Hazel Apok: Interview Outline: Section 4 Changes in animals, environment, and climate Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-13 Hazel spoke with Bill Burke in Fairbanks, Alaska on April 3, 2002.

Hazel Apok: What did -- what else did I need to talk about?

Bill Burke: You can talk about changes in the environment, you know, from when you were a small girl to the changes that you see today.

Hazel Apok: I remember -- let me -- let me start from today. When I lived in Barrow, we would send for caribou from our region because the -- the caribou up there is from a different herd. They have more gristle in them, you know, it was just a lot different. So we would send for caribou from our region. But I noticed that maybe the herd, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and maybe the Porcupine Herd are -- maybe they are cross - mixing, because our caribou today now are starting to have more gristle in them. We find a lot of lesions, a lot of bugs, a lot of things in them today that we never had when I was growing up. I don't recall, you know, having deformed fish. Just this past summer Fish and Game has a project in Kiana where they collect fish and then they would distribute it to the -- to the community. And that fish does not look like something I remember when I was growing up.

So I know there is changes in our animals. And I know -- I know there is changes in our environment from when I was growing up. And I need to study it more or get more information, you know, from the elders around me because they have more -- they are a lot older than I am and they know better how it was and how the changes have evolved and why it is the way it is today.

I remember going home, walking home from church with my parents and it'd be almost like daylight, you know, because we didn't have electricity back then. It -- it felt like the moon was a lot brighter. Today it's -- you know, it seems to be far away. And somebody told me that's because we have electricity now in our town. You know, we have more lights. And it still just seems odd to me that the moon seems to be further away or darker. I don't know.

Bill Burke: What do you think about the temperatures?

Hazel Apok: We seemed to have cold -- longer colder spells when I was growing up. I was told I was the best dressed girl in town because my mother outfitted me from fur from head to toe. I had always wore mukluks. That's why I have flat feet. I wear big shoes because, you know, I grew up with mukluks. I have flat feet and that's why it's difficult. And in fact, I'll wear mukluks in the community today and people will look and say, "wow, you are wearing mukluks." Which is -- you know, people are forgetting how to sew, and people are forgetting how to -- how to dress themselves to keep warm. And I believe I was really dressed from head to toe because we -- it was a lot -- colder spells were longer them days. And I remember that -- being cold, and it doesn't feel as cold now than it was. I still wear mukluks and I still have some parky. I have a parka that -- a muskrat parka -- that my mom made for me when I was nine years old, and it still fit me except for the sleeves. The sleeves are the only thing. It had a sunshine ruff, you know.

And then I remember these things because the people around me, you know, talk to me about that. And I'm glad they do and I'm glad I'm back at home and they remind me because I have such good memories of -- of growing up. I -- I was really blessed.

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