MARTHA WISE

“I am originally from Chuathbaluk . I have been here for 15 years. My husband is originally from here. We moved here after his dad went missing here, but they didn’t find him. It was October, right when the ice was starting to freeze. He said he forgot his snow machine keys at fish camp. It’s quite a ways up the river. He asked to see if his relatives would follow, but they didn’t want to. So he went on his own. We don’t know what happened. They tried to find him, but they couldn’t find him. My husband and I were both living in Chuathbaluk. When we found out they were looking for him, we came.
I like it here, my village was small.
My son, he is 14 and is going to boarding school in Nenana. I was glad he decided to go to school in Nenana, he is too smart. His sister went there, too. My oldest son is 21, my daughter is 20, my son that is here is 17, the one in Nenana is 14, and my last one is 10. I have four boys and one girl.
I have been working here (local store) since 2003. I saw that they were short on workers, so I put in my application. It’s good.” — Martha Wise is Yup’ik and lives in Tuluksak, Alaska.