Bill Fickus

Dan O'Neill and Steve Ulvi collaborated in interviewing Bill and Lill Fickus at their home on Crevice Creek, John Rivers, about 40 miles north of Bettles, Alaska on September 26, 1994. Dan was a research associate at the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and conducted some of the interviews funded by the National Park Service in the Yukon-Charley Rivers Preserve areas. Steve was a subsistence specialist at Gates of the Arctic National Park. The interview with the Fickuses was funded by the National Park Service as part of a project documenting the lives of people living and working in or near Gates of the Arctic. Dan and Steve conducted the interview around the kitchen table with the Fickuses for several hours, ate dinner, spent the night, then resumed the interview after breakfast for a few more hours. The time of year had been selected as a time when there were few pressing chores, such as garden harvesting and hunting. In this first of five interviews, Bill and Lill talk about their backgrounds, meeting, marrying, and living at Crevice Creek year round. The interview continues on tape numbers Oral History 93-15-64, 93-15-65, 93-15-66, 93-15-67.