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 by some but not all tribal members, thank creator God for that!
Just for an example: Sharing our first catch with the Elders.
A few years back now I gave a ride to a couple elders who had worked all summer to get fish from the Kuskokwim River. They processed, hang to dry, and smoked their salmon for their families’ winter feed. And one day found all their fish taken and their smokehouse emptied out.
As recently as the 1960s the youth of our tribes were taught by their elders to continue our traditions and practices of sharing our subsistence game, fish, and birds of the air with the elderly, not steal from them.
Today in 2022, it’s unfortunate that our traditions are not practiced in large part by assimilation of modern cultures, a 180° turn away from the old ways.
A once quiet, peaceful, productive loving people have gone on to the spirit world and our tribes suffer because they haven’t carried on the traditions of yesterday that they were taught as children.
Today a good number of our tribes struggle and suffer the consequences of drinking, drugging, and bad habits from other cultures in this modern day. Not necessarily a better way of life is replacing our old ways of life which stuns our present day tribal members, who are wondering what happened?
And now emerging, if you will, a nowadays man!
A good friend of mine put it this way, “Sometimes we have these issues wandering aimlessly in our minds, floating around for years. We’re growing up watching our parents drinking and loved ones fighting.” My friend concluded saying, “I was always passionate about peace and a good warm home to live in like our Ancestors did.”
So let’s not go down that path. Let’s keep sharing our first catch with the Elders and honoring the teachings of our people.
