by Greg Lincoln
For the past few days we have been venturing out on the Kuskokwim River to see if anyone was ice fishing for pike or working on their set nets. Quyana to the folks at the Native Village of Napaimute who plow and maintain the ice road so people could travel and subsist safely on the river. Quyana also for the marked trail and the directional signs, and thank you to the grant funders for sponsoring this project.
Last Monday, the temperatures were in the frigid, the ice was thick and you could see clear through. For some of us, it could be a little bit unnerving to walk on. On Friday we went downriver and met Mr. James Joekay of Napaskiak who was busy tending to his whitefish set net. It is a lot of work maintaining a winter set net. James said it took an hour and a half to chop open the holes where the posts were through the two feet thick ice. He had his own homemade tools. He pulled out his net, removing the fish he caught and spreading out his net to clean it. He singlehandedly reset the net under the ice, all the while patiently answering questions.
He credits his dad and grandpa for teaching him the traditional knowledge for survival through subsistence, knowledge that he has also passed down to his own children. Generation to generation.
“Wangkuta-wa keni’irkaq’laqeput,” he said of the fish he caught. “We cook them for food.” Quyana James!
Going further down river we saw folks manaqing at Yuuvvaq for pike. We went to go check on them and to see if we could catch a few. We love them in many different ways including dried, pickled, boiled with seal oil, in akutaq. There were about ten people jigging and everyone had piles of pike next to them in varying amounts. Bait was either a fresh eye or a fin. When one caught, everyone would cheer. Some of the pike were extra large. Thank you to Mrs. Maggie Alexie and family for sharing bait and fish with us.
On Saturday we embarked upon another outing downriver from Bethel. No one was at Yuuvvaq this time but there was a whole village of happy fishers at the mouth of An’arciq – the Johnson River. It was nice to see everyone having a good time – kids were either catching fish or playing on the ice, moms and dads were busy pulling up pike after pike, making sure everyone had bait, and drilling holes with those incredible augers. Thank you to the O’Brien, Chris and Carter families for sharing your catch! The fish are amazing, folks are awesome and thank you Lord for these great blessings.
