Hazel Apok: Interview Outline: Section 1 Introduction and family background Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-13 Hazel spoke with Bill Burke in Fairbanks, Alaska on April 3, 2002.

Bill Burke: Good morning. This is Bill Burke. It is April 3rd, 2002, and I'm here with Hazel Apok from Kiana. She's down here at the university. She has been working on the Kiana project. Hazel is going to give us some background on her life and she's going to talk about changes in the environment and animals and how her life differs. And she's going to give us some information on her grandparents. So, Hazel, if you want to start with a little background, that can get us going.

Hazel Apok: Okay. My name is Hazel Apok. My Eskimo name is Tigautchiaq. I was named after my adopted brother's first wife, her name was Hazel. She died in October 1950, and I was born January '51. My adopted brother's first wife happened to be a sister to my grandma where I was in the home, the log cabin that I was born in, in Noatak was where -- where my Grandma Nellie Woods in Noatak -- I'm confused now what I'm talking about.

But I was born to Melva Woods, she's now Melva Collins. She had a daughter a year and a half older than I was, and my grandma couldn't take care of two little babies. So that year there happened to be a Friends Church quarterly meeting in Noatak, and my brother and my father asked my mom to take me home. So I was either three -- three months old or a year and three months, I still have to verify that, but they took me by dog team from Noatak to Kiana, and I was raised in Kiana by Johnnie and Martha Smith, now Martha Downey.

As I often tell people, my grandmothers are Nellie Woods and Grace Bailey (?) from Noatak. And I didn't know -- because the people that adopted me were a lot older. My mother was 40 when she adopted me. I didn't know all of my grandparents from the time that I grew up with -- I did know Nellie Baldwin, my grandma that adopted -- Martha. My adopted mom.

People often -- people that know me when they ask about my mom know to -- to say by name because I have four different mothers. The mother I was born to, the mother that adopted me, my biological father's wife, Edna, and then, of course, my mother-in-law who has me call her mom. So when I say mom, you know, they -- they often ask me which one. I have 18 brothers and sisters, 20 with the 2 in the adopted family. I've been blessed with a -- a large family.

I often hear stories about my grandma Nellie Woods walking from Noatak to -- to Barrow carrying -- she had some dogs -- pack dogs with her, you know, that would carry stuff. When I get a chance I would like to -- to get the full story about that trip, but it really interests me. I think it's just awesome that somebody that was needed somewhere -- I believe her husband was working up -- up North. And it just fascinates me that she would get up and go and walk.

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