SAMANTHA HILL

"This is old Hooper Bay. It’s about two or three miles away from the new site. Hooper Bay got its name from Edward Hooper, he came out by boat and was just about to leave when he saw people coming out from the hills.

We pick the grass for basket weaving when the grass starts to turn yellow. We start just before Halloween, and we stop picking them when the snow hits. They don’t look for the really thin grass and long but not too long thick grass. After we pick it, I keep some for myself and give some to my grandma Mary Simon. I don’t weave baskets; I weave hair pins. I first learned how to weave four or five years ago. My first one was really out of it. [laughs] Starting off is very difficult." — Samantha Hill is Yup’ik and lives in Hooper Bay, Alaska.