Competency #6

Critical thinking has taken on a new form of life for me. Before I had started back to university, all I worried about was budgeting time, money, and taking care of my family. Making sure the children were fed, the dogs walked, and the house cleaned was a critical part of my day.

• From my first research paper to my last, conceptualizing, analyzing, and interpreting data has improved tremendously.
• Thesis writing has become second nature to me through the process of critical thinking. My research process has developed greatly, so I can minimize the time to write out papers that are coherent to the reader.

The environmental literature classes, English 303 and 423, with Dr. Sarah McFarland, taught me to analyze writing in a whole knew dimension, and to review novels or short stories through ecocriticism.

• This involves reading with the intent of finding what the author is trying to convey to the public concerning the environment and what affect we have on it.
• Ecocriticism is the study of nature and writing, also referred to as environmental literature. For me, the controversial topics concerning our environment and those that write about environmental issues left me with a bad taste. But, it has also made me aware of the footprint that I will leave behind. This paper is available through professors to review.

Competency #7

By far the most challenging class that I have taken at UAS was English 461, Advanced Creative Writing, with Emily Wall. The peer review and critiques lead to numerous rewrites of short stories. In addition to learning to become a writer is the process of reading like a writer. After years of training to read analytically, I found it difficult to switch to reading as a writer. This unique process looks at the tension that is created by the author and how he or she uses tension to tell a story.

• Tension leads the audience to develop a relationship with the character or characters, whether it is animal, plant, or human.
• A desire to know the outcome of a character.

• Desire brings the reader into the world of the character, leaving an imprint within the reader’s memory. A good author will engage the reader with conflicts by the use of tension; this then creates emotion within their audience.
  
• My work of fiction is available through the professors.

Journal Entries cont.

Thursday the 21st of February, I am meeting with Auntie Agnes Moore at the Pioneers Home of Alaska to get her permission to video tape her tomorrow. I do not want to just bring in my camera and assume she will let me film her––that would be very rude in our culture.
The meeting went well, she has agreed to be video taped, but not today. She would like to be more “presentable.” We had a good laugh about that, but it was after 11 and almost lunchtime, so I think she was hungry. The staff at the Pioneers Home is very helpful and has encouraged me to come and record all the history of her life before it is lost. If only I had more time to do this, but I need to focus on my project for right now.
Just got through calling Auntie Judy to remind her that I was driving over, she has the stomach flu and is not feeling well. I won’t be driving down to Manley today. I was really looking forward to seeing Manley, can’t remember the last time I was there. Manley also has a natural hot springs, as a child I remember bathing in the screened in bathhouse — I was really looking forward to soaking away some worries.
Aunt Judy did give me some info about some of the history saying that Uncle Fred and Henry Moses were the interpreters for the services held at Mission. “They translated the sermon from English to Athabascan because those old-timers did not know how to speak English to well,” she said. She also mentioned what Aunt Agnes said about the Athabascan songs when sung that the building just vibrated, “like something else was there.” Aunt Judy also went to school at the Mission, but said she never lived in the orphanage.
My mother and step-father just stopped by to say that they are heading down to Anchorage today instead of on Friday. I was supposed to videotape her today, but they are in a hurry to get on the road. I’m very mad right now, since I have traveled this far and she is the reason why I have done so.
Ginger has some photos of Doyon and TCC that she would like me to go through, now that my mothers left for Anchorage — I have the time to go to her office.

Journal Entries

It’s Wednesday the 20th of February and I am heading to Fairbanks to interview Agnes Moore of Tanana, AK, Judy Woods of Manley Village, AK, and my mother, Flora Henry (Kokrine) Demoski. I’m very excited about this project, but also feel a little bit intimidated by the whole thing. It has been a long time since I saw either of my aunties, but I have spoken with Auntie Judy on the phone for several other projects, it is going to be nice to see her.
Rev. Helen Peters, I could not reach. Her son, Guy, said that she might have gone to Anchorage for the Fur Rondy. It is very hard to keep track of our parents these days; they travel far more often than we do. Grandma Helen is said to be the person to talk with, I might be able to get Guy to record her and send me the info that I need.
I hate to leave Juneau now that the sun is coming out this weekend, I am also being very hopeful on getting the info that I need.

Digital Society and what it means to me. Unfamiliar with the use or overuse of the internet, I feel that people are left to fend for themselves more so now then ever before.

Thursday's class poems

Fell off the back of a truck,
In the State of Alabama.
Sack in arm, he snatched her
off the ground.
“I waste half my life,
to track her down.”
Patsy flinched when the empty Coke bottle
glanced off the register.

It’s great to be able to go for my morning and afternoon walks again. My dogs were happy to be out and about. It was very funny to watch Wilbur the Basset Hound with his new booties.

Sidewalk corner walk
Cold desire
Stop for grimy truck
Quickly faceless girl
Hustles by.

Windy breeze sails grow
Sun and faith pulls my desire
Waves of snow clear the view
Swiftly courageous Wilbur
Pushes through.

Cold winter walks
Raven calls overhead
Dumping his backpack
as he rolls in the breeze
The spruce trees tire
from their loads of snow
Silence falls in its shower

A number that changes – often
But we Indians are use to being numbers

Mission Hill

Mission Hill

This area of Tanana was once a thriving little mission outreach center for the Episcopal Church. Sitting up on a bluff overlooking the convergence of the Tanana and Yukon Rivers, the Mission is now abandoned, but still used as a burial ground.

The church is on the National Historic register, but funds to save the building is hard to come by. The monies that are needed to save this building would run into the millions, due to its isolated location. Materials and equipment would have to be barged in during the short summer season of Alaska, making the cost of repair extremely high.

My mother went to the school that was held here back in the early 1940s. Gardens were planted around the church to help support itself and the children that were left there as orphans. For the village of Tanana, Mission Hill holds a dear place in our hearts as the final resting place for our dead.