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Contentment in aging

by Peter Twitchell Old age is not bad. I’m more content with life, more relaxed, more focused. I regard good health way up there, it’s very important these days to take care of oneself. Paying […]

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Love others

by Peter Twitchell As I’ve grown older and wiser, and closer to the Lord and savior Jesus Christ, our Redeemer of Nazareth, I have learned a few things about my own behavior. When I was […]

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Viruses

by Peter Twitchell I rarely see people mask up at the post office, at the grocery stores, at the thrift stores, at the Goodwill stores, or at the major food chain stores. The schools in the […]

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There is hope for you

by Peter Twitchell Having worked as an alcohol counselor from 1995 to 2016 when I retired, I’m convinced that native substance abuse counselors have advantage over those fresh out of college with degrees. Degrees are […]

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Lessons of gratitude

by Peter Twitchell Growing old has not been a drag but I found that I appreciate more of life much more and like they say, every day we’re above ground is a good day. It […]

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The Golden Years

by Peter Twitchell I am a member of an Elders Group who gathers together once a month to discuss issues relevant to support each other and explore affordable housing and services which would also be valuable […]

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Appreciation in the New Year

by Peter Twitchell First order of business is I wish everyone in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta a very Happy New Year. In my lifetime I’ve loved many things and many people. First, I love my […]

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Yup’ik names

by Peter Twitchell My relative Lillian Lliabon of Akiak, Alaska told me a story about Two Good Shaman in the Yupiaq culture who helped members of their tribe with their powers. She also told me […]

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Keep our lands pristine

by Peter Twitchell When I was growing up in the 1950s us kids always listened to what our Elders and especially moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas who were teaching us to love, respect, and be kind […]

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Urban living

by Peter Twitchell It is no secret when I left Bethel October 30, 2016 it was mainly to leave the high cost of living in real Alaska for a chance to live a better life […]

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Commitment to education

by Peter Twitchell I’m thinking back in time to 1954 when Mom brought me to the log cabin building – the school in downtown Bethel which was located next to the Cowan Hut, across the […]

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Something better

by Peter Twitchell Everybody feels down in the dumps at some point in their lives, bummed out, discouraged, gloomy, and miserable. This is a normal human reaction when you lose your job, lose a friend, […]

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Hero of wisdom

by Peter Twitchell Elder Adam Kawagley of Akiak used to bring the subject up of “Wars and Rumors of Wars.” As we know a rumor is not always proven to be a fact or genuinely […]

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Music throughout the years

by Peter Twitchell Since I was a boy growing up in Bethel, my favorite person way beyond my age range was Sonny Hoffman. Every time he saw me with my Dad or walking the streets […]

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Respect and protect nature

by Peter Twitchell The Ancients of our Yupiaq Tribe made the ancient laws. Our Ancients and Ancestors of our Yupiaq Tribe made accurate predictions of what was to come in the future. They had a […]

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Nothing is safe anymore

by Peter Twitchell How does one person maximize their life? I’ll share how our Yupiaq Ancestors maximized their lives and their existence as Tribal members. They took to heart and practiced the laws set forth […]

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Traditions and happy memories

by Peter Twitchell Long before I came into the world how were people of Southwest Alaska, the Yupiaq? We’re blessed with the beautiful tundra that provided berries, our sloughs and rivers, we’re full of fish […]

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A radio station is born

by Peter Twitchell 1971 was an exciting time for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Region because a group of men; Ap’a Ted Stevens, our brother George Hohman, and our Chief and Leader Edward Hoffman; pushed to acquire approval […]

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Community challenges

by Peter Twitchell I have a tidbit, a small morsel that I’m thinking about and would like to share with you. Siberian rivers in Russian flow north, Alaska’s rivers flow west and south. Today, I’ve been […]

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Seal oil and walrus blubber

by Peter Twitchell We had stable food. All Alaskan Natives that had access to the sea and its tributaries. Seals and the walruses were our natural foods that gave us strength and longevity. We looked […]

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The Computer Age

by Peter Twitchell I want to share my miracle today, and what a day it was after feeling the absence of the privilege of sharing in the joy of my children. I got into Facebook to […]

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Honor of recognition

by Peter Twitchell I remember a trip I made to Mountain Village in the not too distant past. The village was located high on the side of a hill on the lower Yukon River. I will […]

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Only take some, not all

by Peter Twitchell One of the greatest tragedies in life is forgetting our culture and our people, and all that we remember hearing them talk about – how our people survived in a place where […]

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The benefits of fish oil

by Peter Twitchell I believe all us kids when we were 5, 6, 7 years old did as we were told in the morning by our mother – to swallow a teaspoon full of cod liver […]

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Bless others

by Peter Twitchell When I look back in my life I took so many chances in the dead of winter driving down to Johnson River to fish for pike when it was snowing and blizzarding […]

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Friends for life

by Peter Twitchell Our friends are irreplaceable! As an Elder I feel this more and more as people move on to the spirit world. Most of my friends and I shared common interests like music, […]

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Tears of grief

by Peter Twitchell The year was 2010, December 25 when I cried my eyes out in my little house on Watson’s Corner. I thought about this, in my 50 years back then, that I had […]

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Musical Memories

by Tad Lincoln Her name was Helen Bautista, a true friend to the mentally disabled and the high school kids in Bethel from 1967 to 1970. Mom Bautista gave us high school kids the back […]

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Our Sacred Table

by Peter Twitchell When I was in my late 20s, I always looked forward to hunting with my late first cousins, Joe Woods Jr. and Manny Joe Evon. We hunted moose every fall. One moose […]

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Fourth of July past

by Peter Twitchell I remember as a boy in the 1950s Independence Day Fourth of July celebrations in Bethel were spectacular and always fun to attend, they were a lot of games and a lot of […]

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Care for our aging generation

by Peter Twitchell Today is a brand new day and we have a lot to be thankful for when I think about it. I thank The Almighty Creator God for helping our scientists in the […]

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A Day to Honor our Dads

by Peter Twitchell Today is my day, “Father’s Day.” June 18, in the year of our Lord and Father in Heaven, 2023. As a dad I am reminded of the day and year of my […]

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Dreams like wildfires grow

by Peter Twitchell When we’re out in the wilderness camping, hunting, berry picking let’s all take extra precautions to avoid having a wildfire. It’s summer and it gets hot and dry grass and the trees […]

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Memories from the 1950s

by Peter Twitchell Kids like me grew up in Bethel Alaska – a quiet little town. Throughout the 1950’s we observed many local activities going on around our community. We knew nothing about television or […]

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Like the Good Book says

by Peter Twitchell A friend and I saw a man sitting on the ground at the corner of a drive-through in what it looked like a prayer position. People often sit at that location with their […]

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The value of life

by Peter Twitchell I believe as a Yupiaq Tribe we really need to start working together to get health aides in all of our villages on the coast, Kuskokwim river, in the Yukon River villages. […]

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The benefits of hard work

by Peter Twitchell I’ve never said publicly how proud I am of my two sons David and Danny and my daughters Saranne and Suzi and all their accomplishments at their young ages. They have worked […]

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The sharing of First Catch

by Peter Twitchell In my boyhood back in the 1950s I was very fortunate to hear the stories of the ancient Yupiat of long ago from hundreds of years ago. Mom and I lived at […]

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The Gift of Life

by Peter Twitchell When I was a teenager through my 50s I didn’t know of physical pain. For one thing I was tireless and for 50 years I worked 3 to 4 jobs in a […]

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Family Tree connections

by Peter Twitchell It is a fact and unfortunate set of circumstances that the older we get we lose our loved ones to old age and our friends that we grew up with to sickness […]

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Lifetime accomplishments

by Peter Twitchell Life as we all know is stressful even at home. We could be without a job but helping family anyway, we can be doing things for family who come first in our […]

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Grandma’s Wisdom

by Peter Twitchell Our grandma Hannah Pitka used to tell us kids when we were about seven years old on up, and this included me and my first cousin Joe Woods Jr., not to get […]

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Kinsmen from the Yukon

by Peter Twitchell This is a question I ask Moose Hunters: Have you ever butchered a moose with a pocket knife with a blade no longer than 2 inches? WHAT? The response I usually get. […]

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Blessed are the Elders

by Peter Twitchell Our lives from childhood to adolescence have depended largely on our parents, and other mature adults including our beloved Elders and our teachers who were there for us sixteen years of their […]

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Jury duty in the courtroom

by Peter Twitchell The television networks, have been showing law judges trying cases on television that millions of people watch each day. Judges on television hear cases every day about personal injuries, and other legal […]

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Ancient warnings have come to pass

by Peter Twitchell I saw a newscast just the other day on KTUU Channel 2 Anchorage where my relative Mr. Michael Williams of Akiak testified that he had caught two (2) Chum Salmon last summer […]

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An epic dream

by Peter Twitchell I had an amazing dream that I was at my fishcamp across from Bethel and the whole Kuskokwim River went completely dry – the entire Kuskokwim a river emptied itself dry just […]

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My people, my home

by Peter Twitchell Alaskan Native Elders Group of which I am a member meets every month at the Native Valley Clinic upstairs second floor and you’re always invited to join us for lunch and discuss […]

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Angels in the snow

by Peter Twitchell Looking back to my youth I remember my Dad making a snow angel on the ice at the sandbar above our fish camp and property across the river from Bethel. It was […]

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Memories of a great man

by Peter Twitchell When I was a boy of 12 years old I became aware of Chief Edward Hoffman. And whenever I ran into Edward Hoffman outside Northern Commercial Company store or the Alaska Commercial […]

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Always with us

by Peter Twitchell I never knew growing up that I would be called to be an alcohol counselor. I became a substance-abuse counselor in 1995 working at the Phillips Alcohol Treatment Center in Bethel, Alaska. […]

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The land sustains us

by Peter Twitchell When I left my home in Bethel I knew I would miss our subsistence way of living and the people of southwest Alaska and the Yukon. I will never forget the land, […]

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Celebrating Christmas

by Peter Twitchell Worldwide we as a human race have had our share of turmoil and anxiety with viruses, storms, wars, and anger. December is the time of peace and joy when families, tribes, and […]

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Preserve the teachings of old

by Peter Twitchell Our way of life as we knew it has changed drastically in the last few decades. The teachings of our ancestors the ancients, the elders is being forgotten and not practiced anymore […]

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Today is a gift

by Peter Twitchell Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of Nazareth I believe has a purpose for each and every one of us who are still able. I know Almighty Creator God plays an important […]

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Sears Roebuck catalogue days

by Peter Twitchell There are countless humorous stories from the early days. One story involves the Sears Roebuck catalog. Here is as I heard it. I was told by an Elder on the southwest coast […]

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Loving memories

by Peter Twitchell My first cousin Mary Evon told me when I was a teenager that all my cousins were my brothers and sisters. I began looking at Mary as a leader, an Elder who […]

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The great voices of radio past

by Peter Twitchell Through the years since May 1971 KYUK has had great announcers – people like Levi Lott. He was one of the first announcers, he was from Tuluksak knowing the traditional language of […]

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Live in the present

by Peter Twitchell I try my best to live in the present, in the moment because that’s all I have in my life – this moment to breathe fresh air, to feel the sun’s warmth on […]

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The Golden Years

by Peter Twitchell Life gets interesting as I age. First, I’ll admit time flew by from my youth to my retirement age. I have to admit again that it seems like it’s slowed down to […]

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Remembering 9/11

by Peter Twitchell It just dawned on me on this day 9/11/2001 between 9:30 and 10 o’clock I was camped across from the Aniak gravel bar watching two American jet fighters behind the Korean Airlines […]

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Never again to be seen

by Peter Twitchell When I was a boy about 13 my mom made a profound statement that I never forgot. As a matter of fact, she brought this up twice to me into my teens […]

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It’s time to grow up

by Peter Twitchell Each one of us are given gifts that help us to grow in the body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:16 Christ Jesus is the head of the church. As followers of Christ […]

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We live on through our music

by Peter Twitchell I returned to Bethel over the last couple days to clear out my Bethel storage. It didn’t make any sense to live in the Matanuska Valley and have storage in Bethel. It […]

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Some things don’t make sense

by Peter Twitchell I didn’t want to watch the news after the multiple shootings and needless mass killings across our country in the last three years, it’s been a really sad state of our country now […]

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The choice is yours

by Peter Twitchell I can share that I have been in church gatherings since infancy. Mom always bundled me up and brought me to worship services in church for the family of God gatherings, to […]

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Yup’ik word origins

by Peter Twitchell I had no clue that some Yup’ik words had their origins from the Natives from Russia. Words like milk (mulukuuq), miiskaq (large bowl for making Eskimo Ice Cream or, “Akutaq”), tengmiaq (goose), […]

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Carrying on the torch

by Peter Twitchell All our Elders are going home, now we are the Elders. Yes – baby boomers. It was wonderful to grow up from kids to adults being fed a daily diet of words […]

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Protection of private property

by Peter Twitchell This is Peter Twitchell, lifelong citizen of Bethel. My family settled and lived in Bethel Alaska since time immemorial. I for one, although I live far from the city limits of Bethel, […]

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Our sacred land

by Peter Twitchell Who is teaching our kids about our sacred Tundra land, air, and sea? We the people are the stewards of this land to take care of it as we would an infant […]

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School years of old

by Peter Twitchell I want to write a little story about village of Akiak in 1962. When I was 11 years old in ‘61 dad David Adams Twitchell took me up to the village of […]

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Believe it or not

by Peter Twitchell There was an interesting question posed to two contestants on the Family Feud show today. Host Steve Harvey asked each member of the family this question: “What makes you suspect that your […]

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The best gift

by Peter Twitchell When I was growing up across the river from Bethel it was also our fish campsite where mom and dad made the best fish salmon slabs and strips. The fish was always […]

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We can’t give away what we don’t have

by Peter Twitchell I heard someone make the statement that “alcohol does not let people get violent.” I myself would never make such a statement. I couldn’t because I believe alcohol fuels our negative emotions […]

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Live and learn

by Peter Twitchell Live and learn! Until today I didn’t know plants needed food! Growing up I never gave this a second thought! I guess I never looked deep enough into the soil so to […]

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Innocent lives

by Peter Twitchell I am amazed about talk shows on TV, especially since the pandemic started in 2020. Many of them are of a personal nature, such as people who don’t have an idea whose […]

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The kindness of strangers

by Peter Twitchell Recently I was at a grocery chain store here in Wasilla. Upon checking out I searched my pockets, my card clasp, and my wallet for the discount card. My total purchases were […]

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A better year

by Peter Twitchell I learn something new every day and that’s a good thing and the fact is that we all do. How has it been all these many years that I thought Merrill Field […]

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Easter Sunday

by Peter A. Twitchell I was brought up from a baby in the 1950s. Already, our Yupiaq people like my Grandma Hannah Pitka, my Mom Sarah, her sister Annie Nansen, Mary Kohl, and Mollia Woods […]

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Good advice will be remembered

by Peter Twitchell I would like to talk about growing up in Bethel, Alaska and one man in particular. That was our tribal chief Edward Hoffman who never neglected us boys. The moment we ran […]

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Single parents deserve our thanks

by Peter Twitchell I believe single mothers and fathers deserve recognition because they are so strong for whatever reason. There are men and women both who have children in their custody and they choose to […]

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Godspeed, Congressman Young

by Peter Twitchell So long to Alaska’s Representative and friend, Don Young. I’ve always felt he was our representative and friend in Congress for fighting for the best interests of Alaskans and his State. I […]

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Memories of Berry Camp

by Peter Twitchell Mom, Dad, and Grandma Hannah had a favorite salmonberry picking spot back in the 1950s when I was growing up. The area sits below Tuntutuliak on the Kuskokwim right side of the […]

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Healthcare today

by Peter Twitchell I had my post-op for my hernia surgery today February 24, 2022 at the Alaska Native Medical Center hospital. I ran into an old friend who asked me how I’ve been. I […]