Bill: I wanted to kinda make sure that we got some suggestions down for kids that they could be involved in, so they could be involved in documenting yearly cycles and how that fits with what you just described in terms of the descriptions of each of the months. Did we get the names of the months down?

Sidney: Huh uh.

Bill: Maybe we should go through the names of each of the months and the environmental description of that so that we could then have the kids monitor that type of thing.

Kenneth: Mm hmm.

Bill: So let's go through them, if we could, as the last thing maybe go through the months so then we call it quits.

Kenneth: Yeah, all through those month they, in different area they call it different, different month, so I think mainly I'll tell from Venetie and Arctic Village I think. But Ft. Yukon, theirs is little different, from Chalkytsik too. Because they're in different environment uh? Different area? We call January, we call it ch'anjaa. Ch'anjaa mean, some people say is oldest month, but ch'anjaa mean too is, it mean, ____zhrii they call it. ___ mean like wedging out meat, like there's two meat frozen together, you put wedge in between it uh?

Bill: Oh, wedge.

Sidney: Oh, huh!

Kenneth: You hit it and it break apart, so like those hind legs, in January all those muscle are just puzzled together. If you got certain wedge, wedge you call it?

Bill and Sidney: Uh huh.

Kenneth: In between it, if you hit it it'll pop out piece by piece. And that's the name of that month. And February we call it veegwaadhat. Veegwaadhat mean pass over month. And then...

Sidney: And also wind month huh?

Kenneth: Ahtr'aii zhrii, wind month. And then March, we call it ch'izhin zhrii, golden eagle month. And then April, we call it ch'itreii zhrii, Ch'itreii mean the one that, one of the hawk months. The hawk is that, I think it's probably three-legged hawk or something, rough-legged hawk.

Sidney: And why would those months be named after those birds? Is it that...

Kenneth: That's when they come back.

Sidney: It is?

Kenneth: Uh huh.

Sidney: Wow!

Kenneth: That's when ch'izhin, ch'izhin, that's when they breed I think. Do they breed there?

Sidney: Doesn't that, that just seems early to me, but I don't know anything about when they....

Kenneth: Yeah, they come around about that time. Ch'izhin. And then May, we call it gwiluu zhrii. Gwiluu mean like at night, the snow melt during the day and at night they get cold and freeze over, get hard, that's mean gwiluu. Gwiluu zhrii. Long time ago they go out in their (rat camp??), they travel, going gwiluu they say. They could, you know, travel on top of frozen ice. And then June they call vananch'ii ghoo, mean month when duck eggs lay, lay eggs. July, they call that vananeets'anch'anzhii. Vananeets'anch'anzhii mean that the ducks they grow new feather. And then August, we call it di'ilii. Di'ilii mean I guess that caribou and moose, they have velvet on their horn. And then September is moose month, dinjik zhrii they call it. October is vadzaih zhrii, caribou month. November is divii zhrii, sheep month. December is ch'atsal, they call it. Ch'atsal mean it's a hard month, hardship, food are scarce and night is long, that's what it mean.

Sidney: So for September and October and November, moose, caribou and sheep, is that, are those the hunting months?

Kenneth: That's when they mating uh?

Sidney: Oh.

Kenneth: Moose, they mate in September, vadzaih is October, sheep is November. So that's why, that's how that month is put together like that. By...

Bill: Well, that's pretty interesting, I think that's something that the kids could pick up on and look at.

Kenneth: Mm hmm.

Bill: Then monitor.

Sidney: I've actually written, I wrote a curriculum for southeast along this line, and they had, their months of course pertain to their area. But the idea was the same, and they also had 13 originally too.

Kenneth: That, you know that, how they call that, that snipe? Snipe? That one bird that goes up in the sky, goes woo-woo-woo. When you hear that it's the first summer they say, in spring. When they hear that, I think it's the first summer I think, first day of summer. Summer start, they say. And then by watching the mosquito they know the bottom part of the summer, changing over, they watch the mosquito.

Bill: And what's the mosquito do when it changes?

Kenneth: I have no idea. I'll ask David one of these days.

Sidney: And what about spring? What's the sign for spring? Is there one?

Kenneth: I don't know. I know that that one part like in March or April one of the days get, just one day, just get warm real quick, you know? Really warm. That's when that bear, they turn over. They change over, you know? They sleep on one side long time? They get up and they turn over. Yeah, that's why it get warm they say. And then in fall time too, in fall they watch that crane. Crane, they go up like that on top of that community, fly around like that. When they're doing that there all that swallow, they go fly up in the air and they all flock with that crane. You know, they hitchhike uh? They get in their fur. After they all load up and then they start flying, that's how, when that crane does that, and then the swallow will be gone just that one day.

Sidney: Oh, so the swallow leaves, do the crane leave?

Kenneth: Uh huh, yeah.

Sidney: They both do, wow, how cool that is!

Kenneth: So the swallow kinda hitchhike I think, uh huh.

Sidney: Oh, I love this stuff!

Kenneth: Just like loading up a 747. Gotta get that seat uh? In spring too, when there's the caribou in our country they're waiting for the snow to get slushy uh? They get slushy and then the caribou start moving up to coastal plain. They wait for that slushy snow. Over something like 1, 2 days the caribou will be gone.

Bill: Why are they waiting for slushy snow?

Kenneth: I guess it's easy to travel, I guess.

Sidney: Seems like it was slick and icy. But see Ken, I think these would be really cool for kids to concentrate on. You know they could really be watching every season for markers that are important in the community. And really tuning their eyes and their senses to pay attention.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Sidney: And that would be, because like in our project we've got one of the signs of spring is green-up, you know, the leaves popping out and so there's this whole little measurement protocol that you do to pay attention to when they pop, you know. But, if when the leaves pop out isn't very important, or isn't the most important sign in Venetie, I mean in Arctic Village, then watching for whatever would be, that would be very cool, for kids to watch for the thing that makes sense there, you know?

Kenneth: Yeah, another thing, one time that James told me. One day he said. ..

Bill: James Gilbert?

Kenneth: Yeah, he told me "did you notice anything?" He said that. I didn't get it, I look around and I told him no. "All the crows are gone," he said. So I look around and there's no crow. He said, "The caribou are coming," he said. And the crow, when the caribou are coming the crow go over there I guess. So that one day all that crow will be gone. But when the caribou are coming, the wolf are killing the caribou too, you know? So that's where they'll be at uh?

Sidney: Oh, I see.

Kenneth: So I could notice he's watching all these things around him, you know? So that could be another thing to watch for is crows, really big. Long time ago they use crow for hunting too, you know? When the crow go like this and his packsack is heavy they say. Tr'ee khwaa yahchik. When he turn over like this, and tr'ee khwaa yahchik mean when it's, his packsack....

Bill: Do that once more.

Kenneth: When he fly like that all of a sudden he go like this, he flip over like, that mean his packsack is heavy, tr'ee khwaa yahchik. That mean it's good time to hunt that day you know, because crow is predicting that someone is gonna to kill animal. Someone's packsack is heavy uh? And so they, sometimes when they hunt for moose too, you know, moose is very hard to locate in the bushes because he'll hear you. You don't want him to hear you so you be kinda sneaking up around there sometime. Sometime the crow are watch you too, you know they're watching. So sometime you'll be watching the crow, wondering where that moose is and that crow will fly and all of a sudden you'll look down there uh? Like that? He's telling you the moose is right there. When you see something alive, you see that. A lot of people use crow for hunting. To locate where the moose is. And crow is very good helper for, it even tell you when it's gonna wind uh? When they start scratching each other, that mean the wind is coming. They know. They scratch each other. They call that deetrya' nih¸oodrii they call it, and it's gonna be windy. Crow is very helpful to our culture. Got lotta funny story for crow. And then the, that camp robber they call it uh? He, him too, they use him for that sound, that tk tk tk tk he make, it sound like a tanning moose skin, so he's prophesying moose kill or animal kill. We watch for these little sign and people go hunt. My grandmother used to do that all the time, he always know that when someone is going to kill an animal. He always say those things, then right there my cousin always go hunt. He'd listen to grandma all the time. My grandma will say yeah, he seen it in vision, she seen vision. "I see this," she said. My cousin will know that she's prophesying, I mean she's predicting an animal kill.

Bill: Is this your grandma Sarah?

Kenneth: Uh huh.

Bill: Sarah _____

Kenneth: Couple time my cousin, that's how he kill moose. He wouldn't go out for nothing until my grandma say something. Clear the way.

Bill: Now this has been real good, there's lots of good information here. And I think that what we want to do is try to get teachers to start using some of this material. Maybe even an opportunity to do some more recording with Dan and, Dan Frank and others.

Kenneth: Yeah, other people got lotta things like these. Lotta stuff.

Bill: So maybe we can draw on you to help us make some of those contacts.

Kenneth: Yeah.

Bill: That will be good.