I

The Time Summer Time Did Not Come

In the month of the Eskimo calendar year during the moon of Nuwaitoivick (April), the spring weather came. It stayed until Ouchninick (May) and Naisearseavick (June) passed. After the birds of all kinds came to Alaska the weather turned cloudy and overcast. The wind turned into a northerly wind. The ground was all exposed. There was no snow. The rivers and creeks began to flow and the lakes had water.

Suddenly, it turned into cold weather. Soon the water stopped running . It froze over. Snow began to fly. Big storms came. This was in the Eskimo calendar at the end of the moon of Naisearseavick (June). The north wind was a very strong wind. People from all over — from Norton Sound up to the far North — could not go out hunting or fishing. The Inland people all starved to death except two people living at the upper end of Tuksuk Channel, three at Sinruk and two at Cape Darby. The big winter lasted all the time from that Naisearseavick until the next first of the Eskimo Calendar year, the start of the moon of Nuwaitoivick (April). There were eighteen months of cold, hard, winter weather. The only warm weather they had was two spring-weather months during Ouchninick (May) and Naisearseavick (June).

Some of the things that happened from the Third Disaster follow:

III

Nasaruhk Advises Paniruhk

The next morning Grandma did not say much to Paniruhk. She seemed to be thinking about something. Finally, the girl asked her why she was so quiet and not talking very much. The old lady said: “Paniruhk, I was wondering why we have lived to this day. Surely there must be someone looking after us because in this village we two are still alive. All the others have starved and died. We should be thankful for this, but I still do not know what or who we should say helped us. The others were so healthy and stronger than we are. But, they all died off. I watched every full moon time. This full moon is the seventh since the storm started, but we still struggle on, and we are still alive.

“Our great grandfathers used to tell us there are some things or someone close by us that is supposed to care for people. This also looks after all the animals in the land and sea and the fish in the waters. Every living thing, small or large, is looked after. I am beginning to believe what our old folks said. I do not know where it is staying, or what it looks like. Our grandfolks used to say we must not play or make fun of any living creature in the land or the sea. Whoever does a harm or plays unkindly with any sort of animal will get the same treatment sometime and die.

“They said: ‘Do not do any bad deed, but help the living creatures. If anyone is kind to people or animals they shall live a long time in this world.’

“I am getting old. My life is getting shorter, but I would like to live until we pass this trouble we are going through. Remember what I am telling you. These are our Forefather’s rules. People should follow them. If you have a future to live, always abide by these rules. They are things that people should abide by from generation down through the coming generations.”

IV

The Bad Weather Turns to Good Weather

One morning, not too long after Nasaruhk talked to Paniruhk about the teachings of the Forefathers, the old lady went out to see the weather. She had been doing that every morning for a long time. She wished the weather would turn out to be better, or change into good weather.

This day when she came out the sky was clear and blue. The sun was shining bright. There were no clouds and not a breath of wind. Grandma was amazed at the sudden change of the weather. She called Paniruhk to come out to see the beautiful weather. The girl heard her calling over and over. Paniruhk got out from her bed, put parka and mukluks on, and ran outside. She wondered what was making her grandmother so excited.

The girl looked around. Grandma was kneeling and looking up toward the sky. Paniruhk looked up, too. She saw a clear blue sky with a shining sun. She felt no wind on her body. The girl took a deep breath of air with a big smile on her face. At the same time she stretched out her arms with open hands upward. She felt excited and full of gladness. Tears ran down from her eyes. Nasaruhk and her granddaughter looked toward the sun feeling thankful for the changed weather, for they had been in stormy weather for seven months.

Paniruhk looked at her grandma. She ran over to her and grabbed her by the waist and cried. She was so happy. Then she said, “How nice it is that the weather has turned the way it is now. It is wonderful that whatever it is something has turned the mischief weather into great weather. There is something that still knows about us. Whatever it is, it does not despise us.”

The girl stopped talking. She did not say another word for a long time. Pretty soon, Grandma looked at Paniruhk, “Whatever it is, it has kept us alive until this morning so we can continue to live on. For seven months we have been in miserable weather. Now we must go on to live, even if it is to be hardship. Sooner or later we will reach nice spring weather.

“Now, Paniruhk, we might as well put every trouble we have in front of whatever is looking out for us. I am going to build a fire and put some of our things on it to show we are thankful.” Grandma built a fire. She put a little of the skin from the skin boat and some of the rawhide they had left from their eating on the fire. She put on some other things, too. She did it because she and her little granddaughter were grateful for the beautiful weather around them.

Nasaruhk looked up into the mountains and hills behind the Sinruk River. There were no clouds. The mountains and hills stood out all clear in the sunlight. The lands of the headwaters of the Sinruk River were all snow covered. When Grandma turned toward the ocean she saw ice was laying as far as her eyes could see. She looked at Sledge Island. It was still there as it had always been. Nasaruhk said, “It is good to see all of it all around once more. I thought I would never have a chance to see it again.”

The old lady took a piece of walrus skin and laid it on the fire for an offering. She put it right in the fire. “Now I have offered to someone or something a scent to make the weather smell good in the air and the wind. This is to say we hope we may have good fresh air from now on. This second gift is to show we are grateful our life has lasted to this time and something has helped us and made us to be brave enough to live through the storms. Please help us to reach the summer time and let me live through it. My grandchild is so young. My lifetime needs to be carried on until my little granddaughter can take care of herself.” Nasaruhk dropped another piece of walrus skin in the fire. Then she stood up and looked all around once more.

V

Somebody Else Lives

When Nasaruhk looked around she faced toward the house of Ahkoosieruhk. She saw smoke coming out from the place. She looked and looked. She did not believe her eyes. Finally, she looked at her granddaughter and asked, “Paniruhk, do your eyes see what I am seeing?”

The little girl answered that she saw smoke coming out of that house. Grandma said, “I will go up there and find things out. Maybe there is someone still alive. I will go now.”

When Narasuhk reached that place, she stopped. She thought about what she might find. “There was Ahkoosieruhk, himself, three boys and two girls, and his wife. I better not make any noise so whoever is in the house will not know I am here. Whoever is in the house might be someone who does not know me. It might not be Ahkoosieruhk’s family.”

So, the old lady crawled up to the house, not making any noise. She climbed up to the window to peep in. When she reached the window, it was made out of seal intestine sewn together. This let daylight into the house, but someone could not see through it into the house. Nasaruhk took a corner of the window cover and lifted it up without making any sound. It was big enough to peek through and look inside.

She saw Ahkoosieruhk seated in the middle of the room. He was sitting on the floor. His legs were useless and he could not walk. His spear was laying close to him. He was not very far from the fireplace.

Nasaruhk listened. Ahkoosieruhk was giving orders to someone in the house. The old lady looked where Ahkoosieruhk was looking. There she saw his wife at work on one side of an upright log. It stuck out from the side of the room. She was trying to get it free to use for firewood. She seemed to be very weak.

Ahkoosieruhk was saying, “You better take that wood off from there or else I will kill you, too, right now.”

The wife did not talk back. Her husband kept giving orders. “You better hurry up on that job. I am getting hungry.”

When Ahkoosieruhk said that, Nasaruhk looked around the room. She could not see anything to eat in the place. There were only bones around the fireplace. The old lady stared. Those bones were human bones. She thought, “This man used all of his three sons and two girls because their bodies are not to be seen in the room. The children are not laying anywhere. This man has used those children so he, himself, can live.”

Soon the wife had taken off the log for firewood. She laid it close to the fireplace. She was weak and exhausted. The husband kept ordering her. “You had better cut the log in pieces and then build a fire. This will be the last job to be done for me, anyway. I will kill you.” Then Ahkoosieruhk laughed.

The wife turned around and faced the man. She said, “You have killed all of our family. Now you will kill me, too. You are the only one to use our three sons, two girls and our one girl’s husband, too. I never used them as food, like you did, even though I am hungry. They are my children. You ordered me around to cook them for you. It was not easy to prepare to cut them up and cook them as food. You can kill me now. You will put me out of miserable hunger. I will be glad to die.”

Ahkoosieruhk got mad. He took his spear and threw it in his wife’s chest. She fell on the floor and died.

Nasaruhk looked through the window in horror. She thought, “When the wife’s meat is gone, the man will find himself suffering from hunger.” It seemed to Nasaruhk that she was getting older and older as she stayed there. She was getting real old from the shock. She could not even move for a long time because she had never seen anything like that before.

Finally the old lady was able to start away. She thought about the dead people in the other houses. They had no way to protect themselves. “They cannot save themselves from being eaten. If anyone is still alive, they are too weak to fight back.”

Before the old lady reached home, she thought about the chief of the village who was very dear to her. She went into his house and found his body. She took it outside and buried him in the Eskimo way.

Nasaruhk did this thing because he was the one who helped her and her little granddaughter all that he could before he got too sick from starvation to come and see them. The old lady took his spear, bow, arrow, and his knife with her when she left his house to go home. She was scared. She kept thinking about what she had seen. “Ahkoosieruhk might try to kill us, too. I must watch him very closely. It is a good thing he cannot walk. If he could walk he would be a real dangerous man to be around. He would kill anyone he could find. But he is helpless the way he is. His wife is gone. Soon he will be gone himself. There was no other food at his place.”

A few days went past. The old lady woke up one morning and went out to see the weather. She looked up toward Ahkoosieruhk’s house. There he was sitting outside of his home enjoying the weather. He was looking down the hill and he was looking at her.

Nasaruhk took the chief’s spear and went up to Ahkoosieruhk. She came not too close and then stopped. The man yelled out, calling her name. “Nasaruhk, is that you? Are you alive? Do I see a ghost?”

Ahkoosieruhk did not believe his eyes. The old lady answered him. “I am still alive.”

“You had better come close,” yelled the man, “so I can see you real good. Then I can believe my eyes.”

Nasaruhk answered. “No! I cannot. You have your spear with you. You are too dangerous to get too close to.”

Ahkoosieruhk replied. “I have got my spear with me because there might be a hungry polar bear come around. I do not take any chances. I am very glad to see you come. Why do not you come closer? I have not seen any other person since all of my family has gone.”

The old lady said, “You have lived up to this day because you used your family. That is why I cannot get close to you. I came here to warn you. Do not go near to my house. I have a big dog watching. The dog is tied up in my shed that covers the door to my house. You will have no chance to get in. It will be just too bad for you if you try to come near us.”

Then Nasaruhk went home.

It was one month since Nasaruhk had visited Ahkoosieruhk. The old lady went up once more. She came up to the window again. The warm wind from the south was shaking the intestine window cover. It made some noise, so Ahkoosieruhk did not know what was going on outside.

Nasaruhk climbed up carefully without making any noise. She opened up the corner of the window and peeked through it. She could see the whole inside of the house. There Ahkoosieruhk was sitting right close to the fireplace. He was looking at a big pot hanging on the fire. The pot was boiling. There was a human hand moving in the water from the boiling. It was his wife’s hand.

The old lady looked around to where the wife’s body lay. There laid her black hair and part of her body. Her breast bones were showing and there was not much left.

Nasaruhk climbed down from the window. She went home and told her granddaughter what she had seen. She warned Paniruhk, “You better not go near Ahkoosieruhk’s house because it is dangerous to be close to that place. There is only a small part left of his wife.”

Paniruhk listened to her grandmother and believed what she said.

VI

Spring Time Comes Back

The old lady stayed awake until midnight. She watched for the first quarter of the moon. When the moon came out she called Paniruhk. She taught her about the moon and stars. She told her about the clouds and how the winds come from the four corners of earth. That night, when the quarter moon came out, the face tipped upward. Nasaruhk told her granddaughter, “That means half of the month will be dry.”

The light wind blowing smelled good. The snow was melting away. The next morning the sun was shining down. It was a real spring weather coming once more. Now it was time to go fishing for tomcod.

That day Grandma tried fishing, but there were none to catch. The next morning she went out again to the tomcod holes. She found one dead fish. She was so excited to find the dead fish floating in the hole. She yelled at her granddaughter to come and look at what she had found.

Paniruhk ran to her. “What is it? What do you see?”

“Look,” Grandma pointed to the hole. “A fish! Ahree, it is good to see a fish once more. It has been twelve months since we had a fresh fish to eat.”

They boiled the fish and ate it, bones and all. The first fresh fish was a dead fish when they got it, but they sure did enjoy it. They looked for some more, but did not have any luck in any of the other holes. They walked around looking for other things they could use to eat. Paniruhk was walking over a bare spot on the ground. She bent down and started to dig in the ground with her fingers looking for grass roots. She kept digging until she had enough to eat with her grandma. She ran home feeling happy because they were going to eat something new. Paniruhk and her grandma sure did enjoy that meal because the roots were so sweet and soft. After a while they went back to get some more muzzue, but the ground was still frozen except where the first roots came from. There were no more there.

They kept looking for more bare ground. They heard a noise and saw one, and then two sea gulls flying by. Grandma smiled. “It looks like the spring has really come this time. Things will be better now.”

VII

The Story of Napauruhk

This story begins at an old village at Cape Darby and comes west along Norton Bay.

There was a woman named Napauruhk. This means “pointed.” She had a son named Anayuhk. This means “eddies in water.” They were the only two people left in the village at Ahtunook with very much strength. All the others were dead or so weak from starving they would soon die.

Napauruhk thought over what she should do. Most everyone was dead or dying. She saw if she stayed there things would get worse for her little son and herself. She would soon be getting weak like the others still living. In a few more days she knew she too would be gone. She was worried about her son. She did not like to see her son left to be all alone after she died. That thought made her feel sad and wonder what she could do.

Napauruhk made up her mind to go away from the village. There was not a thing in the place to eat or live by. She tried to fish for tomcod, but there were none in the water. She still had a few dried tomcod that she had found in a little storage hut about five miles from the village. There was still a little poke of seal oil. The mother decided she had better go away while she still had something to use. By now, everyone in the village was gone.

Napaurunk went all over to every house. She made sure there was no other people alive. There was nobody left in any house. The mother looked around for some things to wear on a journey. She found a squirrel parka, a woman’s rain parka, and four new pairs of water mukluks. She found some other things she would need. She got a small cooking pot, things to make a fire with, a woman’s knife, and then she took her husband’s spear, knife, bow, and arrows.

Napauruhk put her little son on her back and fastened her belt over her breasts to hold him safe in her parka. She started off going west from the village. Before she went around the point, she stopped and looked back toward the village. She looked where her husband lay in the spot where she buried him. She began to cry.

The tears were falling down her cheeks. The woman said to herself, “He is dead. He cannot help us anymore now. I must try and go on my way to somewhere that I do not know. A new country might help keep me alive. I must go.”

Napauruhk started off, wondering how long she would be traveling. She wondered how long she would be alive with only a few dry tomcods and a little seal oil to live by. Finally, she decided, “Oh, well, I must try. In the end, it will be either die or live.”

The mother looked back once more at her village. It was to be the last time. Once she passed around the point she would never see that place again. “Oh, it used to be a very good place to live. There were lots of things to live by. Now it looks so lonely and empty.”

Napauruhk stood looking at her village for a long time. It seemed like someone was talking to her, only not loud enough to hear by her ears. A voice seemed to say, “You must go. Face the whole world and taste both death and happiness. You will see a new world as far as you go. Go now, before it is too late. Keep on going until it comes to the end.”

The woman started off, walking with all the burden she carried inside and outside of her. She went on, weak from hunger, and her strength was leaving her now. She tried to forget her hunger. The weather was fine and the sun was shining. Her tears were still falling because she was sad to leave her husband. Napauruhk walked along, carrying her son. She was thinking and thinking. “I must not weep. I must have courage to face this travel. I must be strong and show happiness to my son, even if I do not feel it, and there is none in my heart. This is a new world to me full of many things to see with my own eyes.”

Pretty soon Napauruhk felt better. It seemed like something or some spirit was around her telling her what to do. Someone seemed to say, “You must go on with courage. Without courage you cannot face the days ahead. Just keep going on your way. The farther you go, the better it will be for you. It will not be easy, but it will be better than sitting and waiting to die.”

Napauruhk followed the beach, and she began to see new country. She walked and walked. She rested for a little while, and then she would go again. She saw lots of beach wood, creeks, lagoons, lakes, hills and mountains. When she got real hungry, she stopped. She gave a little dry tomcod meat to her boy and ate a little bit herself.

The sun was getting low at the west, ready to set. She began to wish she could find a place to stay for the night. She came around the point and she could see something ahead of her. It looked like a house. Sure enough, pretty soon she could see it was a fine house. The woman put her boy on the ground and went up and looked into the house. There was a family inside. They were all dead. They had starved to death.

Napauruhk carried them out and buried them in one place. She covered them with beach wood. She cleaned up the house and made a fire. Then the mother and her little son went to sleep for the night.

The next morning, Napauruhk started off again. She walked on and on. The little bundle of dry fish was almost gone and the woman was getting weaker and weaker. The mother would not eat much. She was saving the fish for her son.

The woman struggled on. The sun was getting high up and the daytime was getting hot. While she walked, Napauruhk was still thinking. “I wonder how we will sleep without any house to stay in. It is going to be cold at night. Too cold to stay outside. Maybe we should travel at night and sleep at daytime when the sun is warm. It is a good thing the spring season is warm during the daytime, but it is cold at night.”

Napauruhk picked out a good place to stay. She built a fire real close to where they were going to lay down. She built a shelter with beachwood and tried to make it a comfortable place to stay. All night long she got up and put some wood on the fire to keep them warm. During the night she looked up the dipper of stars. When the tail end pointed to the East, she knew daylight would soon come. She gave a little dry tomcod to her boy. After what little breakfast they had, the mother began walking again with her son on her back. That is the way they traveled for several days.

One day the woman made up her mind. They would stop walking in the daytime and walk at night. She found a real dry place to take a nap out in the sun. She thought, “It is a good thing I have a seal intestine rain cover. This will keep us warm and dry.”

Napauruhk began to walk at night. In the morning, when the sun came up, she stopped to sleep and rest. One night they came to Sunlik (Golovin). It was on the bay. The woman looked into every house. There was no one living. The woman found a new parka. It was an inside and outside squirrel skin parka. She found another four pairs of mukluks and a kayak sled. This was a short sled made for carrying a kayak on rough ice when out hunting for seal. It was six feet long and three feet wide. It had ivory plates on the runners. The mother took some other things like pots, a rain parka for herself and one for her son. “This time,” she thought, “we have everything we might use.” She loaded the sled and pulled it with the skin rope.

She kept looking. She found an old poke with a little oil in it, and some rawhide.

Whenever Napauruhk found a bare spot in the ground, she dug out grass roots. She began to feel better. Soon they had used most of their oil and the rawhide, and the dry tomcods were gone. It had come down to only the roots to eat.

The woman traveled at night. In the morning she was always very tired. She was exhausted from hunger. One morning they came to a nice dry spot to rest. Napauruhk laid her rain cover on the ground. Then she placed a caribou skin over it and laid down to rest. The sun was shining down on the mother and her son. Napauruhk put her husband’s spear along side them and was ready to sleep. The woman knew she would feel better after she had rested. While she lay there, she could see how the awful hunger would weaken her. She saw that she would not be able to do much traveling for too much longer. She began to worry about her son. She closed her eyes and thought about her husband.

“He used to bring in seal or caribou. We always had lots to eat. Now there is nothing to eat, and my husband is gone.”

Napauruhk began to fall asleep or to go away from her body like dying. She tried to shake herself awake. It seemed her ears could hear something a long way away, yet her ears really could not hear anything at all. She felt like she was beginning to sink in a deep hole. That is why she tried to shake herself in order to wake up. She came back from her dream. She found herself sitting up instead of laying down. She looked around to find out if she was still staying with her son. She saw she was still right where she made camp. So, she lay back to sleep once more beside her little boy. It seemed to the mother her load inside was getting heavier, yet she would do all she could for her son. She was scared, now, to close her eyes. She laid in the sun awake a long time. Later, all at once she slept again.

Napauruhk soon awoke from her second sleeping. She did not move. She felt funny. She seemed to hear something, somewhere far off. A voice seemed to call her name, but she could not quite make out what it was. She still did not move. Soon, she heard plain that it was a woman’s voice calling her by her name. Next time it called, it seemed she could remember that voice. It sounded like her grandmother’s voice. The woman moved at once, and sitting up, began to look around toward the voice. Then she saw it. It was her grandma. But, her grandmother died three months before the starvation time.

Napauruhk could not believe her eyes. She did not know if she was dreaming or if what she saw was real. Her grandma said to her, “Napauruhk, I come to tell you that you must continue to travel on.”

Napauruhk said, “Ahree, Grandma, it is good to see you in this time of trouble. My boy and I have come this far from home. Can you help us some way so we can be saved from this awful hunger pain in our stomach? We have been so long without anything to eat.”

Grandma answered, “Yes, I know what trouble you have. I have known what has happened to you right up to this day. You have been traveling for two months, now. I know you have tried to save your son, who is my second generation. Now you must go on again. Follow the coast. You will come to a storage hut filled with dry meat in oil. There is also dry fish and leaves in oil. You must stay there until you and your son get strong enough to travel on. Be brave and faithful and live with courage. Your boy will repay you for what you have done for him, even though you have great pain with your hunger. You have done a great thing for your people. Your son will be the father of another generation when he grows up to his manhood.

“Now, take him and go on. Do not delay any longer here because you are getting weaker. You must leave while you have a chance to continue traveling.”

Suddenly, Napauruhk’s grandma disappeared.

Napauruhk loaded the sled with all the things she had. She started walking again. She did not feel so good, yet she did her best. She was weak, tired, hungry, and exhausted. All these things worked together on her, but still she believed her grandmother. She continued on even though she had to stop and rest often.

Late in the night she could see something small sticking up. It was not very far way, but it seemed to take a long time to get there. She kept struggling on. Sometimes she almost dropped down to the ground. Her little boy lay in the sled. It was getting to where it seemed he could die anytime now. She looked at him every time she stopped. She kept talking to him. “You must not pass away from here. I will get us to the hut that Grandma said is there.”

At last she got to that place. There was a storage hut. Driftwood was laid upright in the entrance way. She worked on those pieces of wood. Pretty soon she took a piece out and she could peep inside. She saw some pokes were laying in there. She cried out with joy. She pulled enough wood away from the door to get out one of the pokes. She opened it and started to take out what was inside.

There was some oogruk (bearded seal), dry meat, some cooked meat, some blubber, and some green leaves. Napauruhk and her son had a feast on it. Then the mother took all the pokes out. She cleaned up all around the floor. Then she put dry grass inside, laid a caribou skin blanket on top and mother and son went to sleep. They slept and rested just fine.

Napauruhk and her son stayed several days at the storage hut. They rested and had plenty to eat. When they were strong enough, they had to go. They could not stay where they were because there was no way to get food. There was no place to fish and no ptarmigan around. The woman had been traveling a long time, but the only living thing she had seen was one seagull flying. There were no ground squirrels to be seen, either.

The snow was melting and the rivers soon would flow. Napauruhk figured she had better go before too much water came out from the river.

The mother and son started off once more with all of the grub from the hut piled with the other useful things on the little sled. It was quite a load, but Napauruhk could pull it along the shore ice. On they went.

They came to Rocky Point village. Napauruhk looked over to the top of the bluff. It was all bare and there was no snow to go on with the sled. She looked below the bluff. There was ice along the edge but it seemed the ice had been drifting in and out. It was rough and jagged. The woman took to the shore ice out on the bay. While she was going on the ice, a crack opened and the ice started to drift out. Napauruhk noticed the crack too late to jump across.

Napauruhk, her boy, and the little sled were on the ice as it drifted out farther and farther. Pretty soon they came to fog. They could not see land any more. They stayed in the fog for a long time. Napauruhk had to count the nights to know how long. They had been on the ice for fourteen days; the food was almost gone.

Napauruhk looked around to see if the ice was staying strong. She saw a big hole was melting through where the little sled was sitting. The ice was getting rotten. She tried to pull the sled to a safer place. She looked in that hole. She could see clear through the ice to the ocean water underneath. She got scared. She started to check the edge of the ice. Her legs gave way and she fell. She laid there until she could feel her legs were better. She tried once more to stand up, but her legs were very weak. The sled was partly over the water. She tried to pull the sled up on the ice. Finally, she did move the sled away from the water. Then she laid down for a long time.

While Napauruhk lay on the ice, the fog began to clear. The sun came out shining. Napauruhk felt so much better. Finally, she tried to stand once more. It was hard to do. Her little boy woke up. She tried to stand up once more. She made it this time. She made the few steps toward her boy in the sled, but she was still so weak her legs felt funny.

Napauruhk walked over to her boy. She took out what food they had left. They had some dry walrus and a little seal oil. She felt a little better. She raised her hands upward and gave thanks to whatever it was that saved her. She did not know whatever it might be. She believed there was something looking after her and the boy. She talked to someone to say thanks.

She waited to get stronger. It was getting better weather all the time. She and the boy rested and slept.

On the fifteenth morning, Napauruhk woke up and found there was wind blowing from the south. The ice field they were on was breaking up in smaller and smaller pieces. She watched from now on. The woman was worried. Then she said, “Why should I be worried now. We will both drown at the same time. We will both be dead at the same time. Before, I would die before my little son. Now we have a chance to die together.”

The big pieces of ice seemed to be drifting in toward land. That evening Napauruhk went to sleep. She did not have hope or courage left. All she wanted now was to die. She wanted to get away from hunger, suffering, and the terrible things she and her son had been through.

When Napauruhk woke once more, she saw the daylight was beginning in the east. She looked toward the land. She could not see anything. The heavy fog was on. Napauruhk laid down once more. Later she felt the ice touch something. She got up and looked. Sure enough, the ice was touching the edge of a beach. She could see it was there.

Napauruhk pulled the sled toward the beach but she could not pull the sled away from the water next to the ice. Half the sled was still in the water. They were on land again. It sure was good to be on ground instead of ice. She raised both her arms upward toward the sun. She cried, and told how thankful she was to whatever kept them from being out there where there was no land, only ice and sea. She talked out in her voice and said how grateful they were something had put her and the boy on dry land. She finally pulled the sled up on the beach.

Napauruhk made a camp once again. She could see a lagoon back of the spit where they landed. She could hear a seagull, too. After they ate a little, she put her son to bed. She did some digging for grass roots. Soon she, too, went to lay down. She closed her eyes, but she was not sleeping. She was so amazed that they were still alive. She thought of all the troubles they had been going through. She was wondering about it and what was going to happen to them.

Napauruhk heard an elderly woman calling. “Napauruhk… Napauruhk… Look here.”

Napuauruhk looked and she saw her grandma once more. Grandma began to talk to her. “You will see our future that you will come to. You will see all of it. You will see your generations go to generations. These generations will start from your son. Your son will be a great man. He will have a good wife. He will be the father to all of a second generation of this country. He will find a place to start a new generation where people will live happy. He will have everything in that place. That will be where he will raise his first family.

“Your son will have good ways and wisdom. He will lead others to better ways. He will help his new generation and the generation to follow. He will be a good teacher to his sons and daughters. His generation will learn a good manner from him and honest ways of living. He will be strong and healthy and so will his family. Your son will lead his people always with a good will. His sons will come to work together for the good of everybody. They will show by their ways the best ways to live by the land and with each other. This will be followed for generation after generation.

“Eeeee (yes), your son will have wisdom. He will teach all of his people with that wisdom. He will show them what it means to them. People will remember him as long as the earth is going on. His goodness will carry on by being told from generation to generation.

“Now, Granddaughter, look to your right.”

Napauruhk looked where her grandmother pointed. There she saw a big roomy house. It had two big caches and one skin boat outside. There was also a kayak. The skin boat was on four posts, and the kayak was hanging under one of the caches. There were five big dogs tied to posts.

Napauruhk turned to look at her grandma. The old lady was nowhere around. Then Napauruhk began walking toward the house. She came close. A fine man came out and met her with outstretched arms. He had a big smile on his face. He welcomed her. Then he said, “Ma, you still travel. Soon your journey will end, but you must see your future. Come on inside.”

They went into the house. Napauruhk found a woman with three boys and three girls sitting there. The man said, “These are your grandsons and daughters. I am your son. I am going to show you how old you will be when you come to great age.”

The man took a big wooden bowl with a handle on it, like a bucket. He filled it with water. Then he told Napauruhk to look in the bowl. “You will see yourself. You will see what it looks like when you come to see your family.”

The mother looked in the water. She saw herself. Her face was getting old. She looked thinner. She had lost her roundness.

Then the man said, “When you go outside you will see your third and fourth generation, but you will live up to your fifth generation. You must go now and enjoy your generations which you will all see coming in their time. You must look toward the north. Do not look back. Just walk up to them that you see.”

Napauruhk went out. She looked toward the north. There she saw seven big roomy houses. Each house had two big caches. Each house had a boat and kayak. There were seven men standing waiting for her, and six women with their children. As she came near, three men came to meet her. All were men with families. Then the three women came, too, with their families. They were all glad to see her. Everyone went into the house of the old man. The elderly man said, “Grandma, we are the third and fourth and fifth generation. You see this girl is making a little baby. She is my oldest daughter. She is making your fifth generation. I know you come over from our first and second generation. Now I will let you see what you look like now.”

He filled a wooden bucket like the one at the other house. Napauruhk looked in. She saw herself. She sure was real old. She could hardly recognize herself.

The elderly man began to talk. “You are still on your journey now, but you will live until you see us all down to this fifth generation. You will walk with a cane. See, here is your cane. Now, you have seen us all. You have to be on your journey.”

He gave the woman a cane. She tried to stand up, but she could not straighten up. She was so old she had to use the cane to stand up. She walked out, but she walked slow when she came out.

Napauruhk blinked her eyes. She looked around. She was sitting down beside her son. She looked for her grandmother. All that she had seen was there no more. There was only her son.

Napauruhk touched her face. She felt all around it. She was the same as ever. She stood up. She could stand straight. She did not feel old yet. All she could feel was hungry. She wondered what happened and what it was all about.

All day long while they traveled Napauruhk wondered about what she had seen. It must be her future-to-be. It was all she was hoping for now. She would want to see it all happen, if she could only reach it through this terrible journey.

Napauruhk looked at her son. “You are going to be a great man, after all. You will be the Second Generation.”

They traveled on. They came to a village. It was a big one, but there was no one alive. The village was called Iyaubsaruhk (a pointed piece of land). Napauruhk went over the place to every house, but the results were the same as everywhere. There was nothing to eat. Everyone was dead. Napauruhk and her boy went on. Soon they came to the mouth of the river. They camped there for the night.

The next morning, they started off again. They came to a mountain-side right in the edge of the ocean. There was an island out in the ocean past the mountain. It was about five or six miles out in the water. It was called Iyahuhk (place moved out from the mainland), Sledge Island. Napauruhk and her son went past the mountain. After some time they came to the mouth of Sinruk River. Napauruhk looked around and saw there was a village there. There was one house built away from the village on a low hill side. It was close to the river bank. When Napauruhk looked at it, she saw there was smoke coming out from inside.

Napauruhk was sure there was someone alive. She was glad to know she was going to see someone again. She went up to the place. She stopped outside of the house and cleaned her mukluks with a stick. She beat the snow off her clothes. When she looked around it seemed like no one had been outdoors for a long time. No one came out of the house. Yet, smoke continued to come out from the inside. So Napauruhk went in. She saw a man sitting close to the fireplace. She made a noise so he would see her. Just as soon as he heard the noise he grabbed hold of his spear and looked up.

The man wiped his eyes to make sure of what he saw. Finally he spoke. “I did not know there was anybody alive besides me.” He laid his spear down. “Come in. I sure am glad to see someone once again.”

Napauruhk went in and sat right close to the doorway.

The man asked her, “Where do you come from? I am the only one that survived from my whole family.”

Napauruhk looked around. She saw where some of the upright wood from the house was gone. She looked at the fireplace. There was some of the house wood the man had been using for firewood. There were pieces of heavy bone laying around. Napauruhk began to wonder what had kept this man alive for this long. She still looked around wondering. Over on the other side of the fireplace she saw a face with long hair around it laying on the floor. One side of the woman’s breast was there, but the other side was gone. There was only the top of the woman’s body left.

Napauruhk began to know her answer. That man had lived off his family. She began to get scared. She could hear her heart thud.

The man was talking. “I cannot walk. I sure am glad to have some company. It is good to have someone to talk to.”

Napauruhk was thinking. “Ahree, and someone to kill and live off of, too.”

Napauruhk could not sit there any longer. She said, “I have to go and get my things. The same time I must relieve myself.”

She stood up and took her boy along. She watched the man real close because he looked mean and dangerous. As she started going out, the man got his spear and threw it at her. Napauruhk stopped in time. The spear missed her, but it almost did not. It landed in one of the upright woods at the side of the door.

The man was Ahkoosieruhk the one who scared Nasaruhk. He said, “I did not mean to kill you. This happens to me some times. I lose my mind some times and do things that I should not do. Do not be afraid of me. I will not do it again to you. Just stay with me. We can get along fine together.”

Napauruhk was scared. She ran out and went down to another house. She was very afraid. That spear had missed her only by an inch. She almost got killed.

The woman went toward the other houses. She looked carefully this time. She did not want to land in another dangerous place, so she watched very close before her.

All at once Napauruhk saw a person standing on the other end of the village. She stopped and rubbed her eyes. She looked again. Sure enough, there was a person with a tocmuk (woman’s dress) on. The woman walked toward her. Before she got to Napauruhk, she stopped. She looked carefully at the woman, then she started toward Napauruhk again. When she got close, Napauruhk could see she was an old woman. The old lady said, “Where are you coming from?”

Napauruhk replied, “A long ways — Ahtunook.”

The old lady welcomed her. “Come, let us go to our home. It isn’t much of a house, but it is good enough for my granddaughter and me.”

They came to the place. The old lady looked at Napauruhk’s sled. She saw a face in the sled. She stopped and looked at the young woman with wide eyes open in surprise. “What do you have here?”

Napauruhk answered the old lady, “He is my boy.” By that time the old lady’s granddaughter came out of the house to see what had happened to her grandma. Then she heard her talking to someone.

Napauruhk grabbed the little girl and hugged her. The old lady cried out, “So, we have young people with us, too! Oh, it is so good to see people alive!”

The old lady asked the young woman if she had been in Ahkoosieruhk’s house. Napauruhk told her about what happened and how he almost killed her with his spear. The old lady told her that he was a real dangerous man.

Then the old lady said, “I am called Nasaruhk. My granddaughter is Paniruhk.”

The younger woman replied, “They call me Napauruhk and my son is called Anayuhk.”

Then the two women sat together and told each other their stories of the past days since the starvation time began. Soon they decided to stay together.

VIII

The Story of Napauruhk and Nasaruhk

Napauruhk and Anayuhk stayed with Nasaruhk and Paniruhk. They rested, but everybody was still hungry. The women caught a few snipes with little snares, but it was not enough for them. They set out little snares, but only the birds without much meat were caught in them.

One day, not too long after they came, Napauruhk talked to Nasaruhk, “I must go and find something to eat for all of us. The spring is getting late, now, but the shore ice is still staying on along the beach. I will look for something along the way and bring back what I find. Even if I do not find anything, I will come back.”

She put her little son on her back. They had only two birds to take along to eat. They started off without the sled and walked along the Tisue River. Pretty soon they came to a house. There was no one in it. They found only an old pot in there. Napauruhk gave one of the birds to Anayuhk. It was an eaglet. Napauruhk talked to her son. “I will leave you here. I must go on to find food for us. I am getting weak and I cannot carry you too long now. I may go a little faster if I do not carry you. You wait here. I am going along the beach to see what I can find.”

Napauruhk started off. She cried, but she did not let her son see the tears on her face. She walked on. Finally, she came to the point of land. When she went around to the other side there was a bay. The bay seemed to be close to a big mountain. There was a lagoon back there.

Napauruhk walked on ice toward the lagoon. She saw something white way up in the air. She looked at it. It was a seagull. She went on, closer and closer to the place where she saw the seagull. There were some more seagulls. Soon she could hear them crying. She went where the sound came from. She wanted to see what the seagulls were hollering about. Come to find out, there were lots of seagulls on the ice and in the air.

Napauruhk was thinking. “When those seagulls are staying together, they usually stay where the food is.”

Napauruhk walked on along the ice. She could see Synitoo Mountain. She came near to Tisue River mouth. When she came near the mouth of the lagoon she looked up in the sky. She saw lots of seagulls flying around. Then Napauruhk went real close to where the seagulls were. She could see they had picked up some things from an open crack in the ice. She went to the crack and found lots of dead tomcod. The seagulls were eating them. “Eeeee,” she thought, “if those seagulls eat those dead tomcod, they should be good enough for me.”

Napauruhk looked at all those tomcod. She was so hungry she picked up one and took a bite off its tail. She did not eat any of the meat because she did not know why there were so many dead tomcod there. She did not want to get sick from eating them. She was afraid if she ate too much she might kill herself. She gathered up a lot of those dead fish and threw them on top of the ice so the seagulls could eat them. They were hungry. Every once in a while she would take a bite off the tail of a tomcod and chew it and swallow it. She still felt all right.

After a while she went over to the beach and pulled out some little willow roots that grew along on top of the ground. She went back and strung the tomcod on them. There were lots of beachwood logs around that place. Napauruhk put the strings of fish on the logs so the water could drain out of them. Later the sun began going down. Napauruhk began to worry about her little boy. She put one string over her shoulder and walked back to where she left Anayuhk. He was asleep, but his face had tears on it from his crying.

When things were ready, she woke him up and gave him a little fish meat and some soup. He could not eat too much. It was so rich, and he was not used to it. Napauruhk just gave him a little bit and then he had to wait before he could have a little bit more. Then they both went to sleep. The next morning they felt better. Then Napauruhk boiled up lots of tomcod and they could eat all they wanted.

After they were all filled up, Napauruhk told her son, “We will go up to that place I found these tomcod in the morning. We will pick up lots of those fish to take home to Sinruk for the old lady and her granddaughter.”

All that day they worked on the fish, hanging them up to dry. They spent three days drying the fish. Then they started off toward Sinruk so they could return with the sled and a camping outfit.

Napauruhk gathered up the strings of tomcod and put her little boy on her back. They walked back to Sinruk River to the grandmother and Paniruhk. Nasaruhk was happy they would have some fresh fish to eat. She was thinking, “It was a good thing we had that skin from the skinboat to chew on or to boil and get a little food. Now I know why people call that skin cover a life-saver. It kept us alive until the weather got better and we can put out snares or catch fish under the ice.”

When they got to Sinruk, everyone was very happy. They all got ready to go back to the tomcod place. A dog had come into the village at Sinruk. Nasaruhk had tied it to a post. They started off the next day with a big sled with a camping outfit and the dog to help to pull it. Soon they came to where the fish were in the crack.

They went to work. They hung up lots of fish to dry. One morning Napauruhk looked out on the field of ice. She saw something black out on the ice. Soon she could see that thing was moving. The wind was blowing from the west.

Napauruhk called to Grandma to come and see. The old lady came out of the tent and asked what all the excitement was about. Napauruhk pointed out to the field of ice. “There is a seal or something out there! I am going out there to find out what that thing is.”

Napauruhk took a harpoon spear with her and started out. The ice was real rough. Pretty soon, she came up to the animal. She pecked around a jagged piece of shore ice. The animal was a big oogruk laying on the ice basking in the sun. Napauruhk moved closer. Every time the oogruk lifted its head to look around, she stopped. Napauruhk did everything the same way she had seen her father do when she saw him go to kill an oogruk. He had taken her with him one time when he went hunting in the spring.

Napauruhk tried to get close so she could throw her harpoon. She took her time to get up real close. She never made any noise, either. Soon she got real close. She raised up and threw the harpoon as hard as she could. She let it go into the water when the oogruk jumped off the edge of the ice. She tied one end of the rawhide rope to a big hunk of shore ice. Pretty soon the oogruk drowned. She pulled it from the water.

Napauruhk climbed up on a tall piece of pressure ice. She went up high and then she called to the old lady. “Nasaruhk… bring the sled. Bring an oolu and a bucket.” Then Napauruhk ran to meet the old lady and told her she had gotten an oogruk.

The old lady was glad to hear the news. Napauruhk brought in the oogruk and cut it to make dry meat. They saved all the fat in a seal skin poke. They had meat and oil now to eat with the dried tomcod.

Every day Napauruhk went out to hunt oogruk or seal so they would have lots of food. She had good hunting and was successful. The women built a big cache to store the meat and covered it with skins so it would not get wet. Finally, when they had a good supply of grub, they went back to Sinruk to stay until the ice went out.

One morning Nasaruhk noticed there was no smoke coming from Ahkoosieruhk’s house. The old lady went up to the place. She went to the window and looked in. There was no one close to the fireplace. She looked around some more. She saw Ahkoosieruhk. He had killed himself with his own spear. The spear was still sticking up through his body. That was the last of Ahkoosieruhk.

“He will not worry us any more. He is not dangerous now.” the old lady thought as she looked at him.

One fine morning the ocean was real calm. The old lady said, “We should go up to the mouth of Tisue to get meat and fish oil.”

They got down one of the new skin boats. They started off pulling the skin boat with rawhide ropes. They let the old lady steer the boat. Napauruhk pulled the boat along the shore. That was a lot easier than packing things on their backs. Soon they reached a storage cache near Sinruk village. Inside they found a lot of pokes to store dry meat, cooked meat, and dry fish. They also found fish nets of all sizes. Some were seines, some were salmon nets, and some were seal nets. Now they would be well stocked up with useful things before they left Sinruk River. They had everything they needed.

They went to Tisue for summer camp. They put in nets for white-fish and trout. There were lots of them. They got many kinds of fish that summer. They dried them and they put them in pokes with oil, too. One day the old lady talked to Napauruhk. “We better build a home for winter at Kahluluric (Cape Wolley). There, at the point, there was a lot of wood when I was a girl. Dad and Ma used to stay there in the fall season. Dad used to put seal nets out at the point in the fall. He used to catch lots of seal and white whales. He used to go hunting for squirrels. He killed a bear once and he got two or three caribou. We better fix up a place and winter there.”

The old lady was right. There were lots of animals to use at the point, and lots of fish in Tisue nearby. All around were lots of berries and leaves. Those four people continued to live that way until Anayuhk and Paniruhk got big enough to become man and wife.

IX

The Story of Anayuhk and Paniruhk

In the month of Segkuitoavick (September), during the full moon, old Nasaruhk died. The others put her body in an old walrus skin and laid her on a driftwood cache. Then they piled driftwood upward all around her body. You could see the big pile from a long distance. That pile is all dry and rotted out now, but the remains can still be seen.

Anayuhk and Paniruhk had children before Nasaruhk died. They had three boys and three girls. Napauruhk began to see now how her dream was beginning to come true. She had the first and second generation now. She was not quite old yet, but she noticed she did not feel like she did in other times. She was still lively and her health was good. She was still strong and active in many ways. She taught her grandchildren about the ways of their great grandfathers and mothers and how they once lived. She told them many times about their good-will for people and how people must be helpful to anyone they meet. She taught them they must also have good-will toward all living animals in the land and sea and be helpful to them, too. She told them how they must not play with the animals. They should kill them when they needed them and not waste them. She explained what the old folks taught her.

“There is someone or something looking after living things, so no one will go hungry. Someone gave the animals to be useful to many people. Soon someone will take life away from us if we are greedy or mean to the animals. Our lives will all be short. If you children obey your parents, no one will be in trouble. Do not tell lies. Be truthful to your parents. Be truthful to anyone. If you do, you will have a long life. Do not take anything that is someone else’s. Always ask before you take something. Be clean in your life. You will live long and be strong and healthy.”

Time passed. One time in Naisearseavick (June), Anayuhk watched the moon. At midnight the moon was showing. It leaned backward. In the morning he said to his family, “The moon is good. We must travel with the boat. We will have good dry weather for traveling. Let us get ready to explore the country. My mother had a dream about a place where we would live and she would see five generations come. It was not this place. We should look for the country of my mother’s dream. It is a promise of a better place with plenty to live by. I have made up my mind. We must find that land before I get old. We must all see it with our own eyes.”

They all went to work to get things ready to leave the next morning. That evening Paniruhk asked her husband, “Where shall we go?”

Anayuhk answered her, “We must find a land of plenty to live on because there will be many more people in our family some day. First we will go up beyond the cape [Cape Wooley]. We will go up north and then we must go south.”

Very early in the morning they loaded the boat and left their home. They traveled all day. Before too long, they came to new country they did not know. After two days’ travel, they came to a long spit. The place is called Point Spencer now. They looked to the east. A big bay was between them and a high hill on the other side. The next morning they came to a channel in the spit (Point Spencer). Anayuhk looked at the water. It was going into that big lake from the ocean. He thought that was strange. He thought maybe there was a hole someplace on the other side of the lake (Grantley Harbor) so the water could come out. He decided to go in with the water. He had not seen tide like that before, so he did not recognize what it was. So, he followed it in and came to the place near where Teller is now. One of his children said, “Look! There is someone on the beach. You can see them walking around.” Everybody in the boat was real excited to see another person alive besides themselves. Anayuhk turned the boat toward the place. Before they touched the beach, two people came out to meet them. A woman and a boy stood by the water. They were both smiling. There were lots of dry fishes hanging on the poles beside them. All those people were sure glad to meet each other.

Everybody helped to pull the boat up. They put a tent up. It was made of caribou skins. Then they all ate. While they were eating the women told each other their stories.

The woman who lived at that beach told how she came from a village at the other end of Tuksuk. Everybody there starved and died but her and her son. She was called Nakhak. She became a second wife of Anayuhk.

The next morning, they started traveling again. Soon they came to the mouth of Tuksuk. (It is a big gorge. It makes a deep channel between Grantly Harbor and the Salt Lake of Imuruk Basin) They went through the channel and came out the other end. The tide was going out. They stopped and picked lots of leaves there. There were all kinds. Some of them they cooked. Some of them they put up in seal oil without cooking. They began to have new things to eat. They had fresh fish and salmon.

They could see a big mountain on the south side of the lake. On the north side there were low hills. It seemed like nice country. This was the place where Anayuhk’s second wife had lived. It was called Kungahruhk.

When they got up the next morning, Anayuhk looked at the water. It was going back toward the sea. He was amazed. “Where is that water going?” he asked his wife. “That is the tide,” she told him. She explained how the tide worked in that Imuruk Basin country. “It comes in all across the big salty lake, and even goes up the rivers for a long, long way. When the wind is blowing from the west, it goes up even farther and sometimes the rivers get pretty deep in places. The tide breaks up the ice when fall time comes, so it takes quite a while for the water to stop running. My people used to get seals and white whales, even oogruk, in this big lake before the two winters came.”

Anayuhk had learned something new. He said to his two wives, “We will wait until the tide changes again. Then we will go on and look at some more of this country. It is all new to me. I want to see what it looks like. It looks like we have found a good place to live by.”

After they rested, they started off again. There was no night time. The daylight stayed all the time. When they came to the last hill that stuck out into the lake they stopped between the rocks. Anayuhk climbed to the top of the hill. When he got there, he looked east. He saw the lake ended on a big plain. The flat land laid on the northern side. That land sure did look nice and good. He thought about what he saw. “Maybe this is the land of plenty to live by in the dream. Maybe we will find what my mother’s grandmother promised if we go on.”

Anayuhk climbed down. After they ate they got in the boat and started off again. They went on the north side of the lake. When they came to the edge of the lake they found birds of all kinds and sizes to catch. There were fish of many kinds in the rivers coming into the lake. They traveled up some of the rivers and found small lakes. There were lots of fishes in them, too. They camped on the edge of the lake and dried the fishes they caught for winter use. They went to the end of the lake. There they found berries that they saw would be ripe soon.

When the berries were ripe they put up fourteen pokes of berries for winter use. They had lots of dried fish and more were on the drying poles.

Anayuhk left his family when they had lots of fish and berries. With his kayak he went to the hills to look for caribou. He would live off the country. Pretty soon he came into rivers with worn down mountains and big hills. In a creek he found lots of caribou. He killed three big fat male caribou and went home with a heavy pack on his back and bringing fats, sinew and new skins in his kayak. He and Paniruhk went out to get the rest of the meat. Then he took his second wife, Nakhak, with him to get some more caribou. After a while, they got enough meat.

After hunting, they explored the plain some more. They went up the river as far as the place now called Mary’s Igloo and reached the upper end of Kotzebue Slough. They decided to make winter camp there because they could see there were many fish in that place. They saw Ling cod, white fish, pikes and other kinds. Anayuhk put traps in the rivers and caught lots of fish. He put out snares for rabbits and ptarmigan. Everything they needed was right there and they lived happy.

The next year, when the summer weather came, they traveled again. When they came to Point Spencer, they decided to go north. That summer they reached the place where Kotzebue is now and went on until they came to Point Hope. There they found a young man with his mother. They were the only ones left from the starvation disaster. One of Anayuhk’s girls became a wife to that young man. Anayuhk’s family left her there and went back to Kotzebue. They made a winter camp. When spring came they went back to Imuruk Basin. They spent the next winter there.

When summertime came again, they traveled south with the skin boat until they came to Napauruhk’s old village. Most of the houses were broken down. There was nothing much left but driftwood frames sticking up. They were all rotting out. They stopped a while. Soon after they started up again, they came to the mouth of the Koyuk River. This was fine country, too, but it was not good compared to the Imuruk Basin plains. The family wintered in the Koyuk River country that year.

As soon as the ice was gone in Norton Sound, they started off again. They went to the place called Pikliktalik now. There they found an elderly man with one girl. She became a wife to one of Anayuhk’s boys. The family took the man and the girl with them. They went farther down the coast. They found no land like the country up at Imuruk Basin. They did not find any more people living. Soon they turned to go back up the coast. The man from Pikliktalik became husband to Napauruhk.

Two years later, they all came to Imuruk Basin again. There Napauruhk saw the fourth and fifth generation born. Both Napauruhk and her husband lived up to the fifth generation.

All of Napauruhk’s dream came true. Finally, she had to use a cane to stand up and to walk. One day she died. Her body was placed not far from the end of Salt Lake. Her husband died a little later. Both their bodies were put in the same place. Today, there is grass growing on their remains. Only a few people know where that place is.

The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth generations of Napauruhk are our great, great, great forefathers. The Father of our people is Anayuhk. Our Mother is Paniruhk. They kept our people alive after the Third Disaster. No one would have survived the terrible time of starvation and we would not have lived in our time if their folks had not saved them. We call them our Second Generation Mother and Father. They lived most of their life-time in Imuruk Basin. This was before Kauwerak village was built. They were the first generation of Kauwerak Eskimos. They had lots and lots of grandchildren for several generations. Anayuhk and Paniruhk lived up to a real old age. They are resting in graves not far from Napauruhk and her last husband. We old folks are proud of our Second Generation Mother and Father and we still know where their graves are today.