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Lynette Roberts

Lynette Roberts

Originally from Oregon, Lynette Roberts came to Alaska in 1974 and moved to Eagle with her husband, Steve Ulvi, and his brother, Dana. They soon moved out into the country and lived in remote cabins they built on the Kandik and Nation Rivers in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. They lived a simple, "no frills" subsistence lifestyle based on hunting, fishing, trapping, and doing as much from scrath and by hand as possible. She was an equal participant, although there turned out to be specific male and female activities. After having children, and the hardship of raising them on the river, the family moved into Eagle, where Steve began working for the National Park Service, and they were faced with the negative attitudes local residents felt toward the Park Service after the establishment of Yukon-Charely Rivers National Preserve and the implementation of management regulations on land use, subsistence, and mining. Eventually, the family moved to Fairbanks, which provided more opportunities. After Steve retired from the National Park Service, he and Lynette moved out of Alaska.
Lynette Roberts appears in the following new Jukebox projects:
Interview Title Abstract Archive #: Oral History Project Date of Interview
Lynette Roberts, Part 1

Lynette Roberts was interviewed on November 4, 1991 by Dan O'Neill in the audio studio at Elmer E. Rasmuson Library on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska. In this first part of a two part interview, Lynette talks about living a subsistence-based lifestyle with her husband, Steve Ulvi, in a remote cabin on the Kandik River in what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. She discusses why they chose to live there, the seasonal round of their activities, the challenges of being a woman and raising a family out there, and their eventual move into Eagle, Alaska and then to Fairbanks. Steve got a job with the National Park Service, which was a source of resentment among some of the people of Eagle, and Lynette talks about some of the hostility expressed towards her and her family. This is not to say that Lynette's loyalties must be considered as if she was a National Park Service employee. She is clearly a woman with her own views. Though Dan O'Neill had never met Steve and Lynette before the project started, they became friends during the course of it, and this may have introduced a complication in the interview process. While Dan O'Neill was very interested in "the woman's perspective" on the bush lifestyle, he felt awkward pressing too hard for details on such marital issues as the division of labor.

 91-22-51 Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Nov 4, 1991
Lynette Roberts, Part 2

This is the continuation of an interview with Lynette Roberts on November 4, 1991 by Dan O'Neill in the audio studio at Elmer E. Rasmuson Library on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska. In this second part of a two part interview, Lynette continues to talk about the difficulties she and her husband, Steve Ulvi, faced in Eagle, Alaska with local attitudes towards the National Park Service after they moved in from living on the river. She also talks about their decision to move to Fairbanks, how it benefited their children, and what she liked and missed about living in the bush.

 91-22-52 Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve Nov 4, 1991