Tommie Sheldon Jr.: Interview Outline: Section 7 Changes in the environment and climate Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-03 Tommie Sheldon Jr. talks with Bill Schneider and Eileen Devinney in Kiana, Alaska on February 27, 2002.

Bill Schneider: Have you seen a lot of change in the environment or the climate here?

Tommie Sheldon, Jr.: Yeah, there's a lot of change, environment. Of course, like I say now, when you want to go hunting and fishing for living, it takes -- it takes seasonal -- seasonal time to -- to get certain things. But some years it's very hard to get those things. Like rainy season, high water prevent us from having a good dried fish for lunch. We have that dried fish for lunch, like I say, from the school to here in one hour time. I'll eat that dried fish whether it was dried properly or not. It -- rainy season really can damage that fish for my lunch.

Bill Schneider: Uh-hum.

Tommie Sheldon, Jr.: So I have no other -- nothing to eat. No food stamps. Except what we caught last summer, dried fish. We have to have a good weather to dry that good fish dry. And fishing, it really -- sometime we have too much high water, we hardly get anything at all.

Life was tough, in the beginning I said life was tough, but it was good. We have good times. Everybody usually have good time. Christmas time, Thanksgiving time. Then we have a lot of good times like when we never look for, if you buy TV tomorrow, I also want one TV. See, we're not thinking that way. We live whatever we have at this moment, and we don't expect too much for tomorrow and the rest of the season. As long as we're healthy and be able to move around. Health come first. No doctors, no hospitals, just a nurse once in awhile. Like I say, no alcohol, no alcohol and drugs.

I belong to Maniilaq task force right now. I'm not very smart on this job, but I have some good ideas once in awhile. I give them some ideas, what -- what I've seen when I was -- as I live. And I have become a good help once in awhile. I never gave up. Not very smart, all right.

Hazel Apok: Did it used to be real cold long time ago in the wintertime?

Tommie Sheldon, Jr.: Well, we didn't notice that too much because we were moving around, good clothes, like skin pants. And the more we move, it better for to move around in cold day. And you are able to move around real good them days, but today you can stand out here with big thick pants and thick -- cold for me, terrible.

Everything changed quite a bit. It used to be cold, not like -- the weather was good until lately that we have -- as we see it -- big, strong winds from north will do the change in weatherwise. It's too cold for us.

I think today is more worse than before. When I was -- when I was a kid I could see that weather, nice weather like this -- not like this, but all through the winter we will have nice weather, and we usually really enjoy it how we -- how we lived. Move around. Keep warm. And circulate the blood. That's what I'm talking about. Move around.

Hazel Apok: What about tuttu [caribou] and our fish and game, [Translation: "they change"] in any way?

Tommie Sheldon, Jr.: Yeah. When I was a kid, that's only 75 years ago, I used to see caribou way up north. My dad used to hunt for them out there. Starting in November, come back April. Load of caribou, caribou meat.

And also there's ways -- like moose. It's different today, you have more moose. And there was nothing at all them days around this area. They just kind of move in and they are kind of moving out right now the way -- you hardly see moose this winter.

Yeah. Everything changed. The game warden never bother us when we were kids here, we never see game warden. All we see was white teachers. No one, nothing else. Teachers, you know. Gold miners from up Klery Creek, they move -- they spend the night or spend their winter here, go back to work. Some will be they call sink holes. They test maybe 10, 20 feet deep down, they will sink hole and see what they can find from the ground. That's where they will be digging this coming summer. They will find out if it has the gold right there, right there, or nothing up there, they don't bother that one up there.

So life was more enjoyable than -- when I was a boy than it is today. You're looking for snow machine today and go-- speed -- speed.

Bill Schneider: Well, that's very helpful. And this is a neat drawing you've made here of the old -- the old camp. That's neat.

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