Benedict Jones

Mike Spindler and Clinton Brown interviewed Benedict Jones in Koyukuk on November 13, 2002. The interview was edited and produced by Clinton Brown.

BENEDICT JONES was born August 3, 1933 in Koyukuk Fish camp. His parents were Harry Jones and Jesse Nelson Jones. Benedict has lived in Koyukuk most of his life, except for 20 years from 1970-1990 when he was in Fairbanks working as a highway maintenance operator. Benedict is well-known in the middle Yukon River area as a sprint dog musher and subsistence expert. In winter he spends lots of time at his trapping camp along the Koyukuk River, and in summer he is often out fishing for salmon. Benedict served on the federal Western Interior Regional Subsistence Advisory Council and on the state's Western Arctic Caribou Herd Co-Management Planning team. In 1959 Benedict married Eliza Peter from Cutoff, near Huslia. They had 9 children (Josie Dayton, Cora Jones, Charlene Jones (deceased), Cindy Pilot, Emil Vernon (deceased), Susan Paskvan, Benedict Jones, Jr. (deceased), Cecelia Grant, Julie (deceased)).

The goal of Raven's Story is to record elders' stories, observations, and experiences relating to wildlife, fish, and subsistence in the Koyukuk and middle Yukon areas of interior Alaska. This Raven's Story was produced by Clinton Brown at public radio station KIYU-AM in Galena, Alaska, with the support of Louden Tribal Council and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.