ABSTRACT
I live at present in the city of Washington, but I am originally from Alaska, from the Athabascan tribe. There are about 40 clans in the west central part of Alaska. I was raised partially by my traditional family in the village and partially by a missionary. There was a great missionary influence throughout Alaska when I was a child. In fact as a child I always thought God was an Episcopal; I didn’t realize the difference. But I’ve gone through many changes since that time and resisted a lot of other changes in my life, in terms of the dominant society and some of the teachings that they try to force on us. There are other influences, especially in the burial [customs] in my village. There’s a lot of influence [exerted] by the Russians that came into that part of Alaska. After that the burials, the Indian graves, were in miniature houses much like the Russians use, with picket fences.
