Elder Share, Mildred Black

NANA Corporation

Elder Interview: Mildred Black from Shungnak My name is Mildred Ulusik (?) Black. I was born in Shungnak in 1933 (?). When I was about six years old, my family moved upriver to our summer fish camp. It was named Kagiak (?). That fall, we did not return home because our big cabin in Shungnak caved in. For many years, we stayed at Kagiak year-round. We did not go into town at all. Later, we moved to Aayaluk (?) because it had a big sandbar. I had an older sister, Pearl, and an older brother, Joseph, and a younger sister, Nina. We would play by ourselves with whatever we had. We did not play all the time. We worked hard, but we had fun while working. At camp, I learned from our mom how to take care of fish and how to dry fish. The fish needs to be cleaned and scaled before you hang it on the rack to dry. It needs to be turned from the sun. When the fish is cut too thick, it does not dry. It will be raw. You have to watch it very carefully. In summer, my uncle would go to different places to check for berries. When he saw berries, here and there, we would go berry picking. We went by boat and we rowed, because we had nothing, no outboard motor and no gas. We had a hard time at camp. We were raised with almost nothing. My uncle had a monthly income of about $40 and that was all we had. We would sometimes go to Harry Brown’s store in Kobuk and buy supplies on credit. Until the 1940s, there were no caribou up that way. Then all of the sudden, they started to come. One day, a caribou came out of the water just below Kagiak. My uncle and Joseph were out hunting. Pearl looked for the gun, and found only one shell. With one shot, she shot the caribou down. We felt real lucky. That was the first time we ate caribou. In early winter, around November, Nina and I would set traps for ti?iaq (weasel) or rabbits. The next day, we would check the traps. We worked together. This is how we were raised. Long time ago, everyone spoke Iñupiaq. My parents only spoke Iñupiaq, only using English words to refer to something. In school, kids were learning how to speak English from the white teachers, but I had a hard time understanding English. I was about 17 years old when I went back to school, but I didn’t stay very long. I had nothing, no clothes and no food and no one to help me. It was lonely. But even without attending school, I was able to work. I started as a bilingual Iñupiaq substitute teacher, even without an education, working two hours a day. After they gave me more hours, it did not give me much time to go to my camp. Our ways have changed. The weather has changed. Even the air is different.