by Peter Twitchell
It is my hope that our kids and grandchildren will begin talking with Elders. We as Elders now are able to tell our stories and time is limited for many of our older generation.
I began documenting on cassettes when I was employed at KYUK everything I could with Elders of the 1970s till I left KYUK Radio Station in 1994.
John Active also documented as well as other Yupiaq employees throughout the years. I have no knowledge whether or not the Bethel Broadcasting Inc. Board of Directors ever authorized printing the History of our people, their beliefs and stories for the education of our younger generation.
I personally gave copies of cassettes to the Media Center at LKSD and the Bethel public library for the purpose of education for the next generation of the values Elders of the past hundred years placed on their people.
I’m sure the KYUK radio station and television station made documentaries throughout the years.
A book of all that was gathered by KYUK Broadcasting Station would be educational in a cultural program format. I have never heard or read of any material(s) being available. Everybody else writes about the Natives of Alaska but never talk about what the Ancients and our Yupiaq ancestors taught their offspring and tribal members. I don’t know if there’s a book already in existence, or if there is one in the works. It’d be wonderful to have a hard copy to read and go back to a time when the Yupiaq had order in their lives and what the Elders of the tribe taught in its entirely.
We will always be Yup’ik People as long as we live. No matter if we may have studied and received degrees in another culture than the native culture. Kitak-wa.
