KAREN: Ok, today is May 26, 2006 and this is Karen Brewster and I'm here with Agnes Valle in Yakutat, Alaska and this is an interview for the Community Health Aides Project Jukebox.

So, thank you Agnes for agreeing to be interviewed and I've heard people call you “Sugar”--

AGNES: Uh-hum (affirmative).

KAREN: That's your other name, I guess?

AGNES: Yes.

KAREN: And where does that come from?

AGNES: My girlfriend from Klawock gave me that name back in the ‘50s.

KAREN: And how come?

AGNES: She wanted to take me home to her mom, but I was still under the Mission in Kodiak so they couldn't. They wanted to adopt me and he said no. And they were a Tlingit family.

KAREN: Let's go back a step then and tell me a little bit about yourself and your background. When you were born, where.

AGNES: I was born in December in Alitak, that's on Kodiak Island.

KAREN: What year?

AGNES: I935.

KAREN: I know that's a rude question.

AGNES: No. So, I'm 70. And all my family is gone. My parents, they died from tuberculosis. And the rest from heart problems, like my niece. My sister and my brother from cancer.

KAREN: So, how many brothers and sisters did you have?

AGNES: The ones I knew were two brothers and a sister.

KAREN: And what were your parents' names?

AGNES: My dad's name was Esi Stepan and my mother's name was Anne. I can't remember her last name, it's a long one.

KAREN: So, tell me a little bit about your childhood. You grew up on Kodiak?

AGNES: Uh-hum (affirmative). Let's see after my parents died my sister took care of me until her daughter got sick and they traveled by the ‘Denali'.

KAREN: What was the -- ?

AGNES: It was a big steamship. And my dad was there and he was always off fishing and I guess the social services heard about me and they came and got me and took me to the mission. And that was back in the ‘40s.

KAREN: And what mission was that?

AGNES: Kodiak Baptist Mission.

KAREN: Do you remember how old you were?

AGNES: No. I think I was about ten, eleven somewhere around there.

KAREN: How old were you when your parents died?

AGNES: My mom died when I was very small ,maybe about two or three. And then my dad took care of us and my sister. Oh, somebody's coming.

KAREN: Uh-oh. I'll pause it.