Story Night

  This past Thursday evening, the school hosted a family night in the middle school/high school wing. The teachers and the home economics class provided snacks for the evening.  The blackberry agutaq was absolutely fantastic.  I know when I said blackberry, you automatically pictured the usual but these do not resemble a raspberry.  They are actually a nice small round berry that is black.

There was also fry bread, a local version of Indian fry bread that is eaten with the agutaq along with brownies, cookies, regular bread and juices or tea.  It was so good.  After half an hour, we adjourned to one of the larger rooms to listen to two elders who came to share the older stories with us.  One of the teachers planned to record the stories so they could be transcribed and turned into native language books for us in the classroom.

Traditionally, three stories are told and the evening is over.  The two elders shared at least two stories with the group but it could have been three as my knowledge of the local language is quite limited.  Fortunately, the gentleman running the evening gave abbreviated versions of the story.

One of the stories is always a ghost story and the one they told took place way back when families were strictly nomadic.  They spent the winter inland and as spring arrived, they moved towards the sea to find food. By fall, they headed back inland till they reached the overwintering place.  According to the elder, as people were heading towards the coast, stopping at fish camp, one man headed back to get something.  He and his one dog who pulled his sled, arrived at night.  They spend the night in one of the sod houses. 

In the middle of the night, suddenly one corner shook as if something struck it, then another corner, another corner, and finally the last corner shook.  He was scared when something tried to get in.  His dog, quickly dug a hole in the dirt floor big enough for both he and his master.  They both hid in the hole as the unknown creature came in.  When the creature passed them, the man and his dog ran out the door and kept running until they passed the opening in the ground surrounding the village. Once they were safe, the dog began puking black goo from its stomach until it died.  The man was sad but appreciated that the dog saved his life.

The other story the man translated was from the other elder.  The area is surrounded by three specific groups of low mountains/hills.  In this story, a man tied one rock to his back with ropes or something like that.  He picked up one rock with his left arm and another with his right.  He carried the rocks towards the coast but eventually, the rock tied to his back slipped off and landed on the ground to form one of the mountains.  He stopped here and threw the rock in his left arm in one direction and the other rock in a different direction.  Each of the rocks when they landed formed a different set of mountains. She said that is how the three local mountains formed.

It was wonderful and lots of fun.  Both women did speak some English but the stories are better told in the local language so the children and others are able to keep the language alive.  I really enjoyed it.  This is only the first one of these due to happen this year.

I hope you enjoyed the stories I shared.  Have a great evening.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.