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Moses Henzie

Moses Henzie is a Koyukon Athabascan elder from Allakaket, Alaska. He has long been known as a fine hunter and trapper, and he is a fiddler of considerable talent. Born in 1930 to Titus and Elizabeth Henzie, Moses parents and many of his close relatives were associated with South Fork, a small community at the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Koyukuk River. His father's parents were Old Henzie and his wife Julia. His mother's father was Old Linus, who was one of four brothers associated with the South Fork community. The others were: Big William, South Fork Henry, and Old Henzie. Moses' father died when he was three, so he was raised largely by his mother, who made a living by hunting, fishing, and snaring small game. Eventually, his mother married Paul Koyukuk and the family moved to Allakaket. Paul became sick and died, so they stayed in Allakaket only about two years. Paul's father was Big Beatus, and for one winter, Moses lived with his Grandma and Grandpa Beatus in Old Bettles. That winter was about the only opportunity he had to go to school. For a time when Moses was about ten, he and his mother lived with Old Henzie and his wife Grandma Julia.

Most of the people who lived at South Fork during the time Moses was growing up were descended from members of the traditional South Fork Band of the Koyukon. This band occupied an area surrounding South Fork extending primarily to the south and east. They were distinguished in part from the neighboring band that occupied the Kanuti-Allakaket area by some minor linguistic differences and a subsistence pattern that relied even more heavily on lake fish and small game. When the lean times came for large game, particularly moose and caribou, around the turn of the century, out-migration to the Rampart area and other places with better hunting was probably heaviest among this group, as their subsistence base left them the most vulnerable.

Moses learned how to play the violin as a young man, and he has a much treasured violin, as well as a guitar and amplifier that this wife Marie bought for him as a gift. Sometimes he comes to Fairbanks and plays at the Athabascan Fiddle Festival held every year in mid-November. Moses is marred to Marie Koyukuk, and they have a son, Moses Jr., and a daughter Catherine Marie, adopted from Catherine and Stephen Attla in Huslia and several grandchildren.

For more about Moses Henzie, see Moses Henzie -- A Biography: Allakaket by Curt Madison and Yvonne Yarber for the Yukon-Koyukuk School District and published in 1979 by Hancock House, North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Moses Henzie appears in the following new Jukebox projects:

Gates of the Arctic National Park

Interview Title	Abstract	Archive #: Oral History	Project	Date of Interview
Marie and Moses Henzie	Moses and Marie Henzie were interviewed on November 19, 1992 by Wendy Arundale in their recently built log cabin in Allakaket, Alaska, which in the old style, they have left as one large room. A clear finish on the log walls and wooden ceiling give it a gleaming warmth. The afternoon light, which began to fade toward the end of our session, streamed in through a large window where Marie sits to sew. In this interview, Moses talks about his family and growing up, especially how his mother made a living by hunting, fishing, and snaring small game, in particular how she would snare rabbits. In addition to talking about his family and his experience growing up, Moses talks about how he has seen a lot of change from the old days. He talks about the significant impact airplanes have made compared to the old days when people traveled with dogs working so hard to break trail for them on snowshoes. He describes how people hauled mail on the trail from Tanana to Allakaket and eventually up to Wiseman. He also recalls various mail carriers, such as Andy Kockrine, Johnny Smoke, and Edwin Simon who was hired as a young man to break trail for the mail carrier. He also talked about how people hauled freight to Wiseman by dog team on contract. By 1937, there was a tractor used to haul freight before eventually the airplane took over. Toward the end of the tape, Moses talks about the diseases that affected Native people in the Allakaket area in earlier times, especially tuberculosis, unlike many of his relatives and neighbors. The missionary nurse helped a little, but it wasn't until the Public Health nurses began coming in 1948 and they began taking regular chest x-rays that things got better. He describes, too, how his Grandma Cathleen nearly died from measles and how Eva nursed her. In the old days, people put a blanket over the tent to keep it dark when someone had the measles. Moses also talks about how he was one of the last people in Allakaket to keep a large dog team after Snogos (snowmachines) became popular in the late 1960s. He describes how he and Marie had a team of fourteen dogs. But they became ill at spring camp, where they had no medicine for them and they all died. After that, he and Marie got a snowmachine. He notes, though, that the price of gas is so high that people are starting to talk about using dogs again. In November 1992, Moses was paying $165.00 for a 55 gallon drum of gas. Marie talks about her family and her experiences growing up. Much of her conversation focuses on the traditional skills she learned from her family, describing how she learned them, how they are done, and how she works at them today. EDITOR'S NOTE: Since the Koyukon language does not distinguish between masculine and feminine pronouns, many people for whom Koyukon is their first language sometimes use pronouns, such as 'he' and 'she' or 'him' and 'her' interchangeably. In reviewing their tapes, some interviewees were conscious of this speech form and concerned that it might reflect poorly on them or what they had to say. To prevent this problem, we offer this explanation of this local speech practice so that listeners will understand why it occurs.	93-15-50	Gates of the Arctic National Park	Nov 19, 1992