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Ruth Ridley

Ruth Ridley is a Han Athabascan elder from Eagle Village, Alaska who was born in 1950 to Louise and Josie (Susie) Paul. Her mother's parents were Eliza and Joe Malcolm of Eagle Village, and her dad’s parents were Elizabeth and Paul Josie of Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada. She grew up in Eagle Village and and living at Snare Creek and the Coal Creek mining camp where her father was working. They lived a traditional subsistence lifestyle based on fishing, hunting, trapping and berry picking in the region. She spent many summers with her grandparents, where Han and Gwich'in were the only languages spoken. Her older sisters are Ethel Beck and Bertha Ulvi. Ruth attended primary school in Eagle, went to Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon for high school, and returned to Eagle Village where she cared for her elderly mother. Ruth got married in 1968 and moved to Fairbanks. As a fluent speaker of her Native Han language, Ruth has followed in her mother's footsteps and since the late 1970s has been involved with the documentation and preservation of her Native Han language. First, by transcribing her mother's audio recordings, then collaborating with Dr. Michael Krauss at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and more recently with Doyon Foundation and linguist, John Ritter, of the Yukon Native Language Centre. Ruth is also an accomplished skin and fur sewer. Although she lives in Fairbanks, Ruth regularly returns to her home village for subsistence activities and to stay connected with her cultural traditions, traditional foods, and family.

Ruth Ridley appears in the following new Jukebox projects:

Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve

Interview Title	Abstract	Archive #: Oral History	Project	Date of Interview
Bertha Ulvi and Ruth Ridley, Interview 1	Bertha Ulvi and Ruth Ridley were interviewed on July 19, 2022 by Marcy Okada of the National Park Service and Karen Brewster of the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Charlie Juneby Tribal Hall in Eagle Village, Alaska. In this first part of a two part interview, Bertha and Ruth talk about growing up out on Snare Creek and at the Coal Creek mining camp where their father was working. They talk about living a subsistence lifestyle, being supported by the mining company, spending summers at their grandparent's fish camp, fishing for grayling, their father's moose hunting, berry picking, and eating traditional foods like porcupine. They also talk about knowing their Native language, attending school, and the challenges of learning English and leaving the village. They also discuss their later years when when Bertha was a community health aide and lived on a trapline with her husband, waterfowl and ptarmigan hunting, traditional skills, traditional medicine, and other locations in the area where they have practiced subsistence activities.	2021-03-06	Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve	Jul 19, 2022
Bertha Ulvi and Ruth Ridley, Interview 2	Bertha Ulvi and Ruth Ridley were interviewed on July 20, 2022 by Marcy Okada of the National Park Service and Karen Brewster of the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the Charlie Juneby Tribal Hall in Eagle Village, Alaska. In this second part of a two part interview, Bertha and Ruth continue to talk about their lives at Eagle Village along the Yukon River. In particular, they discuss attending boarding school in Oregon, subsistence hunting, fishing and trapping activities, traditional plant use and traditional medicine, locations where they have practiced subsistence activities, and recent changes in the salmon population. Bertha also shares stories of taking care of their elderly mother and grandmother, and living on the trapline and hunting moose and caribou during the early years of her marriage.	2021-03-07	Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve	Jul 20, 2022
Louise Paul and Ruth Ridley	Louise Paul and her daughter, Ruth Ridley, were interviewed on March 25, 1993 by William Schneider at Ruth's apartment in Fairbanks, Alaska. Louise was in town from Eagle Village for medical appointments and agreed to talk about topics she had discussed two summers ago with William Schneider. That tape recording (ORAL HISTORY 91-22-43) was disrupted during the interview, so he was glad for the opportunity for another discussion. This interview with Louise has some interruption from heavy equipment, but is generally clear. In this interview, Louise talks about her family history and connections with living in the area of what is now Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. She remembers living a traditional subsistence lifestyle at Snare Creek, one time when a bear tried to get into the house, old places along the Yukon River, the days when steamboats ran up and down the river, and the devastating forest fire of 1937.	91-22-63	Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve	Mar 25, 1993