Fish Camp

Our home away from home was 13 bends or 11 miles up the Unalakleet River. Our parents built a one room cabin and fish rack, this is where we spent our childhood summers. My dad built swings for us kids and homemade basketball hoops. Our fun activities were swimming in the cold swift river, dad would build us a diving board with his chainsaw, we played grass fights where you grabbed as much grass as possible and tried to put it on someone else’s head while dodging getting a hair full of grass on the defense, we made up a game called hole in one or ball in hole, the same concept as mini golf but we used a Hills Bros. coffee can and a stick, hide and seek, fort building, fire starting, berry picking, fishing and fish cutting, book reading and drawing, story telling of legends of old or dreams from the night before. Endless creativity and our world was what we made it. We lived below the poverty line according to American standards but I wouldn’t trade all the riches in the world in exchange for the life we were given filled with love and knowledge passed down from our people.