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Click on an outlined section below to listen to
audio.
1) Introduction, background, and how he was influenced as a young person.
Savoonga\ parents\ grandfather -- died\ clan system -- community\ NATIVE NAME -- group\ St. Lawrence Island\ society -- clans\ CLAN NAMES -- \ system -- separate who you are and connects you to other members in the community|
family oriented\ uncles -- raise young men\ hunting\ values\ uncles -- discipline\ father -- gave some leeway\ child -- given and raised by grandmother\ grandparents -- raised him as their own child\ family -- lived in same house as his birth parents\ siblings\ values\ Eskimo stories\ influence\ spirituality\ value system\ grandkids\ Sitka\ going away to school expanded view|
3) Learning to be independent and having a spiritual connection to the land.
grandmother -- missed her passing away\ independent\ Western ways\ spiritual connection\ grandmother -- hauled green with her\ listen to the whispers of the grass\ open your ears\ hear sound you normally don't listen to\ squirrels\ trees snapping in the cold\ world -- fast pace\ don't listen -- don't hear|
4) Elders (uncles) that had an influence on him.
uncles -- taught by them\ hunting\ Tooley, Jimmy\ Savoonga\ assigned to hunting boat\ skin boat\ patience\ discipline\ observing others\ teach -- what was going on\ hands on teaching\ participating\ Pungowiyi, Donald -- uncle\ knowledge -- community involvement\ learn -- work ethics\ responsible\ honest\ respect others|
5) Going to school and the two teachers that had an influence on him.
teachers\ influence\ Charles, Dr. Ray\ encouragement\ intelligent\ reinforcement\ McGloughlin, Russell -- taught other skills\ Boy Scouts -- Savoonga\ tie knots\ fire\ missionaries\ Green, Alice\ kids -- most quit school\ high school diploma\ Sheldon Jackson -- Presbyterian school\ Sheldon Jackson school -- accepted there\ educational background|
6) Are young people following your path today?
academia\ connect to young people\ need opportunity\ system\ lack of volunteering information\ young people -- some are learning\ teachings -- you recall them when you are older\ seed -- planted in his sons, daughters, and grandchildren\ seed -- comes to fruitation years later|
7) How have the Inupiaq people learned to deal with climatic variability?
adaptation to cold area\ develop systems\ harpoons\ kayaks\ igloos\ clothing\ cold climate\ slow change -- adapt\ abrupt change -- years of hardships\ warming trend\ resources available -- adapt through change\ starvation -- effect immediate\ temperature change -- dress, undress\ physical changes\ historical changes -- stories\ hardship\ years of plenty -- not many stories\ legends and traditions\ extreme cold\ harvesting animals -- preventing|
8) Stories of two winters and other hardships.
summer never came\ ice stayed around\ hardship\ starvation\ people blamed hunters who may have tortured animals\ nature -- gets revenge for lack of respect\ walrus -- two men tortured\ recent history -- not too many stories\ over harvesting -- caused hardship to local communities\ hardship stories -- not weather related\ exploitation of resources|
9) Yearly cycle, how people see the seasons change, and what indicators they look for. Part 2
moons\ months -- named after what events occur to signify a change\ February -- seals, ugruks, start having fetus formed\ April -- give birth to the young\ May -- river starts forming in the streams, plant/ June -- women gather green leaves\ rose buds\ willow leaves\ July -- catch different kinds of fish\ August -- pick berries, gather different things for fall-time\ September -- ice forms on ponds, rivers\ ground -- turning brown\ October -- month of crossing\ lakes -- frozen and thick enough to cross\ November -- daylight getting short\ December -- sunset\ sun sits down\ activities in the months -- becomes the name of the month\ month -- dictates what you do|
10) Lumping months together in term of seasons and activities sometimes occur earlier due to the climate change.
four seasons\ transitional periods\ names of months\ May -- streams breaking up\ late April\ birds coming back earlier\ Elders\ Savoonga\ connection\ snow bunting birds\ eggs hatch\ observations\ snowbirds -- eggs hatch earlier\ mergs -- lay eggs earlier|
11) Advice to educators and how they can incorporate the knowledge into the classroom.
break out of the box\ examine the system\ expand our knowledge\ bible verse\ be wise\ ants\ tunnels\ workers\ open our eyes\ greater meaning|
12) Places of significant cultural value.
Alaska Natives\ religious faith\ classroom -- way we've been taught\ places of significance -- cultural value\ forgetting\ INUPIAQ NAME -- north wind\ fall-time\ ice\ seal\ walrus\ community -- could maintain its connection with nature\ island\ meaning\ place to pray to sea mammals\ hunters -- make sacrifices and pray to the spirits of the sea mammals\ coming season -- will be abundant to hunters\ prayer sites -- aren't recognized anymore\ protect resources\ places with colonies of birds\ places to net birds\ places -- forgot what they mean to our culture|
13) Weather and its effect on life and lots of people saying things aren't predictable.
Aunt Mabel Tooley\ Fish and Wildlife Service\ project -- gather local observations of weather changes\ St. Lawrence Island\ predict weather -- three days in advance through the stars, clouds\ hunting and travel -- safety depended on the weather\ weather systems-- so fast you can't predict anymore\ stars -- how fast they are twinkling\ telling time -- by the position of the stars\ method -- not taught anymore\ knowledge -- lost|
14) Advice for scientists and other people who want to learn local knowledge and how they might phrase their questions to the Elders to get that knowledge.
prompt a response -- give examples\ Elders\ memories of observations\ phrase questions\ prompt answers -- brings about the response you are seeking|
15) Compatibility of scientific and Native observations and knowledge.
documenting\ world -- depended on written documents\ Elders knowledge-- not truth until validated by scientists\ academia example -- St. Lawrence Island\ bird project\ local people -- knowledge about birds\ local knowledge -- validated when bioligist from Fish and Wildlife came\ Native people -- need to do some documentation|
16) Species of birds that were nested on St. Lawrence Island that were not previously recorded because someone for Western society did not go there to document them.
Native people -- record observations\ validation\ scientifically supported|
17) Recording of data: written versus oral.
oral history\ how people remember\ lose connection when on paper\ spiritual connection\ oral versus paper\ uneducated -- difficult to put down on paper what is in the mind\ lose train of thought\ real message -- missing\ translation -- message loss\ communicating orally|
18) Some people say the time is coming when Western technology and the world is no longer able to support the standard of living and lifestyle and people will need to turn to traditional knowledge.
support yourself off the land\ teach knowledge\ teaching -- not taught to be with nature\ survive -- from the land\ lost\ species\ earth\ insects\ micro organisms\ collapse\ what and who we are\ change our thinking|