Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

Mr. Hoff

It isn’t long before all the other children lose fear of the Hoffs. Many of them visit every few days. First, Mrs. Hoff teaches them that it is very rude to just walk into a house. If they want to visit, they must knock on the door with their knuckles, and then wait until she answers the door and asks them to come in. They like it when Mr. Hoff is there, too. He’s a kind man, with brown eyes and a gentle smile. If he’s there, he gets a piece of boiled sugar for them.

Sometimes, Mrs. Hoff answers the door with her hair messy and face red, and says she’s too busy to have visitors. Soon, after the Berry Festival at the end of summer, they’ll start a school. They built the school downriver in Bethel, and two of their students have been sent far away to a school in Maryland in America. Some other boys have become church helpers, and Mr. Hoff sent them to live in other Yup’ik villages to teach about Mr. Hoff’s religion. He says he needs them to help him keep an eye on things to ensure nobody breaks church rules or goes back to their former ways of living.

When Minuk asks if girls can be helpers, too, Mr. Hoff says the Bible says women aren’t allowed to speak in church. Minuk isn’t surprised because it’s the same way in the men’s house.

All summer, boats come from the mission in Bethel with boxes of things for the school. The Hoffs don’t even unpack the boxes. They say they’ll take everything out when the new schoolroom is built.

As hard as they worked, one day a week, the Hoffs don’t work at all. They put on clean clothes and just sit. David looks out the window and waves at the Yup’ik children. Minuk feels sorry for him because she knows he wants to be outside.

Mr. Hoff wants the village to follow that rule as well. When they become members of his church, they’ll have to rest one day, too. It says so in the Bible. Mr. Hoff says the Bible is their rulebook.

People are polite to Mr. Hoff about that rule, but it bothers everyone to see the Hoffs sitting for a whole day. In the Yup’ik way, they all work very hard, and they only take a day off in the winter, not in the summer when there’s so much work to be done.

The children like to look at everything in the Hoffs’ house. They always look in the mirror first because they’d never seen themselves in a mirror before. Sometimes, the boys will try to make faces in the mirror at themselves. Minuk stands on a stool to look at her feet, too. Her boots look different in the mirror than when she looks down from the top.

Minuk enjoys looking at the cans on the shelves. The pictures on the outside show the contents, and there’s writing that tells what it is. Mr. Hoff explains putting the words on the paper is called writing and then saying it back again is reading. There is no Yup’ik equivalent of the words reading and writing. Mr. Hoff shows Minuk a book he calls McGuffey’s Reader, and explains that it’s the English language, but he’s saying the words in Yup’ik. Each mark makes a sound, and multiple sounds together forms a word.

Sometimes, Mrs. Hoff gives them magazines to look at. Panruk and Minuk sit and whisper in awe about what they see. Tall houses, people dressed like the Hoffs, and the insides of houses. Pictures, cloth, plants, lamps. Every table is covered with something. Mrs. Hoff explains where she comes from, people think that’s beautiful.

Minuk had never thought of making a house beautiful. In Yup’ik custom, they decorate everything. They paint, carve, and sew ordinary things, like buckets, belts, earrings, bowls, and dance masks. But their houses are plain.

There are pictures of animals Minuk has never seen, like cows, horses, and pigs. The Hoffs explain that keeping cows and pigs allows them to not have to hunt for food; their food is always right there. Mr. Hoff suggests that the Yup’ik can keep animals like that, too. It’s one of his favorite ideas for civilizing the village.

The children also see pictures of the telephone and bicycle. Maklak especially loves the idea of a bicycle, and he tries to convince Grandpa to make him one. Whenever the children leave the Hoffs, their mind is dizzy with new ideas about the world around them. Nothing was as they thought it was.