Annie Nelson: They call me Amarr’aq, Am’, Amar’.
Sam Berlin: And your English name.
Annie: Annie Nelson.
Sam: Your age and when you were born.
Annie: Nineteen-thirty-one. I don’t like April Fool[s].
Sam: She asked about when you would go to the community house.
Annie: That community house, the other was in Qinaq, and the other was in Kialiq
Around the mouth of your ancestors’ river.
That community house stood for a long time since they were a village.
In the fall in September, they were settled there with tents.
When winter was nigh in October, they’d move to their winter camps.
Before they moved, when my friends were alive, we would play inside that community house.
The smokehole was up there, and the door couldn’t open.
It stood for a long time.
Me, you know Aluaryaq who moved to Kasigluk
And Tuntutuliaq, [?Caakut and the others’] mother.
[?Caakuk and the others’] mother is alive, the ones I [?] with. Aluaryaq died.
And [?Caakuk and the others’] mom’s two sisters
And Imuq’aq and family, Olenka Evan.
You know them?
They were a lot of women: Nuqarrluk, Imuq’aq, Apelciq, Iavaq, Cum’aq.
That community house was our settlement, and our playground.
She asked this: what did they do in the community house?
I wasn’t born in time to see what they did. I only became aware when they Yup’ik danced.
Then it had no [story] ending.
They also had Christmas with feasting bowls.
I never saw [those] bowls after that.
Sam: Do you remember what the side of that community house looked like?
Annie: I remember it.
You know how we moved there?
Annie: What was it like inside the community house?
You know the real wood they used for elevated caches long ago, and they were long.
They have four poles of those, one, two, three, four.
Do this to the top of the piece of wood, then, you know, prepare the spot for the wood.
Also, put that huge piece of wood there, having the large piece of wood smaller as it goes up.
Then they’d split the large piece of wood.
You know how they’d split wood before making something?
They’d raise those with exact lengths from each other.
Their women would weave grass.
After spreading them out they’d take out some ground, including the outer layer, and put them there.
Sam: From the tundra?
Grass from out there. It’s not tundra. This one with the outer surface of grass.
When they finished it, there was a smokehold up there. Oh my, it’s amazing.
What did they have as smokeholes?
Their women would make it out of loche scales.
Now, if you want to see loche skin, someone has it.
I try to [talk about] the old things.
The loche scales, then they’d have around them what was old flour bags.
They’d sew that for the border.
When they put it with support like this, they called it kiitaan.
They called them kitaat like this, [digging] with shovels, and layering with mud under the grass.
They're amazing.
It my rain hard, but they don't drip [inside].
