Marjorie "Margie" Attla was born in 1941 to Mary David and Walter Koyukuk at spring camp on the Kanuti Flats east of Allakaket, Alaska. Prior to attending elementary school in the village, she lived a semi-nomadic subsistence-based lifestyle with her parents, moving around among various seasonal camps. During her school years, Margie lived in Allakaket until she left at the age of 17. She moved to Huslia, where she met her husband, Robert Attla, and married him in 1964. They lived in Huslia... Read More

Henry Beatus was born in January 1932 in Hughes, Alaska to Fred Bifelt, whose father was Jimmy Huntington, Sr. Henry's mother was named Helen. She died when he was a year and a half old, so he was raised in Hughes by Grandpa Beatus and Grandma Ida. They raised Henry living mainly by subsistence hunting, fishing and trapping. Henry learned to trap a long trapline at a young age. In 1952, he married Sophie Koyukuk from Allakaket. They had 11 children and adopted one. In the 1950's, Henry... Read More

Joe Beetus was a Koyukon Athabascan elder from Hughes, Alaska. He was born in 1915 to Ida and Leon (last name unknown) and raised around Allakaket until he was about 14 years old when his family moved down to the Hughes area. His father was a prominent member of the community that coalesced around the Episcopal Mission, St. John's-in-the-Wilderness, that was built by Hudson Stuck in l907-08 at the site that became the village of Allakaket. Leon died not long after Joe was born, and his... Read More

Altona Brown was born in 1904 near Kokrines, Alaska. One of sixteen children, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle in Nulato where she learned traditional subsistence activities. As a child, she survived polio and attended Mt Edgecumbe boarding school in Sitka, Alaska. At age twelve, she married John Slaveenga, and then later married "Dago Kid" Alexander Brown. She had three children, Walter, Marie, and Clyde. Altona was a good hunter and could cut 120 salmon an hour. She was still smoking... Read More

David David is a Koyukon Athabascan elder from Allakaket, Alaska. He was born in 1932 on the Upper Koyukuk River near South Fork, upriver from the village of Allakaket. His parents were Southfork David and Eva Adams of Stevens Village. The Allakaket community is basically made up of three groups. Two of these groups consist of Koyukon people, one from the Kanuti River and Allakaket areas and another from the region around the South Fork of the Koyukuk River. The Iñupiaq community of Alatna... Read More

Amelia DeWilde was born in 1937 to parents Edwin Simon and Lydia Olin who lived along the Koyukuk River near the village of Allakaket, Alaska. For the first decade of her life, her family lived a nomadic lifestyle, mostly in tent camps, between Allakaket and Tanana. The family later moved to Whitefish Lake, about 12 miles south of Huslia. During that time, Amelia attended school off and on, but she preferred to live out in camp. She had her own dog team and trapline, and taught herself to... Read More

Edward "Eddie" Hildebrand was born in 1917 to Martha and Peter Esmailka in Nulato, Alaska. Eddie lived in Nulato his entire life. He raised four girls and a boy with his first wife, Alice. He then married Annie, and they raised two girls and three boys. In the early years, Eddie supported his family by trapping in the winter and fishing in the summer. For seven years, 1938-1945, he hauled the U.S. mail by dog team from Nulato to Koyukuk and Galena. Starting in 1950, Eddie worked construction... Read More

Lorraine Honea was born in 1920 to Matilda Paul and Freddie Olin, Sr. at camp on the Yukon River, twenty miles above Ruby, Alaska. She was raised at 20 Mile camp, Big Eddy Fish camp and Kokrines by her maternal grandparents, Bill and Eva Roberts (until she was twelve), and by her parents, Fred Olin Sr. and Matilda Paul Olin, who passed away when Lorraine was only nineteen years old. In 1936, at age sixteen, Lorraine married John Honea. From 1937 until 1962, John and Lorraine spent each fall... Read More

James Johnson, Sr. was born in the old village of Kokrines on the Yukon River, near Ruby, Alaska. He grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle of trapping, hunting, and fishing. To help with the government's attempt to reintroduce reindeer into Interior Alaska in the 1920s, he took up reindeer herding near Ruby. James was well-known for his woodworking abilities, making sleds, snowshoes, and intricate picture frames out of willow wood. In his later years, he was known for telling... Read More

Eliza Jones was born in 1938 to Little Peter and Josie Peter at a camp near Cutoff, Alaska. Her Native name is Neelteloyeeneelno, which means "mixed talent" or "having more than one project going at the same time." She was named by Grandma Cecilia Happy, who gave her the name because her grandma was a very talented person and she was a good seamstress, fisher person and made good dried fish. Cecilia was a good trapper and hunter so she gave Eliza the name as a way of carrying on the story of... Read More

Johnson Moses was a Koyukon Athabascan elder from Allakaket, Alaska. He was born in 1924 to Billy and Ceza Bergman. When Johnson was about a year old, two of his older brothers died, only a day apart. In keeping with tradition, Johnson's mother gave him away, in hopes that subsequent children, including Johnson, might live. Until he was thirteen, Johnson was raised by Lucy and Henry Moses; then he went to live with Lucy's father, Big William, and William William, another youngster whom Big... Read More

Lillian Olin was born in 1924 to Tassianna Big Jim Pitka from Kaltag and Richard Pitka from Nulato in a camp on the Dolby River, a tributary of the Koyukuk River north of Galena, Alaska. She almost died at childbirth, and had nine brothers and sisters. While she was growing up, Lillian and her family lived a subsistence lifestyle, which usually meant traveling to different camps for the different seasons. In 1937, Lillian met her husband, Fred Olin, and they were married in 1948. Together,... Read More

Pauline Peter was born in 1932 to Martha Nelson at Toby's Camp, a remote camp on the Koyukuk River, halfway between Nulato and Huslia. Her mother died when she was two years old and she was adopted by an elder couple, John and Alga Angela Brown. The family spent most of each year living off the land on the Kaiyuh Flats, across the Yukon River from Nulato. In 1949, Pauline married Arthur Peter, and together they raised eight children and several foster children. She also raised several... Read More

Franklin Simon was born in the old village of Cutoff, Alaska in February 1934. His parents were the late Edwin Simon and Huslia's beloved Elder Lydia Simon. In 1949, the family moved to Huslia from the old village of Cutoff. Franklin lived the subsistence way of life around Huslia by hunting, fishing, gathering from the land and trapping, first as a child, then as a young man and finally as an elder. In 1962, he married Lillian Koyukuk from the village of Allakaket. Franklin and Lillian... Read More

Pollack Simon, Sr. was born in 1939 to Sarah and Lee Simon in Allakaket, Alaska. His father lived near Allakaket by the Koyukuk River just like his father before him, and his mother was from Allakaket. In 1942, his family moved to Hughes where he was raised. Pollack has lived a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, fishing and trapping his whole life and has had a long career as a dog musher. He has also worked as a heavy equipment operator and has been a crew boss on local firefighting crews... Read More

Henry Titus was born in 1915 in Kokrines, Alaska. His mother died when he was eight and he was raised by his father and extended family. He was on his own by age seventeen when he began supporting himself by cutting wood, cutting fish, trapping, and living off the land. In later years, Henry and his wife, Agnes, lived in Tanana, Alaska. Having spent his life living a traditional Athabascan lifestyle and being a fluent speaker of his Koyukon language, Henry happily shared his knowledge with... Read More