OLAC Record oai:ahtnaheritagefoundation.com:OTHB01-0008-01

Metadata
Title:		Pete Ewan
Access Rights:		standard
Date:		1987-11-23
Description:		Full name: Peter Frank Ewan, born in Copper Center on August 15, 1915 and lived in Copper Center all of his life and lived in Gulkana until he got married. He is Tsisyu clan. Alexander Ewan and Frank Ewan is his parents. Dad was Teltsiine and Mom was Tsisyu. Mom was Walter Charley's sister and Sophie's sister. Dad's Dad was Old Ewan Spent winters way out in the country. Before 1942 Ewan and Fish lake was where winters were spent. No book schooling. Where did you learn to speak English? Listen to them talk. When you were young how did you survive and what was the lifestyle? Summer time we fish, make dry salmon, after muskrat season in spring time we start fishing in June. Make dry meat for winter and put in cache, keep it for winter. Trap all kinds of animals in the winter. Trapping and hunting for everything. They taught us how to fish, how to hunt and how to keep meat and dry fish for winter and how to trap and how to survive in the woods. Story about being prepared for anything. You never know what is going to happen to you. Help others, don't let them go away hungry. Give them last of what you got. What did they teach about handling game meat? The whole moose or caribou we eat except the guts. Take care of meat carefully. If we don't treat the animal right we won't get it anymore. We don't take anything more than what we need. When we really need. Stop wheel when there is too much fish or anything. Can't waste anything. somebody could use the extra fish, moose or caribou. How did people regulate how much animals to take? People respected each other's trap line, hunting grounds, or fish camps. don't go somebody's place and take over. Has life style changed? Quite a bit. 1940 is when it really started to change. Because the white man come in and take things over. How did you change? White man don't change him a bit. Mostly sad about the traditional change. Liquor changed it drastically. We cannot go back to traditional way because all the Indians talk like white man now. Why is village there now? (new Copper Center) Used to be Kluti Kaah? Spelling is wrong. Don't know how long the old village was there? 72 years old now and hundreds of years before he was born it was there. Old Chiefs? Chief Ewan, Gakona George, top man, Chief Nicholai, There was a village at Hogan Hill way long time ago. Tangle Lakes another village was there. Frank Billums' and his Grandpa was not from around here. His Grandpa and Frank Billum's Dad came from Big Delta area. Chief Andrew, Chief Goodlataw, Chitina chief, Strelna was his home. Chief Nicholai was Alts'e'tnaey clan. Who are the old Indians who are not alive today? Big Charley, Walter Charley's Dad, Tony Jackson, Jim McKinley, gets mixed up too much, Jim Tyone, Gulkana, Frank Stickwan, Tazlina, Adam Sanford, Frank Charley, Kate Sanford, Chistochina, Suslota John, Sanford Charley, Batzulnetas Billy, Nabesna John, Jack John, Chitina way is Chitina Charley, Tonsina Bell, Douglas Billum, John Billum Sr., Joe Goodlataw is from Tazlina now. Maggie Eskilida, Chitina. How long do you think the Ahtna people lived in the Copper River Valley? Since the beginning, maybe about 2000 years or more. Lots of story about this. Little history regarding Taral and Road Camp. Old, old story about beginning of Ahtna history. Are old villages important to you? Yes. Old village in Gulkana is more important. Better living there than these new places. Grave yards more important to Indians. Because of the relatives that are buried there. We don't want nobody to bother or get close to the graves. Are there places that are not graves or village that are important? Fish Lake, Twin Lake, Tom Neeley Lake, Kohts' Bene thinks this may be Twin Lakes. Dry Creek, behind there the lakes up there. There are hunting and camping grounds there. Ewan Lake is very important place. Big rock by the Gakona post office. More important to us is where the lakes are: for beaver, muskrat and fish. Some are moose lake Why were people buried where they were buried in the old days? Lotta graves out in the country. don't know why they were buried there. That's were they lived and some of them said to bury them there, just like a promise. what were some of the things that had to be done to make sure that a man or woman was buried the right way? They knew about GOD, don't know how they knew but they knew about GOD. Treat them right. Make a speech for person, potlatch. Different clan has to bury the person. Family gotta watch how they dress them, how they treat them, nice clean clothes and comb their hair. How were graves marked in the old days? Fence or little house on top, if nothing then they used a stick and make a cross out of it. What do you feel about archaeologists coming in and digging around? Gotta take somebody to dig around out there. Do you want that? Is it good or bad? Whatever they find out there, like we used to do before, we don't want them to take it away anymore. Take it to Ahtna office and let them handle the item. Take an elder out there so that they don't disturb anything that shouldn't be disturbed. We don't want anybody to touch the old graves and stuff. How close can someone get to a grave before it is wrong? 200 or more feet. How about a bull dozer? That is up to the family. 1000 feet away and then talk to family. Traditional ceremony if someone had to move a grave? cannot destroy or move a grave without asking family, they gotta meet with the family before coming close, not only family but with the Ahtna Indians. It will cost money to move a grave. Have to potlatch on the move. what should they do with artifacts? they should give it back to Ahtna corporation, Indians. What do you think some of the problems might be between the Ahtna Indians and archaeologists? there is gonna be lotta problems. They gonna take big piece of land that is normally used for hunting. Social problems? Wait and see. After backscatter workers come here then that is when the problems going to come in. Backscatter gonna be our problem. want our people to talk about it right now in the villages. . Language as given: aht
Format:		Digitised: 0; Media: compact cassette; Media description: Maxwell USD-II 90
Identifier:		OTHB01-0008-01
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:OTHB01-0008-01
DateStamp:		1987-11-23
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		n.a. 1987-11-23. 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