Our Love of Tundra

by Peter Twitchell

Since hunkering down toward the end of February 2020 I’ve been communicating at least twice a week with my friend and bandmate Frank Hunter.

When Frank and I begin dialoguing we never know which direction our mutual enjoyment of telling our stories is going to go.

Frank is 10 years my senior but we have a lot in common. Our music, and the love of Country Western songs and artists, our cultural upbringing with values, common love for our Life of surviving in the harsh elements of our tundra and the coastal plains which he is more familiar with.

Both of us have hunted, fished, and lived a subsistence life growing up in Western Alaska. To date we’ve conversed at least fifty hours, about Ircinraqs or “Little People” of the tundra and their awesome tremendous power, possessed by such small creatures. If taken to their world, the story goes you’ll be granted one of two wishes, riches or a long life.

Today we shared ours and our families hunting and trapping fur bearing animals and the furriers who came to us like David Green & Brother who came to bush Alaska buying furs. Both Frank and I had a passion for subsistence life as youngsters.