

My father first came to that real-ization when my mother was not hometo prepare food he caught. I was homewhen he came back from huntingwith a couple of ducks in hand andasked me to prepare them for the nextmeal. I had, as a young girl before Istarted school, observed my motherand tried my hand at plucking birds,so that part was easy. But when itcame to cutting up the bird, I had noprior knowledge. I may have ob-served, but did not have the opportu-nity to experience or practice it. Sothere I was, afraid to admit my igno-rance to my father, I cut up this poorduck. I literally chopped it up to make

some soup and threw the rest away.When the soup was done, my fathercame in to dish himself up, while Iquickly made myself scarce, butwithin earshot. I heard him mutterunder his breath, “Oh my God! Whatdo they teach in school? This poordaughter of mine does not even knowhow to properly cut up a simple littlebird. How will this poor creature live.She has no respect for this poor bird.”

DocumentingTraditional Yup’ikKnowledge

Interviewing is the most popularway of collecting and documentingtraditional Yup’ik knowledge. Theinterview process has many differentvariations. For example, public schoolteachers have students interview El-ders on subject areas that they areinterested in. This process is usuallyteacher-directed and, most often, theinformation gathered is limited due tobarriers in communication. Univer-sity students also collect informationby interviews and these again areusually teacher-directed. Dependingon the interest and background of thestudents participating in these ses-sions, they usually contain more orless detailed information. There arealso research groups that are com-prised of Elders, professional educa-tors and paraprofessionals who meetand gather together to document tra-ditional knowledge. They use a formof interviewing where Elders and edu-cators bounce information off oneanother. This method of interviewingbrings about more detailed informa-tion which is further discussed indepth by the participants. But eventhis process does not take into consid-eration the type of information thatwould be collected and documentedif the participants were able to actu-ally experience it.


1 0 S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S

For example, there is an art togathering the edible roots from bushmice. You hear about how mouse foodis gathered. You learn that it is gath-ered during a certain part of a season.You may even have the opportunityto see it, but you have not had theopportunity to engage in this activityto see how it is done. It is like lookinginto another world, because whenquestions are asked of the Elders, theyshare what they know, but in manycases they forget to share significantdetails because they assume everyonealready knows those things.

On one such occasion, we inter-viewed and recorded as much infor-mation as we could about edible mousefood from our Elders: what the namesof the edible roots were, what theymight taste like, the process used inpreparing them for meals and evenhaving the Elders attempt to drawwhat the roots and tubers looked like.It was then decided that we should goout and gather these edible roots.

During the field trip we, the stu-dents, observed the Elders in action.They knew exactly where to go and

(continued from previous page) we followed. We observed as theylooked for a certain area with thetypes of plants that they knew themice would cache. Then they wouldlook into the grass. When questioned,they said, “Oh, we’re looking for tell-tale signs of mice. You see they havelittle roads in the grass.” So we, thelearners, looked and to our amaze-ment saw all these little highways.Then they started taking little stepsand moving up and down. When ques-tioned, they said, “Oh, we are feelingfor a spongy area. If it feels spongy itmight be the mouse nest or it might bethe food cache.” Then, when a mousecache was found, the tools were takenout: an uluaq, a bag and even somebits of dried fish and crackers. Thenest had to be cut in a special way sothat the Elders would be able leave itas naturally as they had found it.After the edible roots were taken theywere replaced with dried fish andcracker crumbs and thanks was given.In this way they shared more detailedinformation that was not initially evi-dent during the interviews.

In experiencing and practicing thegathering of edible mouse food, we

were able to document a great dealmore information then we would haveif we had just relied on the inter-views. We, as educators, had acquiredinformation that was validated by ourown experience and practice. Whenlearning passively from our Elders,we are able to bring only limited in-formation and insights back into theclassroom, but through participationin the actual field activity, the infor-mation takes on much greater validityand meaning.

Sharing Yup’ikKnowledge

As teachers and educators, we areresponsible for sharing the informa-tion we gather with students whowant to learn more about their cul-ture, as well as with other individualswho are within the present schoolsystem and community. What avenuesare available to share such informa-tion so that others may also benefitfrom this knowledge?

There are many new materials be-ing developed for integration into theschool environment that address theapproaches to the teaching describedabove. Specific ideas and suggestionsare outlined in the Alaska Standardsfor Culturally Responsive Schools, avail-able through the Alaska Native Knowl-edge Network/Alaska Rural SystemicInitiative (AKRSI). One of the initia-tives of the AKRSI involves imple-menting “Native Ways of Knowing”into school teaching practices, includ-ing documenting traditional culturalknowledge and incorporating it intothe curriculum using experientialmethods. As a result of this initiative,many new materials are now beingdeveloped and integrated into theregular classroom. Schools are begin-ning the process of becominggrounded within the local culture.

We, as Elders, educators and teach-ers, are very optimistic that the edu-cational environment within the

“This is how to pull back the earth (ground).” L to R Elder Henry Alakayuk, Sr. ofManokotak, Elder Helen Toyukuk of Manokotak, and UAF student assistantVirginia Andrew of Aleknajik.

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Western schools will change so thatlearning will fit the needs of the stu-dents; so that the teachers cominginto the area will have an understand-ing of and sensitivity to the localculture and so that we will begin tosee some positive changes for ourpeople and communities. One areathat has been overlooked, however, isthe education of the generation whoare presently the parents—about theirown culture and traditional roles andresponsibilities in child-rearing. Thisis especially critical for those who hadto leave home to attend a boardingschool—how do we begin to bringtheir heritage back to them?

Collecting KnowledgeInto Action

The Ciulistet Research Association,working through the Bristol Bay Cam-pus in Dillingham, has begun to ad-dress these issues and concerns. TheNative educators who make up theCiulistet Research Association comefrom the two main districts within theBristol Bay area: Dillingham CitySchools and Southwest RegionSchools. It was decided that one of theways to begin to address these con-cerns and issues was to present publicworkshops. This would serve as a

means of educating the public with-out cost to the participants. We wouldnot only serve the needs of our people,but also people from other culturalgroups. It was also decided that wewould seek funding from the AlaskaState Council on the Arts, which fundsartist and educational workshops.Money was obtained to pay honorari-ums for two Elders to assist us withthe workshop.

The community workshop, whichis just getting underway, is designed

to model, as close as possible, theCiulistet method of collecting infor-mation—that is bringing together El-ders with professional educators andinviting the children and people fromthe general public to participate. Toattract educators, the workshop isbeing offered as a university-levelcourse through the Bristol Bay Cam-pus. By involving the educators, wehope to narrow the communicationgap between the school and commu-nity. All of this is to be reinforcedthrough opportunities for firsthandexperience and practice in the knowl-edge and skills that are being shared—out where the mice make the highwaysin tundra.

Our vision is that the informationpresented at the workshop will gen-erate interest among the parents, com-munity members and teachers, thuscreating a domino effect in educa-tion—teachers teaching the ideas andthemes in the classroom, while theparents and community membersshare the information with their ownchildren as well as others in the com-munity.

It truly is an exciting time ineducation!

“Here is the mouse trail.”

“Pull back the grass to get to the mouse cache.”

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I asked a friend, “How long have the whaling celebrations beengoing on?” She replied “From time immemorial.” When the

whaling captains and the crews are successful in harvestingwhales, their labor of love and giving is celebrated. Before theinvention of modern means of transportation, runners were sentas messengers, inviting other communities to the celebration.The gifts from the whale are shared with others.

The whaling captains and the crewshost their Nalukataq in June. Prior tothe celebration, they prepare mikigaqand maktak. The strips of whale meatand maktak are aged and served at thefeast. The maktak, flippers and tailare stored in the sigluaq, where theyare preserved by freezing. The whalemeat is frozen as quaq. Fresh frozentongue and meat are cooked by boil-ing and then served. Other parts ofthe whale that are edible are also pre-pared for the feast.

The celebration is opened with aprayer of thanksgiving. The whalingcrew and servers hold hands to givethanks to the Creator. The gatheringof people are warmly welcomed. Thefirst course is a delicious soup, bread,crackers and doughnuts. A completecourse is served. Elementary school-age children serve coffee, tea, sugar

and cream. After the meal, theNalukataq begins. Many young peopleand adults take turns on the blankettoss. Many hold bags of candy, furs,cloth (material), and when they aresuspended in the air they toss them tothe crowd. After the Nalukataq, an-other part of the whale is shared.Whenever a course is served, thosewho are not present at the celebrationare also given food. For instance,maktak, avatraq or cut parts of theflippers are shared with everyone.Many return home with gifts from thecelebration including its delicacies.After a whole day of feasting andblanket tossing, the celebration endsin the evening with Iñupiaq dancing.

Living the subsistence way of life,incorporating the Iñupiat values ofsharing and respect of others and re-spect for animals and the environ-

Iñupiaq Region:Nalukatagvik—A Gathering forCelebration and Blanket Tossfor a Successful Whaling Season

by Elmer Jackson

When the whaling captains and the crews are successfulin harvesting whales, their labor of love and giving iscelebrated.“

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ment are elements of the culture—these are sacred to the Iñupiat.

Iñupiat in other coastal communi-ties also celebrate and give thanks

after a successful whaling season.Many land and sea mammals, fowl,fish, berries and edible and medicinalplants are harvested from the landand waters. A successful harvest offood ensures the survival of the Iñupiatheritage. Subsistence is the Iñupiatindigenous right. Our forefathers pro-tected the land and waters—that iswhy we are still able to gather andharvest the fruits of the land.

Living thesubsistence way oflife, incorporatingthe Iñupiat values ofsharing and respectof others and respectfor animals and theenvironment areelements of theculture—these aresacred to the Iñupiat.

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AISES Corner (American Indian Science and Engineering Society)

by Claudette Bradley-Kawagley

Village Science/AISES Initiative has expanded over fourregions. Iñupiat and Athabascan students attended the

Fairbanks AISES Science Camp held in July at Howard Luke’sGaalee’ya Spirit Camp on the Tanana River; Kodiak studentsattended AISES Science Camp in Afognak, also in July; Aleutstudents attended camp in August in St. George; and Tlingitstudents attended camp at Dog Point in Sitka, girls in July andboys in August.

The Fairbanks AISES Science Campoperated for the third summer with19 middle school students from An-chorage, Buckland, Barrow, Beaver,Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, Galena,Kotzebue, Minto, Manley Hot Springsand Fairbanks. Our staff included fiveElders: Howard Luke, Margaret Tritt,Elizabeth Fleagle, Jonathan David andFred Alexander; five Teachers: RitaO’Brien, George Olanna, Maria Reyes,Todd Kelsey and Claudette Bradley;four resident advisors: Dean Meili,Marilyn Woods, Adrienne Benally andDonna Foray; and one Artist-in-Resi-dent: Travis Cole.

The Elders talked to students aboutthe old days, told stories, familiarizedstudents with Athabascan languageand cultural ways and helped stu-dents make crafts. Margaret Tritt ofArctic Village worked with studentsto tan eight caribou skins. JonathanDavid of Minto took students into theforest to find cottonwood, which theyneeded to carve spoons and little ca-noes and boats. Fred Alexander gaveAthabascan language lessons, told sto-ries of the old ways and had studentsmake a fish trap. Elizabeth Fleagle ofManley Hot Springs had students mak-ing beautiful beaded tops for mocca-sins or gloves. Howard Luke taughtthe students to respect Elders, thecamp and each other.

Teachers worked hard with stu-dents. Rita O’Brien, a science teacherat Ryan Middle School in Fairbanks,developed a canoe series of lessonswhich she extended into a lesson onvectors. She took students into theforest to collect spruce roots. All stu-dents worked to strip the bark fromthe roots and to split and dye the rootsin preparation for sewing the birchbark canoe pattern pieces. When thecanoes were finished, the studentsstudied vectors under Rita’s well-

planned lecture and hands-on col-laborative experiment. Students timedand measured the distance of a float-ing orange in the Tanana River tounderstand the forces on a canoe trav-eling in the Tanana.

Todd Kelsey is an IBM employee ofRochester, Minnesota. He was respon-sible for the donation of sixThinkpads™ and a color printer usedat the camp by the students to analyzedata collected and to develop displayboards for science projects. This sum-mer was Todd’s second year at thecamp. He came to the camp for oneweek, set up the computer lab in theElder’s Hall, helped students use thecomputers and taught math and sci-ence lessons.

George Olanna, a Native fromShismaref, has taught K–12 for over20 years. George is passionately inter-ested in science. He has a special inter-est in the Northern Lights and

Elder Jonathan David demonstrates wood carving to resident advisor Dean Meili.



arranged a field trip with Neal Brown,a former UAF physics professor, toPoker Flats, the rocket launch facilityfor the University used to study theNorthern Lights. George took care ofthe solar panel battery generatorswhich supplied the electricity to ourcomputers. He worked with Toddduring the first week and inheritedTodd’s classes during the secondweek.

Maria Reyes is an assistant profes-sor of education at UAF. She assistedstudents in finding research informa-tion on their science projects usingthe Internet at Rasmusen Library onthe UAF campus. She also counseledstudents on interviewing the Elders.Students were required to write atleast five interview questions abouttheir project. The information gath-ered from the Elders was added to thebackground information along withthe information found on the Internet.Marie had students write a bibliogra-phy of information gathered from theliterature, Elders and experts theyused.

Claudette Bradley is an associateprofessor of education at UAF. Shewas site coordinator, but also workedwith students on projects. She helpedstudents use software to create spread-sheets for recording data and alsocharts and graphs for data collected.

All five teachers workedcollaboratively with each other andwith students to develop a researchquestion, hypothesis and a researchmethod. Support staff, Dixie Dayoand DeAnn Moore, gathered researchmaterials for the students. Residentadvisors accompanied students whoneeded to attend the Department ofNatural Resources, Fish and Game andthe UAF museum and library. Profes-sor Larry Duffy, chairman of the BioChemistry Department, sent chemis-try supplies that included hydrochlo-ric acid, litmus paper, test tubes andgraduated cylinders.

(continued from previous page) Some students finished theirprojects and will continue to do morelibrary research and write a report fortheir project in preparation for thescience fairs to be held during theschool year. Other students will have

to continue their data collection intheir village and also write a report.All students had their display boardready for viewing at the potlatch heldon the last full day of the camp. Allstudents explained their scienceprojects to the staff and guest attend-ing the potlatch. See below for a list ofprojects and students.

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Fairbanks AISES Camp Projects◆ Do Elders Estimate (Number of Beads for Beaded Design) Better? Kristen

John of Fort Yukon

◆ Birds in Howard Luke Camp: Liz Yatlin of Beaver

◆ How to Soothe Mosquito Bites, Willow vs. Ammonia: Crystal Gross ofBarrow

◆ Golden Ratio: Tamara Thomas of Fort Yukon

◆ Has the Salmon Population Decreased in 20 Years?: Pat Campbell ofFairbanks

◆ Can We Determine Age of a Bull Moose by Counting the Points on theAntlers? Gerald John of Arctic Village

◆ Soil Erosion: Matthew Thurmond of Galena

◆ Color Blindness in Cats: Jordan Baker of Minto

◆ What Medicine Plants Will Cure the Common Cold?: Agnes Kallman ofAnchorage

◆ Spruce Beetles: Kristopher John of Fort Yukon

◆ Acid Rain: Eilene Frank of Minto

◆ Evaporation of Water: Matthew Shewfelt of Fort Yukon

◆ Golden Ratio: Roseanne Cadzow of Fort Yukon

◆ Heat Waves: Charlene Kallman of Anchorage

◆ Log Cabin Demonstration: Travis Woods of Fort Yukon

◆ Which is Warmer: Wolf Fur or Caribou Fur?: Lee Hadley of Buckland

◆ Does Spruce or Birch Retain Heat Better?: Michael Settle of Galena

◆ Which Soil is Most Effective With Plants: Potting Soil,Riverbank Soil or Forest Soil?: Leila Smith of Kotzebue

◆ Medicine Plants: Kobi Grutler of Manley Hot Springs


The plan was to have each projectscientifically sound and incorporateElders’ knowledge in the backgroundinformation. In addition, some stu-dents asked Elders to identify one ofmore of the variables they were totest. For example, Liz Yatlin asked theElders to name the birds that flyaround Howard Luke camp beforeshe consulted a bird atlas to identifythe birds she was observing. CrystalGross asked the Elders what remedythey would use to soothe mosquitobites and the Elders said they woulduse ground up willow leaves. Shecompared that remedy with a com-mercial variety.

Brad Wyiouanna of Shishmaref isa “High Kick” World Eskimo-IndianOlympics’ (WEIO) athlete. He visitedour camp one evening and gave aWEIO game demonstration for thestudents. He invited students to trysome of the events and everyone en-joyed participating. This prepared thestudents for attending WEIO on thelast evening, where students watchedBrad compete for the gold metal andobserved the dynamic blanket-tossevent.

Travis Cole of Alakaket was theartist-in-residence. He writes poetry,draws realistic sketches of trees, ani-

Students and instructors are hard at work in the computer lab in the Elders’ Hall. Lto R: Jordan Baker, Claudette Bradley-Kawagley, Lee Hadley and George Olanna.

mals and nature scenes and dances,sings and drums Athabascan songs.He is a powerful leader and role modelfor the students. The students lookforward to his Athabascan dancingsessions where he taught the properNative way to sing and dance. Ourstudents learned well and are wellprepared to dance at the FairbanksAISES Science Fair.

Travis also worked as a residentadvisor. Four other resident advisorswere Dean Meili of Palmer, MarilynWoods of Manley Hot Springs,Adrienne Benally of Boulder, Colo-rado and Donna Foray of Boulder,Colorado. The 19 students were di-vided into five family groups withone resident advisor as head of house-hold. Each night the family groupsmet to talk and write in their journals.Every day each family had one of fivemajor chores to take care of: collect-ing water, collecting firewood, wash-ing dishes, cleaning the latrines orcleaning the camp grounds.

During field trips each residentadvisor was responsible for their fam-ily group. They had to stick togetherand watch out for one another. Thefield trips included attending WEIO,the movie theater, a tour through theUAF Large Animal Farm, a day trip to

Poker Flats and a visit to the UAFmuseum.

For recreation, students playedvolleyball and organized a volleyballtournament. Some students were ableto swim for a short while at HammePool. Some students had Hackey Sackswhich they shared with others.

For spiritual well-being of every-one in the camp we had three eve-nings with talking circles. Two ofthose evenings we had male and fe-male circles. Mike Tanner, a minister,came each Sunday morning to deliveran outdoor Christian service.

The Village Science/AISES Initia-tive plans to have six local Nativescience fairs in the coming academicyear in the following communities:Kotzebue, Barrow, Fairbanks, OldHarbor, St. Paul and Juneau. Each fairwill have two sets of judges: teachers/scientists will judge projects for theirresearch method and presentation;Elders will judge projects for theirvalue to the Native culture and vil-lage life. Each fair will have a celebra-tion appropriate for the Native cultureof its region.

The best projects will be sent to astatewide Native science fair nearAnchorage in February 2000. Eightprojects from the statewide fair willhave the opportunity to enter AISESNational Science Fair 2000 to be heldin Minnesota.

The staff of the Alaska Rural Sys-temic Initiative has been discussingthe possibility of having a winter campfor students to learn winter survivalskills. Village teachers in each of thefour regions will be invited to attendmonthly audioconference meetings.We shall discuss the feasibility of hav-ing a winter camp and the optimaltime for such a camp. In addition, weshall plan for the science fairs in thecoming academic year. We are en-couraging all teachers to attend theaudioconference meetings and to ex-tend these opportunities to the stu-dents in your school.


Village Science: They Won’t Get It . . .by Alan Dick

I was working as part of a curriculum development group. Inaddition to our other work, we were asked to devise a good

icon to represent the combination of physics and chemistry.Immediately the image of a campfire came to my mind. Photosyn-thesis converts the sun’s energy to chemical energy. That storedchemical energy in the wood is released to produce light, heatand even a little sound.

I shared my thought. Immediatelysomeone said, “But they won’t get it.”I had to agree. Most people wouldn’tsee the connection. I let it pass. Thegroup tried to combine a test tubewith an atomic symbol. It seemeddistorted.

Later, a giant “NO!” screamedaloud within me. Of course they won’tget it. They are so out of touch withreality. A campfire is a perfect symbolof the combination of chemistry andphysics. However, most people are soremoved from the basics of life theycannot relate to something so mean-ingful and so important as a campfire.

Our jobs have little or no connec-tion with the meeting of our needs.We sign a check and our house iswarm. If the house is still cold, we diala thermostat or a repair man. That isour connection to reality?

A campfire is real. The fire keeps

us from perishing in the winter. Itdispels the trembling of hypothermiaafter a rainy day of hunting in a boat.It sucks mosquitoes in its updraft inthe summer. It keeps predators at adistance. Its radiance penetrates toour bones heating them as well as oursouls. It is a friend that dispels thedemon of loneliness. The fire is thecenter of the camp, a focal point. Ev-erything happens around the fire:cooking, drying, planning, stories,the first cup of coffee of the day andthe last “good night” of the evening.

The campfire isn’t always conve-nient. We circle it, with our eyesstreaming tears from the smoke. Theflames scorch our fingers as we re-move the coffee pot. It chars our dampsocks as we attempt to dry them on astick. It needs constant tending. Thesmell clings to our clothes and hair.This is reality.

“They won’t get it.” They need toget it! NASA needs to get it. MIT andStanford need to get it. How can weaward Ph.Ds to people who cannotmake a campfire in the rain?

It is not enough to go to a parkwith lighter fluid and a bag of char-coal. That is counterfeit.

You owe yourself a campfire. Do itsoon before you forget. Go far out inthe woods. Spend the night. Don’t bein a rush. Watch the fire. Watch thecolors, the shape, the constantchanges. You can think of the cova-lent bonds and the chemical reactionsoccurring, wondering which elementsare residual as ash and which onesarise as smoke. You can think of con-vection, conduction and radiation andthe fluid relationship between chem-istry and physics, matter and energy.

Better yet, sit by the fire, andthink of your ancestors who sat by anidentical fire. Time vanishes for amoment. Think of them and theirworld, their perceptions. Try to con-nect with their thoughts, dreams andaspirations as you feed the flames astick at a time. Watch the shape, colorand strength of the fire change. Sipthe ultimate cup of coffee flavoredlike no espresso stand could ever imi-tate. Make a promise that you will dothis again soon. Then keep it.

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