CHRIS HUGO SR.

“While I was growing up here it was exciting. It was mostly subsistence, before this modern age. We lived on land mammals, birds. I like this living. The transformation from subsistence to modern [life] was a lot of fun, it’s risky. It’s good for some people and bad for some people though. I am for the upside, the good side of it. I was very optimistic about the new world.

The [Alaska Native] Land Claims Settlement Act changed my life. It’s probably a 90% cash economy now. Everything came in, electronics, telephones, it all came in after the Land Claims Settlement Act. I had to adapt.

I went to high school down in Oregon. After that, I was always happy to wake up with a job, to get by with these modern things. The way I look at it, everyone will get by as long as they go to school and I tell students education is key to your success.” — Chris Hugo Sr. is Inupiaq and lives in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.