 Marshall
Cultural Atlas
This collection of student work is from
Frank Keim's classes. He has wanted to share these works for others
to use as an example of Culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These
documents have been OCR-scanned. These are available
for educational use only.
Denali Last
Laugh!
Twenty-seven years ago, while living
in Fairbanks, I still hunted moose and caribou. I was a graduate
student at the University of Alaska, and didn't have much money in
those days to support my wife and son. So, when a friend of mine
invited me along on a weekend moose hunt in the Alaska Range, I
happily accepted the offer. My brother Michael also decided to come
along.
We left Fairbanks early one Saturday
October morning in my friend's Volkswagen van. The skies were clear
until we reached Paxson, located at the junction of the Richardson
and Denali Highways in the heart of the Alaska Range. As we filled up
our gas tank at the lodge there, we noticed the weather had changed
and the sky was now overcast with what could only be snow clouds. It
became even cloudier as we drove up the steep grade leading to the
pass that would take us deep into the valley where we hoped to find a
tasty moose. There were no such things as four-wheelers in those
days, so all of our hunting was by car or foot.
Three hours later, when we were at
mile 108 on the gravel-covered Denali Highway, we spotted some big
moose antlers moving through the brush down in a ravine not far off
the side of the road. We parked the VW, quietly got out of the van
with our rifles, then stalked what looked to be about a five or six
year old bull moose. The wind was in our favor and we moved down to
within 150 yards of him. He was still below us when he raised his
head. Both John and I aimed carefully and released the trigger. The
big bull went down immediately, and we knew we had made a good shot.
He was dead when we got to him and we saw that we had killed him
almost instantly.
Just as we were pulling our hunting
knives from their sheathes, we were confronted by three G.l.'s who
challenged our "ownership" of the moose. Our hackles went up, but
when I noticed heavy snow beginning to fall I offered them a
compromise. I told them that half of the meat was theirs if they
helped us dress it out and carry it up to the cars. That way, I said
as nonchalantly as I could manage, we all could make it back through
the pass before it was totally blocked with snow. They scowled at us,
glanced at the large snowflakes, then at each other, and finally back
at us again, saying they'd changed their minds and we could keep the
whole animal. A little later we heard their pickup roar back for the
pass.
It took us about three hours to dress
and pack the moose meat up to the VW. By the time we finished, there
was about three inches of snow on the ground and we figured we had
only a slim chance of making it back through the pass to Paxson. But
if we didn't make it, we knew we had plenty to eat until someone
found us. Meanwhile, we were a little worried the snow might get too
deep for our van to make it even as far as the pass. But the closer
we got, the more the wind picked up and cleared the snow off the
road. Where this was fine on the open highway, we knew it did not
bode well for the pass. There the road was subject to heavy drifts
which in storms like this were virtually impenetrable.
Our worst fears were realized when we
finally reached the dreaded pass and found cars and pickups stacked
thirty deep along the highway. The wind was blowing up a real storm
and men were out with their shovels, and anything else they could
excavate with, trying to dig their way through a mountain of snow
that had totally blocked the highway for as far as we could see. We
got out of our van and squinted into the blinding storm. Directly
ahead of us was a pickup with a sign on its bumper that read, "Fort
Greely." Could it be, we wondered? Sure enough, when we got to the
deep snow drifts, there they were, all three of the G.l.'s we'd had
the privilege of bumping into at mile 108! They hadn't gotten through
either and were digging for all they were worth. John and Mike and I
smiled at each other, then we dug in too with our own shovels, bad
feelings forgotten in our common purpose to beat the
storm.
As it turned out, Mother Nature
already had us beat. There was no way we were going to get
through without the help of something really big, like a snow blower.
It so happened that one of the hunting parties had brought along a
snow machine, and someone had already jumped on it and headed for
Paxson to roust out the road crew there. Just in case, though, most
of us kept on excavating. That way we could at least stay warm.
Finally, three hours later and close to midnight, we heard a
deep-throated drone in the darkness. Then we saw headlights
approaching, and blowing snow.
So it was that we didn't have to eat
that moose prematurely, after all. And on our way back to Fairbanks,
we sure did have the last laugh on those G.l.'s!
By: Frank JM
Keim
As told to: Maurice
Turet
(Alces
alces) The Moose
Moose
Fact Sheet
Student
Stories
Stories
By Parents
Stories
By Elders
Stories
By Successful Hunters
Stories
By School Staff
"If
I were a Moose…"
Christmastime Tales
Stories real and imaginary about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1996 |
Christmastime Tales II
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1998 |
Christmastime Tales III
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 2000 |
| Summer Time Tails 1992 |
Summertime Tails II 1993 |
Summertime Tails III |
| Summertime Tails IV Fall, 1995 |
Summertime Tails V Fall, 1996 |
Summertime Tails VI Fall, 1997 |
| Summertime Tails VII Fall, 1999 |
Signs of the Times November 1996 |
Creative Stories From Creative Imaginations |
| Mustang Mind Manglers - Stories of the Far Out,
the Frightening and the Fantastic 1993 |
Yupik Gourmet - A Book of
Recipes |
|
| M&M Monthly |
|
|
| Happy Moose Hunting! September Edition 1997 |
Happy Easter! March/April 1998 |
Merry Christmas December Edition 1997 |
| Happy Valentine’s
Day! February Edition
1998 |
Happy Easter! March/April Edition 2000 |
Happy Thanksgiving Nov. Edition, 1997 |
| Happy Halloween October 1997 Edition |
Edible and Useful Plants of Scammon
Bay |
Edible Plants of Hooper Bay 1981 |
| The Flowers of Scammon Bay Alaska |
Poems of Hooper Bay |
Scammon Bay (Upward Bound Students) |
| Family Trees and the Buzzy Lord |
It takes a Village - A guide for parents May 1997 |
People in Our Community |
| Buildings and Personalities of
Marshall |
Marshall Village PROFILE |
Qigeckalleq Pellullermeng ‘A
Glimpse of the Past’ |
| Raven’s
Stories Spring 1995 |
Bird Stories from Scammon Bay |
The Sea Around Us |
| Ellamyua - The Great Weather - Stories about the
Weather Spring 1996 |
Moose Fire - Stories and Poems about Moose November,
1998 |
Bears Bees and Bald Eagles Winter 1992-1993 |
| Fish Fire and Water - Stories about fish, global warming
and the future November, 1997 |
Wolf Fire - Stories and Poems about Wolves |
Bear Fire - Stories and Poems about Bears Spring,
1992 |
|
