Podcast by NANA
Natural Resources Summer 2022 Update by NANA
Natural Resources Intern, Tahayla Baker by NANA
Intern-to-Intern, Robert Sheldon II by NANA
Intern-to-Intern, Kaitlyn Theonnes by NANA
Intern-to-Intern, Madison Schaeffer by NANA
NANA Natural Resources Summer 2019 Projects Update by NANA
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
NANA Winter Update 2018, Wayne Westlake by NANA
NANA Summer Update 2018, Wayne Westlake by NANA
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Melinda Barr, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern
This is part of a series of stories shared by Elders from the NANA region. These are excerpts from their conversations with Hilda Narvauġauraq Haas, translated from Iñupiaq. My name is Thomas Pungalik. I am 82 now. I have lived in Noorvik all my life. My dad (aapa) was Jack Pungalik. My mom (aaka) was Cora Kaummuaq Coffin Pungalik. She grew up in Kobuk. My aapa was an orphan and when he small, he moved from family to family. He and my aaka had 18 children. I am number 16. People settled in Noorvik because the fish and wood were plentiful. I was born here in this house (#4), the fourth house in town, built in 1914. The stories I am about to tell are true. There was a boy whose shoulders were hoary marmot and his bottom half was beaver. He lived on a mountain where he could watch for other shaman (aŋatkuq). Two young men from the Upper Kobuk went looking for aŋatkuq. First they traveled by kayak, then they climbed the mountain where the hoary marmot lived. At the top, the men ate and fell asleep. One of them woke and saw that the other had been eaten by the hoary marmot and beaver. The man ran to the water, got in his kayak and traveled swiftly down the river. He stopped at an old lady’s cabin and told her he had been followed by the shaman’s watchdogs. She told him not to be afraid and to sleep. After he rested, she told him to not stop until he got home. The man told his friends about what had happened. He tried and tried, but he could not sleep. After two nights, the man died. This is a true story. I will tell another story. An old lady lived here (in Noorvik). She told us stories. She told us, shamans ruled, before anyone had heard God’s word. This was years ago. When she was young, her best friend (uumaa) took a young man as her husband. When the berries were ripe, they went out picking. The young wife vanished. Her husband looked and looked for her. When he finally found her, a year later, she told him she had been living in heaven where there was no suffering. She wanted to go back. So she died again and went back to heaven. Her name was Kadesh. I will tell you another story. This one is very short. A long time ago, five men went caribou hunting on the Upper Kobuk. They climbed a hill where, there had once been an avalanche. Only two had survived. The men put on snowshoes and climbed uphill, where the snow slides. When the snow started to go, the men went with it. When the snow takes you, you are supposed to shout out loud. You can stop moving snow by shouting. When one of the men yelled, the avalanche stopped. This is what I want people to know. This is what I heard.
Elder Interview: Mildred Black from Shungnak My name is Mildred Ulusik (?) Black. I was born in Shungnak in 1933 (?). When I was about six years old, my family moved upriver to our summer fish camp. It was named Kagiak (?). That fall, we did not return home because our big cabin in Shungnak caved in. For many years, we stayed at Kagiak year-round. We did not go into town at all. Later, we moved to Aayaluk (?) because it had a big sandbar. I had an older sister, Pearl, and an older brother, Joseph, and a younger sister, Nina. We would play by ourselves with whatever we had. We did not play all the time. We worked hard, but we had fun while working. At camp, I learned from our mom how to take care of fish and how to dry fish. The fish needs to be cleaned and scaled before you hang it on the rack to dry. It needs to be turned from the sun. When the fish is cut too thick, it does not dry. It will be raw. You have to watch it very carefully. In summer, my uncle would go to different places to check for berries. When he saw berries, here and there, we would go berry picking. We went by boat and we rowed, because we had nothing, no outboard motor and no gas. We had a hard time at camp. We were raised with almost nothing. My uncle had a monthly income of about $40 and that was all we had. We would sometimes go to Harry Brown’s store in Kobuk and buy supplies on credit. Until the 1940s, there were no caribou up that way. Then all of the sudden, they started to come. One day, a caribou came out of the water just below Kagiak. My uncle and Joseph were out hunting. Pearl looked for the gun, and found only one shell. With one shot, she shot the caribou down. We felt real lucky. That was the first time we ate caribou. In early winter, around November, Nina and I would set traps for tiġiaq (weasel) or rabbits. The next day, we would check the traps. We worked together. This is how we were raised. Long time ago, everyone spoke Iñupiaq. My parents only spoke Iñupiaq, only using English words to refer to something. In school, kids were learning how to speak English from the white teachers, but I had a hard time understanding English. I was about 17 years old when I went back to school, but I didn’t stay very long. I had nothing, no clothes and no food and no one to help me. It was lonely. But even without attending school, I was able to work. I started as a bilingual Iñupiaq substitute teacher, even without an education, working two hours a day. After they gave me more hours, it did not give me much time to go to my camp. Our ways have changed. The weather has changed. Even the air is different.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Cheyenne Ticket, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA's once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
This is part of series of interviews with NANA’s once shareholder interns, showcasing their professional journey and depicting how their experiences during their internship lead to benefit their success today.
NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern, Cheyenne Ticket, interviews NANA Management Services Marketing & Communications Intern, Krystin Bogan
NANA Development Corporatoin Shareholder Relations Intern, Cheyenne Ticket, interviews NMS Camp Services Inter, Liisia Marie Morris.
NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern, Cheyenne Ticket, interviews NANA Management Services HSSE Intern, Anne Walker.
Former intern, Kally Siñiqsraq Greene-Gudmundson interviews NANA shareholder intern Cheyenne Ticket to kick off the 2017 season. This is part of a series of interviews with interns, by Cheyenne Ticket, NANA Development Corporation Shareholder Relations Intern.
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