Growing Up in Wartime Alaska

The childhood memory of war

Many Alaska Native elders remember the war years as part of their childhood. Elders indicate the prevalent theme of their fathers and brothers serving in the Alaska Territorial Guard or the US Armed Forces. Other stories from elders highlight the prevalence of military bases across Alaska. And yet, many Native elders recall a continued engagement of traditional subsistence, hunting, and gathering activities during the war.

In the first video, Melva Withers (Aleut) shares that she is from Seward, Alaska. She was born in 1938. Her father worked as a longshoreman and his ancestry included mixed Aleut and Japanese Alaskan. Melva recalled playing on the military equipment with the other children including the Native kids from the Jesse Lee Home orphanage.

In the second video, Elizabeth Keating (Athabascan) describes how she grew up in Holikachuk, Alaska. She was born in 1933. After her mother passed away, her grandparents raised her speaking Athabascan and living off the land with the subsistence lifestyle. She spoke about her older siblings who attended the mission school. Her sister Ethel died from medical neglect at the mission school. As a teenager, Elizabeth joined her father to attend school in Washington State.

In the third video, Joe Senungetuk (Iñupiaq) from Kiŋigin (English name Wales), talks about his art and writing related to 20th century Alaska history. In his book Give or Take a Century (1971), in addition to discussing traditional Iñupiat history, he discusses his family in the Alaska Territorial Guard and the Alaska National Guard, moving to Nome from Wales and attending the Nome Public School, and Alaska colonial history. He was born in 1940.