Henry Beatus

Mike Spindler and Orville Huntington interviewed Henry Beatus in Hughes on July 31, 1997. This interview was edited and produced by Clinton Brown.

HENRY BEATUS was born in Hughes January 1932 to Fred Bifelt, whose father was Jimmy Huntington Sr. Henry's mother was named "Helen." She died when he was a year and a half old, so he was raised in Hughes by Grandpa Beatus and Grandma Ida. They raised Henry living mainly by subsistence hunting, fishing and trapping. Henry learned to trap a long trapline at a young age. In 1952 he married Sophie Koyukuk from Allakaket. They had 11 children and adopted one. In the 1950's Henry worked for the Utopia gold mine in summers or on Jimmy Huntington Jr's freight boat the Galloping Goose. In the 1960's and 1970's Henry worked various construction jobs as a carpernter, and spent part of the winters trapping and dog mushing. Henry won several prizes in local and regional spring dog races. In 1969 Henry took a steady job as a maintenance man for the Hughes School, and he greatly valued the steady pay. He commented that his pay was not so steady when trapping for a living. Sophie was a Health Aid at the Hughes Clinic. More details about thier life can be found in "Henry Beatus, Sr., a biography" (1980, Hancock House publishers, Vancouver, B.C.).

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.