You know, with all the time spent sitting around the house after work or even during work, I think about Time. An where it's brought me. I have two very beautiful twin daughter's, Skylar Marcia (Ik-nuq and Nung-zuk) and Adriana Noelle ( Gup-uq and Arrsiaq). Those are their Yupik names, two of which I've named them both after my beloved grandparents, their great grandparents, Maria and Louie Pete. It's true, our native names given to us, are truely who we've become. Adriana is named after my Upa Louie and his cousin Cecelia Abouchak. Skylar is named after my Gramma Maria and Gabriel Tom's step mother Nungzuk. The girls first year, they were a year and a half, I remember this as if it were yesterday. Skylar was outside playing in the dirt, she had on a pair of Carhart jeans, a pink hoodie and a yarn knit beanie my aunt Sue had made them. Anyway, she was kneeling on the ground with one leg tucked under her butt and one leg bent up to her chest. She had a small piece of stick in her hand, holding it between her index and middle finger, looking so serious, she'd put it up to her mouth and suck on it as if she were smoking a ciggarette. After catching her doing this so many times throughout the years, I asked," why does she do this?" And found out that Nungzuk loved smoking tobacco. The kind you have to put in rolling paper. Adriana on the other hand is named after my Upa Louie. He was a great hunter! He knew everything there was to know about living in Bush Alaska the subsistance way of life! Camping, fishing, hunting, weather, kayak building, setting fish nets during summers in the ocean or rivers and during the winters in the ice, setting traps. I mean he knew everthing about subsistance living! He loved making native drums, and singing yupik songs. He used to sing in his sleep all the time. I don't know how my gramma slept through the night. But she did. I can go on and on about him. There's so much you could have learned from him. To hear him tell you a story about anything and everything.
But anyway, about Adriana and her being named after my Upa Louie, my parents were getting ready to practice native dancing at the city hall. My dad and Zachary were kneeling in the middle of the floor and my mom behind both of them. Adriana (Arrsiaq) knelt between my dad and my brother Zachary as if to show them both whose seated next to them and show them how to do the dance. To lead them. She waited till Skylar (Ik-nuq) to stand behind her and when she knew she was directly in front of my mom and behind Adriana, that's when Adriana started leading the dance when the singers and drummers started one of my Upa Louie's songs. They were both looking down, their hands out infront of them, palms up, motioning them up and down with the sound of the drumming in the background. They did this till the song was over and they were done dancing. It was funny cause after the song was done, they went about being little girls again. Playing, running around with not a care in the world, just being kids again! I had a huge lump in my throat, I saw it was both my Grandparents Maria (Ik-nuq) and my Upa Loue (Arrsiaq) in them. For that brief moment, they came to see us and be with us for that one song. Sorry my pictures of them aren't clear, I don't have a scanner. I hope you enjoy the pictures, it's of both my Grandparents, Maria and Louie Pete. My Gramma used to play the organ in church every Sunday and during holidays. Christmas was my favorite time of year and still is. The one of her playing the organ was during Christmas Mass at the old church. After I took the picture, she smiled and said I made her make a mistake with the flash. But she continued on and played gracefully.
