Adolf Jewis Interview

And just imagine those two how they're feeling right this very moment. There's a couple of silencers over do it from Blue Hill last night. Oh, he's down there, huh? I think so. I think whether it's not real clear yesterday. It was a big blanket of photograph there. My younger brothers, my younger brothers made it home early yesterday, but those two guys are still. All right, you're having trouble concentrating today. How come I'm having trouble concentrating because I just had a cop from one of my brothers in my village. We don't look about the guys that couple guys over do on a seal hunting trip that they left yesterday and they still hadn't returned to the village this morning. I feel a little scared for them right now because I went through the same situation five, six years ago and I'm sure not how it feels like out there in the ocean when you're out by yourself, not really out by yourself, but with somebody else, but still

there's nothing in the horizon, you know, there's water, there's snow, there's everything in you feel like your future is cut short. So you were empathy, your thoughts are with those guys right now. I'm hoping I'll hear some rather good news about them. Is it hard to do the news a lot of times when you know the people involved? It is very hard. It is very hard in a situation like this when there's somebody lost the people, you know, or somebody involved in a very serious crime, like murder, violent, violent crimes, people you know, it's kind of hard to talk about them in the news in the epic because even even people you just get gotten to know like a few years ago there was this young volunteer videographer who just got to know and he went out to Fairbanks and he died of, I believe

it was exposure, but that really affected my performance on the set. I mean why does that kind of contradict with the Yupic way to, when someone's involved in a rape or a child sex abuse case, to talk about on that on the air, why does that kind of put you sort of in between, it puts you in a bad way with your culture, why? Because in my culture we're taught to not talk about these things openly. But then again, thinking back to the elders, the present elders are saying right now they say that their elders in their time when they were young used to bring these things up, there's one certain person that was doing all the talking and what I do now I often

feel awkward when I'm interviewing elders, you know, I don't feel really bad when I'm interviewing somebody in my age group or somebody a little older, but when it comes to an elder and trying to get stories about something serious, you know, something, something rather serious like rape, assault, something like that, it's really hard for me to sit down and be comfortable asking questions because my culture, my culture teaches us not to, you know, go around and talk about these things, you know, that's, that's, that's my feeling. You know, back to the seal hunting, you know, with your job here, you haven't caught

any seal. Do you miss that life? I every, every spring around that I, I get really home safe. Okay, don't say my name, okay, but every year, every year, the last few years I've been in Bethel, like when, beginning March, I just start to get homesick because I know guys are getting ready to go out to the ocean, guys are, I mean, my brothers, I think about my brothers early in the morning, even when I'm at home, even before I come to work, I think about, I could, I could just imagine them getting getting up, my, one of my younger brothers making coffee, one of them making breakfast and then going out, going out and just buzz on out to the ocean, when you're doing that, when you're getting

ready to go out, you hardly think of the dangers, the dangers of, danger side of seal hunting. So what about in your news, broadcast, you know, it's a bit of a big sacrifice for you to be here because you had to give up a lot of subsistence activities like that you, that you've muddled to do with your family, but why have you stayed here for so many years? What's kept you here? You know, when I first started working in this field, I got into it because I was desperate for, desperate for money and IRS was behind my tail, telling me I either pay up my debt or they do something and I was, I was just hanging on a thread then, no, they were down to the last, last, let's see, they were just down to, down to my throat and this job came

up and I jumped for it and I stuck around for a year, but before, before I came here, I was volunteering here and there, I was reading news, but what happened, given all the things, things, the fact that you miss your subsistence lifestyle, you miss, you hate saying things, you know, the news that are negative, you hate interviewing elders because that puts you in a bad position, why did you stay, why did the work, why did you begin to love your work? Oh my heart changed, I guess, you know, I became committed to what I was doing. I was getting a lot of feedback, positive feedback from my elders from the community here in Bethel and even communities surrounding Bethel, I ran into elders who were telling me

that I was doing a good job, I was making them understand and that's what I always wanted to do, make them understand what's going on out there in the political world, what's going out there in the economic world, socially, what's going on in our country, elders, what's happening to their longevity program, is it being cut, is it being, you know, just what is going to be wiped out, those things I wanted to let the elders understand where they're standing at, where the situation is at, right now I, that's where I am, I enjoy my work, I want my elders to understand and partly I want my language to not die, you know, I don't want to lose my language or I don't want my culture to lose our language,

I want to teach my children my language, but do you think having the language on radio on TV plays an important role in that? I think it really plays an important role because my fellow Yupics are hearing it being spoken, I know there's a lot of young Yupics in my age group from another area, from other areas who are wishing to know how to speak, speak it and I get, I get comments from them here and there, you know, they, they tell me that I'm doing a good job, I'm, well, I mean, as far as, as far as the language goes, you know, and preserving it, you know, you yourself,

I mean, it must be a learning experience for you as well when you, you know, do you realize how much you pick as being lost all, all the time in the course of your work? Like, you know, new words and things that you have to learn, are there time when you don't know the words for things? Their time when I don't know specific words for some things, but the way I do my job is to explain what, what I'm talking about, like, if I'm talking about liability in Yupics and I explain what that means, I, I, I, I go into details of how this, this word can apply to our culture. Okay, now first of all, explain to us how to explain the word liability, give us the literal translation for liability and Yupics, how you would explain it to an elder.

What would be the Yupic word? The Yupic word for liability would be, it would be more than one word. I would, I would explain it this way. Something, something that relates to, a job, something that relates to a job, a problem relating to a job, it's kind of hard for me to, okay, talk about it in English. Give us another example of a, of a difficult word and you can, um, oh, you can think while he's, like, what's a real sensitive touchy term? A real sensitive touchy term would be, um, child sex abuse, penetrating a four-year-old. That would be a very touchy term for me.

How would you explain it in Yupic? I would explain it in Yupic as, um, not child being, molested by some, by somebody, you know, a helpless, well, I'm getting into it, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but give us, give us a phrase, the Yupic phrase that you would, what would you say in Yupic? I would say in Yupic, um, Michael McConaughey, Akuzaro Q. I'm, I'm basically saying, um, child sex abuse, messing around with a child, playing with a child. That, I guess it bothers you to, to do stories on subjects like this. It, it bothers me a lot, especially when I'm doing a story about child sex abuse, child

abuse. It, it's not really, it, it doesn't really bother me when I'm talking about, um, an adult, uh, doing things like that to another adult, but when it comes to an adult doing some bad things to a child, um, then it gets very hard. And, um, do you feel your new stories make a difference though? What in the others know about this? I feel like, uh, the more we do these, these kind of stories, and I, I think the reason why there's been, um, part of the reason why there's been, uh, an increase of child sex abuse, uh, reports is partly because we're doing, doing some stories in Yupic about them. So are not, um, people are not afraid to come out to the open.

People are no longer afraid to say, well, um, my cousin, my cousin did it. My cousin did this. Uh, they're no longer afraid. They're more educated now. They know where to go. Um, they know where to, uh, report and incident. Uh, we're, you know, we're, we're doing these stories, uh, anything to do with sexual abuse, anything to do with longevity, anything to do with social services. We're doing these stories and at the same time we're educating, um, I'm educating my people, a Yupics, where, where they can find help. What about, um, you know, have you seen the results of it, of the things that you've done or you've been it away? Okay. Have you seen the direct results of your work, things that you and John have done? Um, what, what?

I mean, have you seen your work have an impact? Have you seen something result from, have you seen some good things come from your work? I mean, can you tell that it's having an impact? You mentioned in sex abuse you've thought it was having an impact because it was contributing to awareness about any of you. Any other things that? I see another thing, another thing we're doing, um, a couple of years ago. There was, there was, uh, an increase of drownings in the Delta. And, uh, because we were doing, uh, like awareness, uh, awareness stuff to awareness, uh, let's see what's the word I want to use. Just some educational, um, awareness programs for, for our, our, uh, people here. They're more aware, they're more aware of, uh, um, the danger going out on the river without, uh, um, life preserver jacket.

Um, what about waves? Talk, talk a little bit about the waves program. Is that one of the projects you've enjoyed? What is the waves project? And why do you enjoy it? Waves project is, uh, made up of, uh, um, traditional values. You pick traditional values being passed on by our elders. Um, traditional values, including survival, including, um, how to take care of food. Uh, socially, but, but how we can live, uh, in a peaceful, uh, we have living socially, those kind of things. Um, I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed getting, getting, uh, um, interviews on waves project. Cause that gives me a chance to talk to my elders, elders who are, um, just getting old coming

seen. Some of them have died, um, in the last several years. And, um, waves, waves project has helped us to preserve, uh, some of those values that could have been, um, you know, that we could have missed out, uh, if we had an interview, if we hadn't introduced some of them. And, uh, one of the, one other way, this waves project is helping me is, uh, I'm learning, I'm learning new words, the old, you big terms. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm learning. I'm learning new words. And, uh, the way I do it is, uh, uh, I'll be talking to an elder, I'll be interviewing an elder, okay? And then if they say some, some word that I don't know, I say, I wait until they pause and go

back to that word. If I remember, if I, if, if I remember that certain word then I ask, ask, ask the elder about it. And, uh, sometimes I, uh, I'll have a note pad and I'll, I'll write down the word, um, and ask them after the interview. Well, it's kind of scary because, because people consider you as somebody who has a real good command of the language and yet you have to, to jot down words and come across what you don't know. What about the young, you fix that you're interviewing by contrast? But, by contrast, the young, you fix I interview, um, in my language, okay, they're, they're mixing, they're mixing, um, we'll be done in just a second. Uh, alright, what's the, from the beginning? Okay, when I'm interviewing a young, young, you pick like my, someone in my age group,

or even somebody younger, it's a, it's a birth with younger, younger you pick. They're, they're using, um, English words here and there. Like, I'll, I'll ask them, um, I'll ask them something, let's see, let me think. Uh, okay, I'll, I'll ask them, uh, check, or, or that's saying, what time, or, no, that's, that's, that's a bad, that's a bad, uh, example, but the other way around, um, younger you picks are asking, when they're asking for a time, they'll say, what time, uh, instead of saying, check, what time, um, just, just, they're, they're just mixing. They're just mixing, uh, uh, the two languages and, uh, I think today with the, the younger,

the younger you pick, they're like half the time, they're using English words and half the time they're, um, you put sizing, you put sizing those English words, like, what time, uh, uh, uh, um, did you feel like this space should maybe play as a role? I think, I think I think it, the station, the KY UK is playing a big role, um, I think it's playing a big role, by, uh, um, letting people hear our language on, on the airwaves. You pick, do you ever, what things, you know, what times are people in the community listening to you pick news, you pick news is, uh, mostly listen to between 1230 and one o'clock

in the evening, 530 and 545. What are people doing when they're like, what, uh, when I know, I know my dad, uh, when it's time for, just before, uh, new news, he'll just, uh, take, take a cassette radio and turn it on. .