|
Frederick Theodore (Ted) Angasan, Sr., Part 1 |
98-22-01 |
Katmai National Park |
Frederick Theodore (Ted) Angasan, Sr. was interviewed on January 26, 1998 by Pat Partnow and Mary Jane Nielsen, Ted's younger sister, in Mary Jane's kitchen at her home in South Naknek, Alaska. The three of them sat at the table looking at a map of the area as Ted recalled his subsistence activities, including past use of areas that are now within Katmai National Park, and pointed out specific locations and landmarks. In this first part of a two part interview, Ted talks about fishing, hunting bears, moose and caribou, trapping beavers, and collecting seagull eggs. He also talks about learning traditional skills and values from his parents and grandparents, and listening to their old stories as he was growing up. He stresses the importance of knowing your Native culture and traditional practices, and eating traditional Native foods.
|
|
Frederick Theodore (Ted) Angasan, Sr., Part 2 |
98-22-03 |
Katmai National Park |
This is the continuation of an interview with Frederick Theodore (Ted) Angasan, Sr. on January 28, 1998 by Pat Partnow and Mary Jane Nielsen, Ted's younger sister, in Mary Jane's kitchen at her home in South Naknek, Alaska. In this second part of a two part interview, Ted wanted to continue the interview in order to include information he had remembered since the first interview on January 26, 1998. He and Mary Jane reminisced about their grandmother, Pelagia Melgenak, and grandfather ("Taata"), One-Arm Nick Melgenak, and the experiences they shared at the fishcamp at Kittiwik on Lake Naknek. In this interview, Ted continues to talk about his subsistence activites, including seal and beluga whale hunting, collecting clams, picking and using a variety of plants, ice fishing, and trapping. He discusses the traditions associated with these seasonal activities and how the resources were used. He also talks about the influence of his grandparents on his behavior, values, and beliefs.
|
|
Ted Melgenak |
98-22-04 |
Katmai National Park |
Ted Melgenak was interviewed on March 22, 1998 by Pat Partnow in her hotel room in King Salmon, Alaska. As Ted talked, he studied a map of the area, locating sites where he trapped, hunted, fished, and gathered plant resources through the years. Because of Teddy's years spent with elders, he was also able to remember stories they told about Old Savonoski before the 1912 volcanic eruption of Mt. Katmai, and traditional songs and stories. In this interview, Teddy also talks about his subsistence activities in the area, learning from his parents Pelagia and Nick Melgenak, fishing and preparing fish, collecting plants and using them for traditional medicine, and how things have changed since the establishment of Katmai National Park.
|
|
Vera Angasan |
98-22-05 |
Katmai National Park |
Vera Angasan was interviewed on March 23, 1998 by Pat Partnow and Vera's daughter, Mary Jane Nielsen, at Vera's home in King Salmon, Alaska. In this interview,Vera remembers her own role as a child in the household of Pelagia and One-Arm Nick Melgenak, helping haul water and wood and helping with the late summer redfish harvesting. Her memories continue through her adulthood, when she and her husband, Trefon Angasan, Sr., took their ten children to Kittiwik camp at the mouth of Brooks River to obtain the year's supply of redfish, and used other parts of the park to gather food for the year, from seagull eggs to moose and bear. Vera also talks the uses of a number of plants, both for medicine and food. During much of the interview, she was looking through plant books to identify by English name the Alutiiq plants she was familiar with.
|
|
Carvel Zimin, Sr. |
98-22-02 |
Katmai National Park |
Carvel Zimin, Sr. was interviewed on January 27, 1998 by Pat Partnow at his house in South Naknek, Alaska. As the two sat at his kitchen table, they looked at the map of the Katmai/South Naknek area and a collection of historic photos that Carvel had collected over the last half century. Carvel was especially concerned with the changes in the subsistence practices of local people made necessary by legislative action in Washington, D.C., far from the Alaska Peninsula. These changes ranged from the original establishment of Katmai National Park and the banning of fishing and hunting within its boundaries to its expansion in 1980 following the passage of ANILCA (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act). Halfway through the interview, Carvel had to leave his house to drive the school bus that collects high school students from the airport after their five-minute flight across the river from Naknek, where the high school is located. When he returned, he continued looking through the photographs and at the map, remembering personal experiences and those he had been told about by elders who have since passed on. He speaks movingly about his own and his mother's feelings for the land and the subsistence way of life.
|
