Living the Way of our Ancestors

Recently, someone here in the village asked me how I liked "living the way my ancestors did." That got me to thinking, when did my ancestors live this way? Did they ever? And do the people of Arctic really still live as their ancestors lived? These questions could be answered on a philosophical level, but I'll just consider them on a practical level for now.

The Gwich'in people were nomadic until as late as the 1950's! They followed the caribou herd hunting to survive and did not establish permanent villages until the the riffle was introduced. When the people here refer to living as their ancestors did, they refer to hunting caribou and living without indoor plumbing. Although they do have electricity, telephones, internet access, cable TV, four wheelers and snow machines (I don't think their ancestors had all that!) Compared to living in Fairbanks or another city, the people of Arctic Village do live somewhat how their ancestors did, just with a few more modern conveniences available. When the electricity goes out and the satellites go down, that is when they really go back to living as their ancestors did!

As for my other questions about my ancestors...I called my Grandmother for more information. Grandma told me that her family first got indoor plumbing and a coal furnace in 1948 when she left for college. My grandmother was born in 1931 in Moberly, Missouri and had electricity and a telephone for as long as she can remember. She is pretty sure that her family had both of these things before she was ever born. The phone line she had as a child was a party line, shared with three other residences/businesses and you had to go through the operator to place a call.

I asked Grandma if/when any of our relatives primarily hunted to survive and she said that you would have to go back a very long way to find that. My great great great grandparents came from North Carolina to Missouri in 1837 in a covered wagon. They were primarily farmers and had children who left for the gold rush in California, fought in the Civil War, and settled in Missouri as farmers. My great great grandparents owned a lumber yard in Missouri. My great grandparents owned a store and great grandpa also worked as a mail carrier and car salesman for awhile in Missouri. My grandparents both left home for college and eventually moved to Indiana (after living a few other places) where my Grandfather worked for Universities and my Grandmother worked as an Office Manager for a Non-Profit. My Grandma wasn't really sure when our family first came to America, but it was well before 1800.

So, for me, living in Arctic Village is not really living like my ancestors (and Sam could say the same.) For me, living in Arctic Village is jumping into a totally different way of life - the way of the Gwich'in people and their ancestors. I am privileged to have this opportunity to learn all that this way of life entails, because not too many people anywhere really live the way of their ancestors anymore.