by Peter Twitchell
I didn’t know what to call a part of the Matanuska Valley in my native Yupiaq language so I’ve decided to call it Uuravik, named after the slough below Lower Kalskag on the left bank of the Kuskokwim River. A slough that the elder Henry Nansen Sr. loved to hunt in.
He could stand out in the rain during moose hunting season for half a day waiting for a bull moose to come out of the trees and stand in the slough. He was a very patient hunter who never moved around when waiting for a moose.
One morning several boats of hunters came by our tent looking for a bull moose. About 15 minutes later after the boats had passed our camp I looked out the wall canvas tent door and right across Uuravik Slough stood a bull moose in the creek.
I motioned to Henry, who was hard of hearing, that a moose had come out of the trees and was standing in the creek and I was going to shoot it.
Henry gave me a big smile but didn’t say a word. I could hear another boat coming up the slough and I grabbed my 30.06 rifle and loaded a round into the chamber. I knocked the moose down just as a boat of hunters came around the bend.
The hunters helped us pull the moose out of the creek and we gave them some of the liver and moosemeat and they went on their way up the slough.
After the hunters were gone, elder henry Nansen Sr. let out a laugh and gave me a big smile. His Yup’ik name is Ciruneq. We proceeded down the river to Bethel.
In the last thirty years, moose from upper Kuskokwim have migrated down river. Before the land claims, natives shared hunting grounds.
I’ll tell you next week what I named Wasilla in my native language, Yupiaq.
