Project Jukebox Survey
Help us redesign the Project Jukebox website by taking a very short survey!
Agnes Cusma
Agnes Cusma was interviewed on June 24, 1998 by Karen Evanoff Stickman in Nondalton, Alaska. In this interview, Agnes talks about the traditional Dena'ina lifestyle in the Lake Clark region where they lived off the land by hunting, fishing and trapping, and learned skills from their elders. She also talks about the types of houses they lived in, plants they used for medicine, Native sport hunting guides, the methods of transportation used, and the trails people used to get around the area.
Digital Asset Information
Archive #: Oral History 98-27-22, Side A
Project: Lake Clark National Park
Date of Interview: Jun 24, 1998
Narrator(s): Agnes Cusma
Interviewer(s): Karen Evanoff
Location of Interview:
Funding Partners:
National Park Service
Alternate Transcripts
There is no alternate transcript for this interview.
Themes
Alaska Natives, Boats, Canneries, Children, Commercial Fishing, Construction, Education, Fishing in Bristol Bay, Guiding, House, Hunting, Land Use, Log House, Native Values, Place Names, Plant Use, Religion, Sharing, Skin Sewing, Sport Hunting, Subsistence, Traditional Medicine, Traditional Skills, Trails, Transportation, Women
After clicking play, click on a section to navigate the audio or video clip.
Sections
1) The Athabascan name for Lake Clark
2) Native use of the area before the park was established
3) Education before there were schools in the Nondalton area
4) How children used to listen and learned right from wrong
5) Young girls learning women's skills
6) Continues talking about learning women's skills
7) How children used to help elders
8) House construction in the early days
9) Using plants as traditional medicine
10) People sharing their subsistence harvest
11) Natives guiding sport hunters
12) Continues talking about Natives guiding sport hunters
13) Using all the parts of an animal you kill
14) How fish were packed at the canneries
15) Types of transportation in the early days, especially boats and boat building
16) Different types of canoes
17) Important foot trails in the Nondalton area
Click play, then use Sections or Transcript to navigate the interview.
After clicking play, click a section of the transcript to navigate the audio or video clip.
Transcript
Section 1: Lake Clark -- name\ name -- meaning of\ Quizhjeh|
Section 2: Lake Clark National Park\ early days\ land use -- subsistence\ hunting\ squirrel\ fishing\ Natives\ land use -- restrictions|
Section 3: Nondalton\ education -- cultural\ camping\ parents\ learning -- by watching\ food -- storage|
Section 4: children -- raising\ discipline\ priest\ chief\ second chief\ education -- proper behavior\ punishment\ listening|
Section 5: education\ youth -- girls\ parents\ berries\ grandparents\ food -- storage\ basket -- birch bark\ oil\ moose -- tallow\ cache|
Section 6: sewing -- skin\ Cusma, Agnes -- mother\ Cusma, Agnes -- grandmother\ skin -- tanning\ Vashla|
Section 7: education\ elders -- assistance to\ respect\ water -- hauling\ food -- received as payment\ food -- pilot bread\ food -- sugar\ behavior -- polite|
Section 8: housing -- construction of\ Nondalton\ logs\ roof\ lumber\ underground\ rooms\ stove\ smoke\ Cusma, Agnes -- parents\ tools -- hand-saw\ tools -- axe\ tools -- chainsaw|
Section 9: plants\ medicine\ healing -- cuts\ healing -- sore throat\ hemorrhage|
Section 10: sharing\ hunting\ meat\ fish\ fish camp\ river\ fishing -- night\ elder\ fish -- net\ boats\ fish -- numbers\ fish -- packing\ fish -- drying|
Section 11: hunting -- sport\ Hammond, Jay\ Non-natives\ moose\ Cusma, Agnes -- father\ Balluta, Anton\ Trefon, Gabriel\ hunting -- guiding\ dogs -- packing\ animals -- use of\ waste -- lack of|
Section 12: dogs\ Middle Fork\ moose\ hunting\ animals -- preparation of\ animals -- use of\ head\ meat\ waste -- lack of\ bones\ guides\ wages|
Section 13: animals -- use of\ waste -- lack of\ skin -- saving\ skin -- use of\ season\ ropes\ soles\ skin -- tanning\ skin -- smoking|
Section 14: cannery -- employment\ Bristol Bay\ Cusma, Agnes -- father\ wages\ cannery -- packing\ handpacking\ Cusma, Agnes -- uncle (Paul)|
Section 15: airplane\ transportation\ Winter\ dog team\ Summer\ travel -- walking\ travel -- packing\ boats -- construction of\ logs\ tools -- whipsaw\ trees\ oars\ motor\ boats -- sail|
Section 16: canoe -- material\ canoe -- birch bark\ Lime Village\ bidarki\ skin -- moose|
Section 17: trail\ trail -- Telaquana\ travel -- walking\ trail -- Mulchatna\ Winter\ sleigh\ trail -- foot|