Roger Atoruk: Interview Outline: Section 7 Photo of Peter Atoruk with wolf skins Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-07 Roger Atoruk talks with Bill Schneider, Hazel Apok, and Eileen Devinney in Kiana, Alaska on February 27, 2002

Roger Atoruk: This picture is of my father. He's got a lot of wolves. I think this was taken around 19-- the late 1940s. A lot of wolves. He was a wolf trapper. He and Oscar Henry used to go out on Noatak - Noatak way out - and set traps and be out for about a month. Come back, they'd have a whole bunch of wolves. Wolves and foxes. My father was a wolf trapper, wolf hunter, wolf -- he was a subsistence hunter.

Peter Atoruk [Photo courtesy of Roger Atoruk]

You know, he used to go out and trap wolf, go up around Noatak River, past Noatak. He took me out two times, and showed me all the names, names of the creeks, trapping areas, you know, what animal -- what animal to get, what animal to trap. He showed me all that.

There used to be -- there used to be -- there never used to be no caribou in this area in those days. They have to go way out maybe 100 -- 100 miles out, 150 miles out, with dog teams and hunt caribou.

Hazel Apok: About how many wolves did he used to get in a winter?

Roger Atoruk: Well, I don't remember. Probably maybe about 20. 15, 20 wolves. Sometimes less than that, 4 or 5.

Eileen Devinney: So did your parents have a house in the old village?

Roger Atoruk: Yeah. Yeah, we do. We had a -- we had a house over there. That's where I grew up. My brother, my brother Tommie has a drawing of the old village over there. And the people's houses. Like the old-timers. I knew a lot of old-timers when I was growing up. There was Mulluk -- I took some notes here on the names. There was Mulluk and -- Mulluk, Nayuk. What's Nayuk's English name? I don't know it either. You don't know Mulluk?

Hazel Apok: Huh-uh.

Roger Atoruk: No, you was too young.

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