OLAC Record oai:ahtnaheritagefoundation.com:OTHB01-0005-01

Metadata
Title:		Markle & Virginia Pete
Access Rights:		standard
Date:		1987-11-18
Description:		OTH-B Native Consultation Project Markle Pete - 30 years in Tazlina Village, born in Copper Center on 10/27/28 in the old village on this side of the river, Taltsiine clan, parents are Mentasta and Taha Pete, Dad came from Mentasta and Mother came from Upper Tonsina. Spent winters in Copper Center. No book type schooling. Learned Ahtna language since baby people talked Ahtna to him. Learned english by listening to white people speak it. Spring time went duck and muskrat hunting, summer was fishing, fall time was moose and other food. Trapping, hunting, fishing, making snowshoes and sleds to make living. Changed lifestyle since he was a kid. After the war in 1940 to now has changed. War and people from down south ruining our country. Too much easy lifestyle and too much liquor. Mostly sad to see traditional ways going away. Wants to see young people learn the traditional ways of the Ahtna people. Young people don't know how to track moose. Would like young people learn to hunt like in old days. Used to gather young people together to teach them traditional ways, language and culture. Liquor made people crazy. Housing came and made them move is why the village is now. The old village is below where the new housing is at. 6 years the new village been there. All the parents decided to move across the river on this side so kids can go to school. People moved because of marriage, people never lived in Copper Center all the summer, put fish away for the winter, used to hunt and trap for living. Trapped and hunted where they can get food and trapping. In the old days, Chiefs tried to teach youngster how to survive and live. how to run the village right. What made a chief a chief? He would be smart, made a good living for his family, taught his family. He would be rich. the chief would make the bow and arrow and other items for war. He would make things for the village. How would a village choose a chief? Indian wars, there was wars with other villages or people. A chief had to make the decisions for the war. If there was another chief they would both be respected as chief. The chief would decide what was right or wrong. If someone did something bad in the village the chief decided what that person would do to repay the crime. They did hard labor for everyone in the village. If the person did something really bad the person would be killed. Knew only Chief Andrew, heard of many chiefs, Chief Nicholai, Tyone, Ewan, Stickwan. Nicholai was Taltsiine, need to ask Morrie, Stickwan was Taltsiine. Chief Ewan was Neltsiine. Tyone was Tsisyu and Chief Andrew was the same clan. From Chitina all the way up Copper River all the chiefs were Neltsiine, from what he heard. Chief Nicholai was Taltsiine. Never stayed home because there was hunting, fishing, trapping and getting food for the winter. Mentasta Pete, Tony Jackson, Louie Lincoln, Oscar Ewan all knew the old days and the old ways. Tom Bell, Patty King, Susie King, Frank Charley, Adam Sanford all knew the traditional ways. Thousands and thousands of years the Ahtna People been in this valley. All over Copper Valley there were stories told of old ways and people. All over the place not just one place. Nenana, Knik, Tanana there were stories about. Are the old stories important to you? Yes. The good things were taken from the villages and the old people are gone. Parents and other people were raised in the old villages and there are graves there. Young people are losing their traditional ways and lifestyle. If these people were alive maybe the people would go back to old lifestyle. The army made the villagers move away from their homes and old villages. Are the graves important to you? Yes, very important. It would hurt to have graves disturbed by anyone because it is family that is buried there. In 1942 the army moved Virginia's family, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister, to Tazlina from Dry Creek. The graves are still there near the airport. Any place that is important to Ahtna people? Mount Wrangell, Kel/t' aeni, Willow mountain, used to hunting up there What were some of the things that had to be done to make it right when burying someone? Had to be different clan, couldn't go out and bury own family members, this made it right. Which clan would bury Taltsiine? Udizyu or Tsisyu. Had to be cousins who buried. Funeral dinner and then potlatch. Different clans get the stuff, make speech, today this is drifting away, the older people made speeches to thank people. Fence put around the grave or little house over the grave. Fence to make sure that grave didn't get disturbed or stepped on. Stepping grave is disturbing grave, Indians got really mad for doing that. Chiefs made big speech about stepping, playing around the grave, or disturbing. Chief said everything about the person who disturbed the grave. What do you think about the people who want to come into the region to look at old village or study the village and maybe dig and look around for old items in the old villages? both Markle and Virginia say they don't want that to happen. People took a lot of old timer stuff and take it to museums and make money off of it. Don't think they should make money off of our things. Are some old villages or graves more important to you? All graves are important, they dug up many, many graves on the road construction. Car running over them along the highway. Is there any way through traditional ceremonies that a grave can be moved? If this had to happen. Move it back to village to where the family was. Bring casket to remove body and then rebury in the old village. Air Force will have to have a potlatch for fixing fences or moving the grave. How did the pipeline affect the Ahtna Indians? It ruined our country and jack up the high price of everything. Left us with hard time. Ruined our old homes, now we can't shoot moose at three mile because of restrictions. Used to be our hunting place at three mile. . Language as given: aht
Format:		Digitised: 0; Media: compact cassette; Media description: Maxwell UDS-II 90
Identifier:		OTHB01-0005-01
Language:		Ahtena
		English
Language (ISO639):		aht
		eng
Subject:		Ahtena language
		English language
Subject (ISO639):		aht
		eng
OLAC Info
Archive:		C'ek'aedi Hwnax Ahtna Regional Linguistic and Ethnographic Archive
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/ahtnaheritagefoundation.com
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:ahtnaheritagefoundation.com:OTHB01-0005-01
DateStamp:		1987-11-18
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		n.a. 1987-11-18. C'ek'aedi Hwnax Ahtna Regional Linguistic and Ethnographic Archive.
Terms:		area_Americas area_Europe country_GB country_US iso639_aht iso639_eng
Inferred Metadata
Country:		United KingdomUnited States
Area:		AmericasEurope