Fourth of July In Tanana, Alaska

A neat thing about the Fourth of July is that no matter where you live in the United States the towns, villages and cities always have some sort of celebration. When I was 13 years old my Dad had been sent to South Korea and he’d been gone since about Halloween the year before, I don’t know about other people, but when I was a kid I used to count time by the holidays. My Uncle was the Mayor of the small village of Tanana, where my Dad had sent us to go live. Tanana is a small Athabascan Indian village on the Yukon River in Alaska. Back then Tanana had a population of 250 people. Well, anyway it was up to the adults in our family to organize the annual Fourth of July Party for the Village.

The great Fourth of July Party was held in the middle of town on Front Street (the street next to the river). The cooking pots were set up in front of Mrs. Summers family guest house.

For the little kids there was a pile of saw dust to rummage through for coins. A silly race for kids of all ages was to eat a bunch of saltine crackers and see who could whistle first. Another game for all ages of kids was the bubble gum blowing contest, to see who could make the biggest bubble. Then there were the usual three legged races, and potato sack races too.

For the teenagers you had to jump in a canoe, race across the river, gather firewood, race the canoe back to the village, build a small fire, and make a pot of tea. The first one to pour a cup of finished tea was the winner. For the male elders there was a blanket with a pile of dead martins their race was to see who could skin a martin the fastest. There were no fireworks as the village is completely surrounded by forest other than the river side.

The adult women had the big potlatch pots going to make moose meat stew. For all of us teenage girls that meant we had to spend a lot of our day peeling, and chopping, vegetables, mainly carrots, potatoes, and onions. Moose meat stew is a staple in the diet of interior Alaska usually served with Pilot Bread, which is a thick, plain, large, round, cracker about 3 inches across, coffee, and reconstituted powdered milk. It didn’t matter if you were eating the same thing on a holiday that you ate everyday at school, and at home, what mattered was that you were with your entire village, having fun, and enjoying the community spirit.

 This is new but it shows the sense of community spirit in small towns and villages in Alaska. A song made by a gentleman from Tanana, to remind the village how proud we should be of Tanana. NATIVE WELLNESS INSTITUTE EFFORT