Going through my mom’s garage, we found some things. These are the mittens and mukluks I wore when I was a little kid, all made by my mom:
This is a parka my mom made for me out of the skin of an unborn caribou that an elder gave her for me when I was a baby:
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This was my toy phone. I didn’t really know what a phone was, except that my mom would talk into it and then hand it to me, and turn the knob.
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And these are my first shoes, my baby shoes that a woman who was like a godmother to me (it was her husband who fished my dad out of the river, all those years ago) made:
We found them in a box with a letter, saying that my mother was sending the shoes to her mother for safekeeping, that we were heading out to trapline in a couple days and my mom was sending Christmas presents now, that they had paid $300 and 50 fish for a freezer on someone’s porch, and that I was pretty grumpy (“maybe it’s that tooth, or maybe that she’s spoiled”) and almost potty trained.
Those are so friggin cool!
J
http://adventuresinvoluntarysimplicity.blogspot.com/
yes!! more pictures please!! more written history!!
holy shit- an unborn caribou skin. You kill me with the twists and turns of your story.
love you.
still here. money’s ok.
Wow… I’m totally amazed right now. I could’ve kept reading for hours! Is there more? At least more history you wouldn’t mind sharing with us?
I always feel a little ignorant when I’m amazed by such things, because to me, these are things I only know from films and documentaries and books. But I still hope to take that roadtrip across the US one day and then I’ll see them for real!
Cheers 🙂
Anna
awwww, tara those things are so adorable. you are lucky to still have them around. i envy your sense of belonging there in alaska…
That’s awesome. How great they actually made things for you!
Those are cool 🙂