Alaska a mix of many cultures

I am grateful I found the little house I live in.

It is outside the thriving cities of Kenai and Soldotna, which are both really just towns. Kasilof (population 380) consists of a lovely large log post office and two stores.

A few miles up the road toward Soldotna black spruce, the only trees that grow here, are stunted from the perma frost. Some of them may be 80 years old but they are 20 feet tall or less and the boughs are short stubs.

I was pleased to discover that black-capped chickadees live in Alaska. Not many people feed birds here, but I may try.

The building I call home is called the McClane Center, named after a family of homesteaders. It is owned by the town of Kasilof and was used for a library and historical center. The woman I rent it from lives in Homer.

Homer (popular 3,660) is 60 miles away and is home to Tom Bodet of the Motel 6 ads; he also is a writer. Homer is almost the last stop on the road of the peninsula. It is, I’ve been told, a combination of counter-culture types and artists as well as people who fish for a living.

Outside the front door of this house is the cellarhole (or floor) of an Athabascan Indian house, a berabra. The sign says the sides were made of log and the roof was thatched. There was a central fireplace and it was semi-subterranean.

Athabascans were nomadic. They occupied the interior area of Alaska and traveled seasonally from village to village to hunt and fish. The ones who lived on Cook Inlet fished for salmon.

There are so many different cultures in Alaska that it is impossible in the short time I have been here to absorb all I want to know.

Just a few miles down the road towards Homer is Ninilchik. It is a Russian community complete with a Russian Orthodox Church.

Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. The Russians had been in Alaska for 100 years and although few of them actually lived here, their presence brought disease and death to most of the natives.

The Aleuts were reduced to less than 20 percent of their original population through disease, starvation and warfare.

Everyone remarks as I do when they arrive here that there are few natives. Well, they are here. They are quietly and unobtrusively living their lives.

One Den’ina man, Peter Kalifornsky, is 80 years old. He has just published a book of his writings which is the “only” link these natives have to their culture. He has struggled to remember stories and things told him by his parents and grandparents.

Their culture was destroyed when the Russians came here 200 years ago, and now most of the memories are a wash of Russian culture combined with their own. Many are trying to gain some insight into their past so they can understand themselves and tell their children who they are. For them, the last 200 years have been tragic. What culture remained after the Russians landed was only passed by stories; nothing was written down.

These people have actually had to watch while bones of their ancesters were dug up by contractors at a construction site. When they protested, the digging continued. One man hurried out into the site whenever he spotted a bone and took it to his car to be buried later. Their story is very sad indeed.

When Kenai celebrated its bicentennial last year, many could not understand why anyone could or would celebrate the landing of the Russians. The celebration was just another slap in the face to the natives.

Nancy Watson, a Fort Fairfield native, is experiencing