Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law

continuous. Those who worked hardest to gather food and supplies had easier times than thosewho worked haphazardly, but of course, no one went hungry or without things they needed.These lazy ones were often visited by Elders and encouraged to do better next time.As children, we were watched and supervised by adults in the community. We werecorrected if we were to misbehave or act inappropriately. We were often fed by whicheverhousehold we happened to be at. If our parents or older siblings come looking for us, someonealways seemed to know where we’re at.The lifestyle in the villages has changed because of the influence of the Western worldthat came with their educational system, which has caused conflict with traditional family values.Of course the television brought the rest of the world into our homes, as have the Alaska NativeClaims Settlement Act, the Pipeline, Molly Hootch, 2 and all the other modern technology. Butour subsistence lifestyle has not changed except for the fact that the state and federal agencieshave brought their rules and regulations as to when we can hunt and fish. Some people from theOutside can’t seem to understand why we need to harvest or the importance of the subsistencelifestyle.For me, living a subsistence lifestyle is the very essence of who I am as a Yup’ik woman.I have continued to cut and clean fish, caribou, moose, or other games as my mother andgrandmothers and aunts have done for centuries. And living in a village has given me a sense ofbelonging, a sense of who I am, which has sustained me to this day. Oftentimes today so manyNative people are misplaced, like in the cities they become homeless, of course looking forcompany, or when they get lonesome they often end up in places where it’s not safe for them, andusually they end up drinking and drugging. People seem to have lost their sense of who they areand where they come from, or many of them have never learned, because they were placed infoster homes as children, and I think those are the people oftentimes who are very lost, becausethey have no sense of identity.I remember the time when I went back to Bethel, and during that time I reconnected withmy Elders and my people. I got back into that way of living again, even though it wasmodernized, but I still had that essence of who I was, who I had come from, and where Ibelonged. My children and I lived there for eight years, and while we lived there my children gotto know their relatives, all their relatives that were around. And what we did was, we built acommunity, a support system that was very satisfying, and my children recall those were thehappy times. I mean life was hard, but in all it was a pretty good life.Then in 1985 we moved to Anchorage to continue my college education. The first twoyears were a very hard time for us, because we no longer had that support system like we did inBethel. Even though we had friends and relatives, they were all scattered throughout the city, andeverybody was rushing, working, and too busy even to take the time to visit. So we really didn’thave that support system any more. It was a very difficult period. I think the first three or fouryears, and I think my children suffered from that, and to this day I’m really sorry that I broughtthem into the city. I think we would have been better off living in the village or living in Bethel.So that’s what happens a lot of times to people who move into a city. There’s no – in the citieswe lose that connectedness to other human beings. It’s very lonely living in a city, there are allkinds of people around us, but it’s a very lonely time.2See http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/law/mhootch_erq.html for information on this important courtcase that brought schools to most of Alaska’s rural villages.Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission - Page 2