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Ann Edwards

Elma Sam and Ann Edwards

Ann Edwards is an Inupiaq elder from Alatna, Alaska. Ann was born in Alatna to Oscar and Cora Tobuk Nictune. Her sisters include Elma Sam, Kitty David, and Bertha Moses. Ann grew up living a subsistence lifestyle moving from camp to camp with the seasons and speaking her Native language. Her father was a particularly well-known and widely-liked elder on the Koyukuk River. She and her five sisters and two brothers grew up (another brother and sister died as young children) spending a lot of time camping away from the village. Her father and both sets of her grandparents had camps up the Alatna River. As long as her mother was living, they did not spend a lot of time in town. When her mother died in 1942, her father took a job with the Public Health Service, and traveled widely throughout the state, encouraging people in Native communities to adopt more sanitary ways of living, so she and her siblings worked together to keep the family going. She learned many skills like cooking, sewing, hunting, fishing, and berry picking. Ann married Jimmy Edwards and they had eleven children. At the time of her 1992 interview, Jimmy Edwards was no longer living, but Ann lived quietly in her tidy cabin in Alatna.

Ann Edwards appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Ann Edwards' and Elma Sam's Slideshow
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Ann Edwards and Elma Sam

I recorded Ann Edwards' memories together with those of her older sister, Elma Sam. Ann is four years younger than Elma. We taped in Elma's home in Alatna, Alaska around mid-day on November 21, l992. Although her husband, Frank Sam, is no longer alive, Elma's house is still busy with the comings and goings of various children and grandchildren. Various members of Elma's family came and went quietly during the taping, sometimes pausing to fix something to eat. Like Elma, many of Ann's early memories center around various subsistence activities and the seasonal round. She talked about how fish, berries, roots, and rabbits were common elements in their diet, but moose was very scarce. If they had meat it was likely to come from caribou, sheep, black bear, or grouse. She mentioned various places on the Alatna River, such as Rocky Bottom and Black Jack that were important to her family's seasonal round. And she mentioned many early members of the Alatna community and her family who were important to her growing up. These included her grandparents, Sam and Putu Hope, her uncles Frank and Jimmy Tobuk, Selawick Sam, her Auntie Ester, and Omaik. Although her sister taught her Inupiaq, the teacher Miss Kay, discouraged the children from speaking their native language, and now she has lost much of her ability to understand Inupiaq.

 93-15-54 Gates of the Arctic National Park Nov 21, 1992