Henry Jackson Sr.: Interview Outline: Section 11 Barging and longshoring in the old days Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-01 Henry Jackson Sr. talks with Bill Schneider, Hazel Apok, and Eileen Devinney in Kiana, Alaska on February 27, 2002.

Bill Schneider: Were you ever involved in any of the barging activities out around Kotzebue?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Well, not really, but I work in there longshoring for a while, until I find a -- until I find a steady job, you know.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum. Some of the kids coming up might like to hear about what longshoring was about. It's kind of hard for them to imagine that today.

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah. Heavy load sometimes. Hundred pounds was too heavy for me.

Bill Schneider: How did -- how did you do that longshoring?

Transporting 55 gallon drums up the hill to Kiana from a barge on the river using a highline strung from the beach to the bluff [Photo courtesy of Lorenz Schuerch Jr.]

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Well, I had to carry 100 pounds far, you know.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum. That's from the --

Henry Jackson, Sr.: From the boat to the store.

Eileen Devinney: How far was the store from the boat?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Oh, probably 150 yards maybe.

Bill Schneider: Just for context here, we have big ships, right?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Uh-hum.

Bill Schneider: That would be anchored off --

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Uh-hum.

Bill Schneider: -- and then smaller boats would take the goods to shore?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Uh-hum.

Bill Schneider: And then you would --

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Start longshoring.

Bill Schneider: -- pack them in?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah.

Hazel Apok: They used to put a plank from the boat to the shore there.

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah.

Hazel Apok: And that was called longshoring.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum. Heavy loads, huh?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Heavy load. 100 pounds was too heavy for me.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum. Now everything comes in the airplane, huh?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah.

Bill Schneider: Some barging. [longish pause] Well, you've probably seen this village grown some, huh?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah, grows a little bit. I don't know. We -- Eskimos lived further back over there, you know, and white people lived down here. Kiana is an old, old village way back, old huts, those old igloos around. You could find some artifacts down the beach.

Eileen Devinney: Oh, right down below -- down there?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah, down here.

Eileen Devinney: So there used to be a long time ago --

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah. Nobody knows when there was an old village here. Just like what you call that place up there? Below Ambler (map), that old, old village.

Eileen, Bill and Hazel : Onion Portage?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Onion Portage. Yeah. That's when those people lived, I think. There was there was old villages -- old village here in Kiana (map). I found an old lamp there standing around down here at, oh, let's see, from Schuerch's warehouse down the bluffs here, on top of the bluffs there. I was standing there and I stepped on rock. And I looked at it and here is this -- it was a -- it's that black stained. So I picked it up and there was an old lamp. And I give that old lamp to that schoolteacher, traded it with a phonograph, with radio. He got a radio and it had phonograph. I trade. Man, that guy was happy.

Bill Schneider: Well, there's a lot of history around here, huh?

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Oh, yeah. You'll never -- you'll never tell it all.

Bill Schneider: No.

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Lots of people here. I know I never -- I don't know how many people lie, you know. I don't know.

Bill Schneider: Yeah, there's probably some of that, too, huh? Well, thanks for sharing what you're sharing tonight.

Henry Jackson, Sr.: Yeah. Yeah.

(End of recorded interview.)

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