AN AFTERNOON SING

Lige, Susie, Elsie, Geraldine, and Neal sitting. Brandon playing the drum. Not sure what the lady's name is front of the door. She was a visitor one afternoon. We were all enjoying the singing and dancing.

DANCING IN THE ROUND HOUSE

Lauren watches Susie and learns to do a Native dance.

THREE GENERATIONS

Grandson Dwayne, Son Freddie, and Mom Elsie. It was a real treat having more than one generation at the village.

HAULING WATER...AGAIN!!!

Cindy, Kathy, and John probably carried more water than the rest of us. They just seemed to be there when water was needed....or maybe the rest of us just seemed to be hiding!

WORKING WITH A SMILE!

This is where we washed our dishes after every meal. Jeff and Nita were the best washers in camp ;) !

KEEPING WATER IN THE BARRELS

Yuko is standing behind our water filtration system. The bucket she is holding contained water that was brought up from the river. It is poured into one of the two blue barrels where it filters through large rocks, small rocks, sand, and mud. It comes out clear in the tub on the ground and probably could be used for drinking water if we had boiled it or had water purification tablets.

ALWAYS BUSY

Tom worked hard helping repair buildings.

GRASS CUTTING

John is using a yo-yo (that's what we called it when I was growing up) to cut grass at the village. The Tanana River is in the background

BLOOD-THIRSTY CRITTERS

If you look closely you can see many mosquitos trying extremely hard to sting Jeff through his pants.

TAKING TIME FOR A HOBBY

This is Fusako, Fu for short. She likes collecting flowers and plants and pressing them. She had many to choose from in Old Minto and the surrounding forests.

DANCING WITH A LOG

This is Jeff. He's dancing to show how light the log is...Yeah, right! The guys did some hard physical labor while we were there!

OUR GUIDE & PROTECTOR

This is Freddy, one of our Native guides. He is standing with his foot on a trap that is used to catch small game. Notice that we were well protected out in the woods.

THE PAST

This is part of the Old Minto cemetery. We were guided through here by a couple of Elders and a couple of well armed guides. There was new evidence of moose and bears in the area!

PEELING THE BARK OFF THE TREE

Here is an example of a Birch tree that is being stripped of its bark.

AN OLD BIRCH BARK STRIPPING

This is a Birch tree that someone took the bark off a long time ago. Removing the bark does not harm the tree, but the bark is not replaced.

SPRUCE ROOTS ADVENTURE

This is Jeff & Anna digging up Spruce roots. It may seem easy, but it is hard work, plus we were fighting off bigger swarms of mosquitoes than we had ever seen. Just the buzzing in our ears was getting to us!

A LOT OF SPRUCE ROOTS

This is Nita. She also attended the class. Nita lives in Bethel near the Kuskokwim River (I think that's the name of it!) Here Nita is holding Spruce roots that she had just dug up. These Spruce roots will be used for sewing after they've been cleaned and split.

AN ELDER IN TRAINING

This is Jennie. Jennie was the only native not from Old Minto. Jennie lives up north on the Yukon River, but came down to our camp because one day she will be an Elder, and she wanted to learn more from the Elders that are here now. Jennie is cutting a piece of Birch bark.

BASKET MAKING

Here is a picture of Elsie making a basket. Notice how she uses the birch bark and spruce roots just like in the old days, but uses modern supplies to help hold it together before it is sewn!

MAKING A PICTURE FRAME

Here I am working on a picture frame. I cut a 5X7 piece of birch bark so that I could put a 3X5 picture in the frame.

BIRCH BARK & SPRUCE ROOTS

Here is the front of the picture frame almost completed. The "thread" is spruce roots that we dug for, and the frame is Birch bark that we stripped from the trees ourselves.

FINISHED PROJECT

This is me with my finished picture frame. If I'd have had time to make more, I could have become really good at this.

BUYING PRODUCTS FROM THE MAKER

This is me with Elsie. Elsie made the berry picking bowl that I'm holding. It is made from birch bark and sewn with spruce roots that have been dyed. The little bracelet in the bowl was made by Elsie's 6 year-old granddaughter, Gabby.

MAKING A WALKING STICK

This is Yuko. She is cleaning the bark out of the knots of a Diamond Willow tree limb. The bark is easy to pull off in long strips, but in the little knots you have to use a knife and shave it out. The Diamond Willow walking stick is a thing of beauty that each of us wanted. We were allowed to collect the limbs and make our own walking sticks.

LIGE & SUSIE'S FISH CAMP

This is Lige and Susie. This is their fish camp. Lige made the cabinet behind them a long time ago. The fish camp hasn't been used much since their son died. We sat inside the cabin with them for a while and listened to stories of times when they did use this fish camp when their children were young. They even told us stories of coming here with their grandchildren.