checking mail

everyone here has a post off ice box.  street addresses are few. the post ofice makes for a good place to meet others.  the post office does fine with the few packages i get.  and they also manage to provide ample fire starter while keeping my bills dry. it's bulletin board is one of the good spots, along with the store. to check on town happenings. everyone comes to the post office eventually.

i'll take my time since there's never  a need to rush and check mail, unless I'm expecting something. a check in the mail will get the most attention. besides i just collect mail while missy engages her nose to catch up on all her local news; like who's in heat, or the prowl. then she leaves her mark for others to catch up on her news.

we're not just checking mail, collect is more accurate. newspaper ads, monthly bills, and newsletters.

along about 2pm i'll fire up my truck for the 5 mile run up the parks hwy to town. people will be moving around by that time. missy gets excited as we leave the parks hwy onto nenana's main street. she's eager and starts whining as we reach the old railroad depot and  turn to go to the post, corner of 2nd and B sts.  most of the time, the disabled space is open.  but some people rush using whatever is handy including these marked spaces without a permit.

it bothers me, and often hinders my mobility, but i make do.

maybe not every day, but the flag marking our post often seems to be in motion. nenana has a habit of catching the wind from the river valley and toghotthele hill just across the river. missy jumps out of the truck heading to her favorite sniffing spots. it takes me some time to climb the stairs. so i let missy go...... get her fill.

reaching the door i call her, "checking mail!"   she comes bounding up ready to go in. and with a bit of luck there will be others there doing the same as us.

both our postal mistress', brenda and Teresa always gives missy and i a big hello.  catching us emptying our cubby hole of paper into my mail bag. takes no longer than it takes a hungry man to eat a meal. and we're done. except for the visit. meeting others always results in a highlight for the day.  seems to always be new faces in town. maybe visitors or newcomers.  really makes no difference. one cannot  spend time passing each other and not saying anything, good old Alaskan hospitality will begin a conversation.

i always start with a handshake and my name. the usual response,  "oh...a demientieff. are you related to mitch, shirley, kathy?" or many others, downriver, down the hwy, or in town. happy to know someone in common.  of course, i know them, and they happen to be my relations.

happens to be one of the largest families in the state.

mail retrieved but we're not going home yet.

an occasional stop at the store for items needed before my next trip to fairbanks.  i'll check their bulletin board.  say hi to ty and marilyn.  our only store was established here in 1916 by long time local family, Coghill.

one can read their story in jack Coghill's book, growing up in alaska.

final stop is just across the street at jester's palace. one of nenana's watering holes, see who's tending bar and who's full of it.  after ordering my usual VO and water.  i'll sit back relax, while missy waits in the truck.  all town dogs, 'cept for the bar owners were kicked out last summer. otherwise she would normally lay at my feet patiently waiting. as she normally does.

greeting everyone and being a gentle talking dog.  those who know missy, ask her the same question, "how's life?"  to which she always replies the same, "ruff". everyone seems to love my pound dog.

catching up on the local news is best in the bar. jaded as it were, all information seems to funnel through the only 2 downtown bars.

not only is it important you see others, but just as important to be seen.  if you don't show up somewhere in town, someone will be checking on you.  see if smoke is coming from your stove pipe. literally and figuratively.  keeping an eye on each other is a popular past time.  one might say the worst the news....the harder we listen.  this i think is typical of all small communities.  we have our own city politics, school issues, reluctant vehicles, and in nenana oil & wood, weather and ice breakup debates. without exception, everyone eventually agrees on how different things are these days, but that's about it.

.

done with town errands it's home again to fix our dinner taken out to thaw before leaving.

if there's lots of work at home i will go straight to the post then directly home.  winter daylight doesn't allow for much lollygaging.  but i evjoy my rounds through town.  it's my connection with who i am and how i belong.  but it's oh so good to get home again, where it's easy to walk and we're safe.

dinner and we wrap up our day.  homesteading work tomorrow...rest.

river names

when we hear a person's name. it's possible to tell which village they come from.  in some cases it's possible

to guess a person's home by the way they walk.

really..........

like accents revealing if you are from the koyukon or innoko,

river names keep a record of  life, home, and family.

there is a sandbar on the tanana river at the mouth of the wood river.=35miles^above nenana.

i call this sandbar, missy island.  it's a sandbar that builds up and washes out from time to time...probably why it's not on any map and has no name.  it never stays around long enough.

 i call it missy island, because i did something there,

 was the first place i took my new pound dog. a blond lab named missy.

 on the river i need a good dog.

 i sprung her from death row.

 her time was up and we found each other.

absolutely nothing wrong with that dog. think it was the loser who dropped her off.

discarded......poor!

but good for me and missy.

after bringing  her home to nenana. i brought her into town and to the river bank,
introducing her to her new home. all low key, no excitement.

just..matter of fact. here we are. no need to run! you're home now.

missy took her first boat ride up river after a couple days of peace and quiet.

no destination in particular.  just needed a good drift pile to make a dandy fire.

 locked up dog. now free!

the sandbar at the mouth of the woodriver just happn' to come along. and we gave the place a name.

maybe the name will stick.  probably not, the island will be gone again in time.

the river returning it years later. with more firewood for others to come along and have a picnic. give it a name. a temporary label to recall memories.

she ruuunnnn!!  above^, missy prefers riding inside the boat. watches my every move.  are we there yet? she's now my constant companion. i have no privacy.

found out she could swim. it may be a natural instinct.but  missy did not know it yet.
till i dropped her over board while tied up on the bar.
shaaake...then rrruun..... again.

couldn't keep her out of the water after that.

the island i call missy was largely unknown till now. after all it's not really an official island on any maps, and certainly doesn't have a name.

it's a sandbar! comes and goes.
sandbars by their very nature remain anonymous. until someone comes along and gives the place a name.

a tanana river picnic on a warm summer day,  free of mosquitoes watching a water dog discover water. occasionally checked out by a passing seagull.

building memories to recall...

saying, remember that summer going to missy island? everyone say Ya!

the island finally had a name, at least for now, at least in this one short life.

and there is no mistaking where it was, or what we did.
our homeland is filled with stories such as this, many for every family.

i also have a rabbit point and egg island on the yukon.

i'm pretty sure everyone has place they've named. it's how people begin to say.  "oh, that's  bennie's, gopher's, or whoever.  it's their place and ours together. passing on stories and names to keep our balance.

now if i were to tell my bro', duke that the channel is moving back behind missy island, he wouldn't know immediately where i was talking about. until i mention another story....when the wood river becomes a little easier or harder to get into.  then he would know exactly which sandbar was missy island. or may be it was gone, nameless again.

when someone asks me,
do you know where 9 mile is? i say.....YA!

even if i'm really not sure if he/she means 9 mile point or camp, or could be a lake.

i get my bearings, by following their story, and  i will  know exactly where they mean by the time they're done telling.

it's important for them that i know exactly where they mean.

that way i learn new places all the time.

at these times when people approach and ask if i know a place,

mostly i have no clue as to where they mean, our river experiences are so vastly different.

makes no difference............

time to scratch lines on the ground and point it out.

names display the life of our river.

and usually when drawing the map the story of this unknown place comes out.  they can become quite animated.

so much joy in this connection with our river. what happen there and it's name.

 river names meaning only one thing in nenana,  might not be understood by those in the city or other villages.

 i can say," i going to hee hee haa haa's.

where's that?

for nenana river rats.

it's 17 mile's from nenana on the way to minto, near half way. most everyone in our village knows 17 mile.

a beautiful small point at the head of a cut-off,  a small eddie with snags waving in the water. and good place to tie up, easy climb up the bank to a level, brush free fish camp.  tip of a spruce stand.
minto also called it 17 mile.  whether coming from down or up river, it's still 17 mile.
could be 18 miles i guess, but it's already close enough to precise.

and where is................hee hee ha ha's?........

where it's been all this time,

it's auther and ellen frank's camp at 17 mile.

he could laugh so hard.

HEE...HEE..... HA HA.. till we split a gut!!

it's how we knew where we were. he and ellen could always make one feel at home.

laughing at your corny jokes, and telling river stories.

rip art....god bless you ga na',

every one knew aurther frank, 17 mile.or so. below nenana,..they say.

about an hour for me on a barge.

now it's 1/2 hour in the boat i use today.

still arther's place.

and i think of him each time i go by.

god bless bless his soul. could laugh so hard!!! 

17 mile turns out now to be one of my favorite spots to watch the yukon 800. they have to pass close there in order to hit a short cut just across the river. and arthur is still there.  watching the race with me.

we make a fire and pull up one of  the old rickety folding chairs left there.

ask a map a name?  it'll say...where?

ask our locals a river name and  you can't just hear it...you have to listen.

then you'll know where you are..maybe where you're going.

it's the river and who we are.

makes no diference what those places are called now, just as long as we know how you mean.

still gonna be hee hee ha ha's place. till a new experience is found by a new generation.

they won't get lost there.  it's hee hee's home and they'll be safe.

i don't know know the origin of nenana's name, will rewrite jack coghill's recollection here from his book, growing up in alaska,

i can only guess that the original name comes from toghetelle ( tog..geh'. tea..lee),name of the hill across the river.  the nenana river comes out of the alaska range and meets the tanana river here.
but it eludes me where ne..na..na came from.
toghetelle hill can be seen for miles below our village.  the confluence with the nenana river marks a change in the tanana.  there is a small step in the river here,  the river to fairbanks changes. the current picks up, channels get narrow, more gravel. until the next step in the river at the mouth of the chena. changes again above there. much more gravel, swift, many small channels none very deep cause the water is divided up many times.

what follows is from jack coghill's book, growing up in alaska, a description rich with other local place names,  i cannot verify it's accuracy, nor do i need to.  it's part of the local lore...part of our river story.

i quote:

"it takes it's name from an actual athabascan gathering place called nenashana on the otherside of the Tanana River.  nenana was never a home community of the athabascan people.  they traveled from wood river, upriver from salcha, and down river from minto.  many of the native alaskans lived in a place called tolovana and there were also large communities at Toklat and Bear Paw up in the Kantisna River area, over into the Tolite Area, which is the headwater of the Kuskokwim River.  downriver people from the Yukon River came up as far as Cross-chak.  this was long before Chena and Fairbanks or any other Interior Alaska town established by the gold miners."

there must be hundreds of stories and place names showing how we all got together here, all along the journey to nenana.

but i think it boils down to basics.

we're here because

it's a good spot.  the confluence of two rivers. a hill close by...and fairbanks just far enough away.

still connected with our yukon river neighbors and families.

it's called our home

and it's name is nenana

our changing river>gives life to everything

 the tanana river changes are much more than just the norm.  with it's heavy silt there are some crossings where the channel can move completely across the river in a day and night. that's the nature of the tanana. occasionally makes for some difficult barge navigation with the eb and flow of the season.

provides  the river pilot, the challenge and excitement of work.

and nenana Riverrats, the opportunity to explore new sloughs and by-ways.

.

on a trip from fairbanks to tanana and return in 2003 i followed the usual channel wth my small fiber glass boat, I've named the miss behavin'.  going down, nothing was noteworthy in a spot called devil's elbow, just above the mouth of the wood river.

i have been going through this narrow sharp bend for as long as i can remember.  always there's plenty of water, at least 20 feet deep and 100 yards wide.

on the return 3 days later i came around the bend and the entire channel was shut off with not just a silt bar but with heavy gravel.   i could of walked across the old channel.

this told me that there had been a heavy runoff from the alaska range and many changes from delta junction on down.  having to have to now go around the island. i stopped at the head of the bend and was astonished to find this new bar higher than the cabin on my boat!  amazed at the power in the river to move so much material in such a short period of time.

i returned to the same place a year later.~~~ 

devils elbow is no more.  from the signs i see, this has happened before. part of the normal movement of the river as it whips back and forth across the tanana valley floor.  while i initially thought of global warming and changes in the mountains, i do not think the larger questions are not what happened to devil's elbow.  part of it? yes. cause of it? no.
fly over the tanana valley and it's pretty obvious the river has made hundreds of lakes and sloughs. we've always called, these dead bends.  someday the river will return there. a cycle of life.

water finding it's path of least resistance, gives birth to cut banks, when in a heavy flow  can be read like the water.

heavy caving of the banks adds more silt,drift, and makes foam sail boats.  see lots of foam comming down is the clue that changes can be found above.

the Tanana River walking back and forth across the valley giving life to our lakes and sloughs are not the only changes in constant motion in our homeland.

at one time there was no parks highway. 
the village of minto was 30-40 miles closer.
the railroad made nenana one of it's scheduled stops.

while the river takes it's good ol' time~~~

~~~~we here in nenana have sped up.  where a trip to fairbanks was an entire one day affair, now it's an hour away.  run to town, then get the heck out is how most people talk of city errands.

in time, river commerce and barging will be a primary reason to dredge the area in front of our dock.  the river has always been trying to reclaim or fill it in over the years.  such work will bring more change to our town.

people will welcome new opportunities and yes the river will keep filling it back in. and nenana will adapt as a community.

tough people we are, external and internal pressure to keep what we have...tradition!, the rivers of change eroding the banks of our culture are unknowns, only thing for sure is change. a familiar consistant struggle to keep our culture. there will be new channels to find. new sweepers and snags to remember.

it's always the same challenge for us. same big questions posed to a culture that have survived for thousands of years....
we'll cut a new channel. but why are we always the ones having to have to change?

the familiarity gives me comfort,  been there, done that!  i'm especially encouraged when i see young people talk openingly about carrying on.

i think we will survive. 
changed for sure.
but still here................ like our river.

elders

nenana elders as well as elders in every village are treasured.  as a council of elders,  they have their own senior center and transportation. the Seniors as it's called is a modest building with a bus garage, dining room, kitchen, and office.  each day many people from around the community gather to have lunch with these respected community members.  you don't have to be an elder to have lunch.  just $5.00 and an appetite.  elders don't pay, and those who cannot make it have a lunch delivered to their home.

following lunch there are announcements on local happenings.  maybe a tourist or other visitor from out of town gives a short speech.  occasionally political candidates are some of the regulars.  after all, one can have a better chance at success if grandma and grandpa approve.  and they will say so or NOT.

from time to time, elders from the fairbanks senior center travel down to nenana for lunch.  much happiness and visiting goes on.

at a village potlatch the elders are given a place of honor, usually close to the wood stove where they will be warm and the first to be served. often their speeches will be in our native language, always reinforcing support to carry tradition forward as the key to happiness and  unity in our little village.  reiterating how a person must show respect to this food and each other to keep your luck.

at 59 i am beginning to feel like an apprentice elder.  today I'm given much respect by our young people wherever i go.  the choice parts of game and our native food is always given to the elders by the young.

irrespective of what the social security says about age and eligibility. i was just another guy in town until a young man came to me at a potlatch and brought half a fish head,  a very choice part of the salmon. regardless of uncles sam's rules and regs, that boy told me everything i needed to know about my standing in the community.  i may not feel old, and the boy may not know my age.  he saw an opportunity to show respect.  a chance to be proactive and keep his own luck, to be a good, honorable, member of the village.  i went through the same experience as a young man serving elders over the years.  now it's my turn to receive and pass on these traditions.  and somehow in my own way to help our community hold it's luck. to be whole with the universe, the past, and the present.

when i was a young man just starting out i went to an elders meeting in nulato.  introducing myself around the hall, i shook hands and announced my name.  then unexpectedly, an elder asked me who are you?  repeating my name wasn't the answer.  she asked again, who are you?  so i told her my dad is claude sr., mom is martha, uncle is....  finally she says, Oh! i know who you are!  my name was not important.  where i came from was the key.  she knew my parents and knew without doubt that i was member of the village even tho' i did not live there at the time.  that i came from good hard working stock.  implied in her question was the expectation that i would act and behave accordingly. to make my parents and village proud.

nenana is the home of interior regional housing authority's  meda lord senior center.  an independent living facility named after a local elder and long time respected family.  no one here puts their parents in a "home".  most elders live out their final years in the home they've enjoy for years. or live independantly in the meda lord center.  cared by family and watched over by all,  it's clear to me that the golden years are a time to be treasured.  anyone disrepecting an elder in any manner is shunned.  growing old in nenana means you're not alone, and your family is accepted.  the more elders we have, the "richer" we are. evidenced by the many elders at the meda lord center from other villages and cities alike. all living independantly and integral to our community.

respect and caring are the key elements to our community.  a small village we may be, but it is the world to us. where everyone has their place and purpose.  guided by our elders, we hope to pass on this way of living so that our young can feel the same love when their time comes to pass it on.

visiting alaska, maybe nenana?

visitors to Alaska sitting in a warm pressurized jet at 30,000 feet over nenana will see rivers flowing north from the Alaska range connecting with larger rivers all presumably flowing to the sea.  but unless one has  examined our geography it may not be clear which way the rivers flow.

maybe to the uninitiated and those without binoculars the water way down there are long lakes. unlikely since we only get tourists and other visitors smart enough to know the differences between rivers and lakes.  besides anyone on a jet aircraft today with binoculars may get 2nd and 3rd glances.  if you want to see what's happening down there,  you can fly closer to the ground in an Alaskan aircraft workhorse, the piper supercub. so leave your binoculars in your baggage.  stretch out your national geo. map across you and your seat mate's  tray table.  it's only the largest of the fifty states and a single map can be used for a dining room table covering.

it doesn't take a geology or hydrology expert to see the river drainage system and understand how it works.  gavity works very well here in the northland. however many alaskans try to defy it with small light aircraft on balloon type tires.  most of these flyers live long lives telling hair raising stories on how gravity almost got them.  i'm a river pilot so i cannot tell you flying stories here. unless i go and borrow that pretty red and white number tied down and sitting on nenana's paved tarmac and modern asphalt airport.   the local plane owners do not appreciate anyone borrowing their aircraft.  for obvious good reason.  they're keeping an eye on me anyway.  a pilot he says,  have to keep ~him~ on the river.  dang!

you're at 30,000 feet, map stretched across you and neighbor's tray table, wondering if  making more room by finishing your toddy would help.  maybe it does. maybe you don't care anymore.

having crossed the alaska range, you finally see small hills and what appears to be a road through the wilderness.  oh hey.. right there honey.. that's a river and it's draining into a larger river there..but the wing is in the way. good time to squeeze...out to the head and give your seat mate the window.
 wondering how far fairbanks is, and if that's the highway you're to drive and visit this place called nenana. hust when you recognize that it is nenana. the little town where the river, highway, and hills meet, the flight attendant announces the beginning of the descent into the fairbanks area. you have 5 minutes to refold a huge map that is designed never to find it's original creases. the temperature and local time is announced.  brr you might say. meanwhile nenana people run around in shorts and t shirts happy for the summer time and 24 hour daylight. no one paying much attention to what time it is.

a nenana morning sun in the summer comes out of the NE and is very intense. after a long day and evening of work or play one may suddenly realize the obvious to everyone but you! OMG I stayed up all night!  wait,  let me ask someone, "is that sun going down or coming up"?  let's see, where shall we have breakfast?  all the makings are in your new friend's fridge but everyone is tired from staying up all night. So where shall we go for the standard american cholesterol started of eggs, bacon, hash browns?

and it's off to the roughwoods inn we go.  or maybe to clear sky lodge or the fireweed roadhouse. unlikely you'll get much rest today so best to save the mondorosa bar and grill for dinner tonight.

but there is no "night"! if you're hungry and your watch says it's close enough, head out to find your morning and evening chow prepared and served by locals, happy to have one of the few steady jobs in our small town.

but you really should get some tourist sightseeing in before the midnight sun returns and resets your internal clock.  remember you have to make pictures to bring home and show to all your friends. yes~we really went there.  saved money for years for these mosquito bites and evidence photos.

if you have saved for this vacation of a lifetime,  maybe you don't want to waste a moment.  but go ahead. get some sleep anyway. order the dessert, maintain your strength. heck with the diet.  relax..enjoy.

we'll still be here when you wake up asking is it am or pm?

then suddenly you have an epiphany. it no longer matters whether it's morning or evening except for the travel schedule and to those way down south in the lower 48, a-mer'-ca.  still tired?  no worries, can sleep back at 30,000 feet heading home. i understand. of course you can't sleep in a hotel room in the middle of the day, even if the window has  heavy thick curtains designed to separate night and day.  doesn't fool you, it's day time out there, or so your watch says.  confused?  you might have the makings of a sourdough. not the bread, a person whose has settled into making alaska home. beyond the condition of being sour in the country with no dough to get out.

not that you'd like to leave or want to relinquish your newcomer status as a cheechako.  i don't know, maybe becoming a sourdough is a lifelong ambition.  makes no difference to me as a native alaskan and alaska native. very few end up staying on the 1st trip.

say you decide to stay. do not be surprised if your first winter happens to be the coldest one ever. one for the record books. after loosing a couple toes but surviving a frozen truck motor and dead battery, you can't wait to leave. yep, you're almost a sourdough.  careful now, most sourdoughs stay and live long lives telling stories to chechakos arriving with new to do lists.

long before this happens and before your chance to pee in the yukon is realized.   you finally settle into a routine.  Setting  out to explore the village you may be surprised to discover that everyone here seems quite rested.

to double check you peek into the visitor's center at the parks highway junction and the tourist shop just across the street.  you are grateful for these  super friendly people.  but what is that fire danger warning sign doing there?  then comes the  inevitable question, are we in danger?  oh..it's people who are dangerous! which ones? can't make a fire? ok.  but maybe it's just what you've come to alaska to do! along with pee in the yukon, make love to a squaw(derogatory), and kill a bear.  a to do list before mosquitoes carry you off.

your visit to our home is survivable provided you do not confuse any of the items on the list.do not confuse try to peeing in the yukon and wressleing a bear. disrespect  one of our women or anyone else. and our bears will kill you.  that is..if our women don't get to you first.  believe me you don't ever want to cross any of our beautiful native woman.  in nenana or anywhere else.  they're good shots and every home has at least one firearm.  to-do list confused again?  throw the list away. it will only get you in trouble and won't work here no matter how much daylight you need.

try to make love to a bear here and you're on your own buddy. but typical of alaskan hospitality we will remove our hats and pay respect to the bear scat that once was you.