Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

Summer

Summer is the Yup’ik’s busiest time of year. The sun never sets completely in summer, so they can work all day and night, if needed. Grandma gets everyone up early in the morning while the birds are sleeping, and they don’t stop until late at night, when the low sun makes the trees look yellow.

But as hard as they work during the day, there’s always time to play ball down by the river. They make balls of woven grass filled with caribou fur. Sometimes they play tag, hide and go seek, or blindman’s bluff. Even the grown-ups play until they are limp from laughing.

Mr. Hoff grumbles about their games, and he won’t let David come play. He says nobody gets much sleep in the summer. But it doesn’t matter to the village. They get their work done and have a good time.

The flowers have blossomed, and the woods and creek banks are filled with flowers. Minuk wishes she could take the color of the deep pink ones home with her and keep them all winter long. The mosquitoes are thick, and the little fast ones with white stripes make a mean zinging noise. The children don’t pay any attention to the mosquitoes; if they let them annoy them, they’d go into a frenzy.

The men put up nets and fish traps. They fish all year long, and if they work hard enough, they’ll have enough fish to last all winter. Women and girls clean and split the fish and hang them on racks to dry. They hang fish eggs in their pouches to dry, and Grandma chops the king salmon tails into pieces to boil with fish eggs. Grandma dries the backbones for dog food—and for herself, but she wouldn’t admit to it. She likes to boil and dip them in seal oil. The aunts scrape the salmon skins and Panruk and Minuk roll them and store them in the cache. They’ll be used for raincoats and boots for wet snow and rainy weather. Fish heads are placed in grass bags and buried. After being fermented, they’ll be eaten.

David likes to tag along and see what the women are all doing. Although he wishes he could try some fish, he says his father says eating spoiled fish is disgusting. Everyone knows the spoiled fish smell terrible, but it is the most delicious thing to eat.

Everyone worries about rain in the summer. If there’s too much, it’ll ruin the drying fish. If the rain raises the river, driftwood will catch in their nets. The shaman from the next village comes over to do a special dance and song to keep the sun shining. In the men’s house, the shaman puts his hands into his parka and thrashes them around. Panruk hides her face in her hands along with some of the other children. He sings while drummers drum, and then his eyes roll back into his head and he says words no one understands. When he’s done, he says that the weather will stay good for many more days.

When Mr. Hoff finds out that a shaman came, he rushes to the riverbank where the shaman is getting into his canoe to leave. Mr. Hoff raises his Bible above his head with both hands and prays loudly to his god to protect their village from the messenger of the devil. The shaman doesn’t seem to notice Mr. Hoff, but as he pushes his canoe off, he makes a rude gesture to him.

Everyone is embarrassed by Mr. Hoff’s bad manners, so they bend their heads and lower their eyes, leaving Mr. Hoff alone on the riverbank.