(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



STICKDANCE [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-04

In March of 1972 my parents were teaching in the Alaskan village of Holy Cross on the Yukon River. That year the Stickdance was being held in the village of Nulato, approximately 200 miles upriver.

The Stickdance is a traditional gathering of the Athabaskan Indians from the Nulato, Kaltag, Holy Cross and Shageluk region of the Yukon River. It isn't always an annual gathering and it maybe several years since the last. Athabaskans from the southern slopes of the Brooks Range and Norton Sound were also known to attend the celebrations and visit relatives.

The Stickdance is a weeklong celebration and memorial of the deceased that includes potlatches, gift giving and storytelling.

The event begins with the standing of

Hanging furs from the pine pole

a pine pole decorated in ribbons and feathers. Throughout the night it will be further decorated with furs; wolf, beaver, muskrat, otter, coyote, fox, martin, ermin, maybe a wolverine.

The following days were consumed with song and dance, potlatches and celebration. Audio recordings of the 1972 Nulato Stickdance can be found here, https://search.app/DmztvGfH3fthwfp87

Women dancing

At some point during the week the furs are removed and shared with the elders. The pine pole is taken

down, broken up and scattered on the ice covering the Yukon River.

Potlatch

One of the final events of the celebration is the Dressing. The person Dressed would be someone who gave assistance, guidance or support to the decease's family. Sharing their game, cutting wood, filling the water barrels. This person is Dressed with clothes given to them by the decease's family.

Tradationally these clothes would included outer garments: a parka, mukluks, gloves and hat using furs that had been trapped by the family.

Frank and Martha Joe from Nulato

It was 10 below zero that March morning on the Holy Cross runway. A small group of people including my mother and myself were all traveling to Nulato for the Stickdance. We waited patiently, dressed in our

Dorothy Sommer, Betty Green and Ellen Peters dancing in their kuspuks

warmest coats, maybe a kuspuk under that. Long johns under our pants and a pair of snow pants over those. Many wore mukluks or Sorel boots.

We had all arrived at the runway on the back of snogos (snowmachines) or in a sled basket. The trip was a quick 5 minute ride downriver from the village.

We were all waiting for several Cessna 180 Skywagons to arrive from Aniak to take us to Nulato. The Air Taxi operators would be busy all week flying attendees in and out of Nulato.

A freight sled pulled by snowmachine or dog team

Other families might arrive in Nulato riding their sno-gos or maybe by dog team pulling a sled with a couple members of the family in the basket.

Child on a runner sled

Relatives arrived from far downriver including Russian Mission and Marshall. Others came from villages across the Nulato Hills on the Norton Sound like Unalakleet and Koyuk following the

Winter over the Nulato Hills

routes through the mountains established eons ago. Others came from upriver, like Galena and Ruby.

Most people would stay with a relative or friend, others would stay at the community hall or church.

Alaska State Representative John Sackett, from Huslia addressing the gathering.

I recall learning you could often tell where a person lived on the Yukon River broadly based on the soles of their mukluks.

Mukluks made with seal skin soles were often worn by the natives living in the Yukon Delta or along the coastal water where seals were abundent. Seal skin mukluks were hard, very slippery and resisted water well.

Mukluks made with moose hide were often worn by the natives from interior Alaska where moose were hunted. Moose hide mukluks were soft, wore out quickly and tore easily when worn in wet situations, like over flow on creeks or the river. Moose hide worked better in those cold, dry snow conditions and when you kept them dry.

Mukluks were traditionally filled with dry grass collected in the fall. Felt boot liners also worked well.

The four or five days that we attended the Stickdance the temperature remained around 20 below. By March there is almost 12 hours of daylight and you can begin to feel a little heat behind the mid-day sun.

Spring was near and breakup would soon arrive.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/4/2291123/-STICKDANCE?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/