Fred John, a son of the legendary Katie John (Tsucde, pronounced "schook-da"), is 72; I am nearly 70. We have been friends in Delta since 1976. We both lived in pre-pipeline Alaska, a time before the land was carved up and labeled and in an era when, it was said, there was just $5,000 in Fairbanks. When that money came around to a merchant, he paid his bills. A time before prosperity. As Jerry Isaac, former president of Tanana Chiefs Conference, told me in 1998: "The era of fur trader John Hajdukovich and my uncle Chief Andrew Isaac was a much more intimate time between Native and non-Native. They shared the same life in the Bush, working and playing alongside each other." It was a time for the wise words of the Alaska Native grandmother, Tsucde, the matriarch who held their families together for centuries. They drew their life from the land. It has always been -- and will always be -- about the land and Gramma.
In May 2014, one year after their mother, Katie John, passed, Fred John and his brother Harry John walked from Dot Lake to Anchorage to protest Gov. Parnell's request to the Supreme Court to overturn the Katie John case, the subsistence ruling in a 1990 lawsuit that resulted in stronger Native subsistence fishing rights in Alaska. They walked to educate the public about the importance of traditional hunting and fishing rights for Alaska's rural people, and its importance of practicing Alaska Native cultures within the legal framework.
Fred felt he wanted to continue his dedication this year to honor his late mother's support for those who have no voice.
Healthy lifestyle
On May 3, 2015, the John brothers began walking from their home village of Mentasta to Fairbanks, a 270-mile trek. As elders, they are walking to honor their mother and all grandmothers who pass timeless values on to their younger generations. In addition, to fulfill a promise, Katie's sons are walking for the Fairbanks Four from Delta to Harding Lake.
In an interview from his home in Delta as he rested May 16, Fred said that their walk is a grassroots movement that spreads their message by word of mouth "to remind us of who we are. The message is that our life, our power, is in choosing a healthy lifestyle."
He continued: "In my youth, the authorities came into our villages and forced us children away from our parents, sending us far away to a boarding school. They thought our parents didn't know how to raise us and that it was best to assimilate us Indians through western education. Today that is no longer the case. We are free to make healthy choices. However if we surrender to alcohol, the authorities may come again into our villages and take our children because we laid down our own power to raise them. That's alcohol way; that's not our way."
He explained further government intrusions: "We should not have had our land claims (Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 1971) decided between oil companies, federal and state authorities behind closed doors. We should not be the only indigenous people in the nation who aren't called by the word 'tribe,' a village people who cannot have our land held in trust." He pointed out: "In Alaska most Natives don't say they are tribal but they say that they are shareholders. It is time to wake up and to govern our tribal lands, to raise revenue and to have our own means of taking care of our local tribal concerns and resources."
He remembered that once at their culture camp at Batzulnetas (pronounced "Benzoolneetuhs"), some of the kids and he went to his mother, Katie John, Tsucde, angry that some New York kids were at their camp.
"It's an Indian thing," they said. "We don't want them here."
"However," he remembered, "my mother said, 'Don't tell anybody, "No." All are welcome here.' " Pointing out, "Freddy, your ancestors met the first explorers. When the white people, Lt. Allen and his party, came, they shot up in the air to salute us. We told them, 'We are the Copper people,' and we gave them the name 'the Iron people.' She told me, 'If you don't respect those people, you're disrespecting your ancestors.' It was hard on us to do that because we grew up in a Bureau of Indian Affairs school. There was a lot of bitterness as we lost our language and our culture. But after a lifetime of a long, hard journey, that bitterness and anger has slowly slipped away in me. Sometimes the best way to get grounded is to sit quietly and reflect on what your Tsucde has taught you. Reflecting is important."
On May 2, Mentasta hosted a kickoff when an old friend of the John family, well-known Alaska photographer Roy Corral, and his band, the Whiskey Jacks (an old Alaska term for Canadian or gray jays), entertained by singing the "Ballad of Katie John," a synopsis of the Katie John history.
On day one, for the first miles, the John brothers' feet were punished. Blisters and toenails came and went as their feet toughened up to the daily beating. Despite that, their spirits were strong. The brothers were greeted with dinners in Tok and Tanacross. People visited with them on the road. This past year Fred had prepared by making chief necklaces, choker necklaces and earrings, which he is gifting to supporters along the way.
Fairbanks Four
On May 15, the John brothers arrived at the midway point in Delta.
"There are many Alaska Natives filling our prisons who are innocent," Fred said.
This is an important cause to Fred's younger brother Harry. He had requested that the Katie John family give voice to one of the best-known cases in Alaska, the Fairbanks Four, and to walk for them from Delta to Harding Lake.
"The Fairbanks Four" refers to four Alaska Natives: Marvin Roberts, 36; Kevin Pease, 35; Eugene Vent, 34; and George Frese, 37; who were sentenced for the 1997 murder of John Hartman of Fairbanks. The four pled not guilty. More about their story is available online at the Innocence Project, Juneau Empire and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
All of the Fairbanks Four men have served nearly 18 years. This November, Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle will be reviewing the case.
On May 18, at the invitation of the Katie John family, Marvin Roberts' mother, Hazel Roberts Mayo, and the stepmother of George Frese, Mona Nollner, drove from Fairbanks to Delta to walk with Fred and Harry John. Both women were kind to speak with me.
Hazel Mayo began: "I'm happy it's finally coming out into the open now and we're seeing the end of the tunnel. I'm so grateful for the Innocence Project and for what Brian O'Donoghue has done. To show our gratitude for Fred and Linnea John for including us and also for the freedom of the Fairbanks Four we drove down from Fairbanks today to walk with the John family."
Mona Nollner, George Frese's stepmother and the wife of George's father, George Nollner, spoke: "I told George that eighteen years ago, it was only us, the family. Slowly, more people have gotten involved. Now we have such strong support from all areas; that gives him and the others strength."
"It is for those who have no voice or those who have forgotten their voice that we walk," Fred said.
'Listen to others' stories'
"The Walk encourages all cultures to remember and to share their histories," he continued. "Remember what your own Tsucde said to you. Let your memories surface. Mine always encouraged me to be an ambassador to the non-Native and to listen to others' stories. Katie John said, 'That's the ONLY way they'll know. Tell them story about how we take care of each other, how we share, how we don't have no poor houses, no jail and no exercise rooms! … No, we don't have no exercise rooms.' "
I thought then about my own grandmother, who single-handedly raised six children through Depression-ridden, dust bowl Oklahoma. As her husband was dying in 1931, he said to her, "Take care of the land and the land will take care of you." It is the same with Tsucde and Fred's walk for her.
On Tuesday, the John brothers will enter Fairbanks, walking from Noel Wien Public library (1.4 miles) to the Chiefs Court at Doyon. For more, see Walk for Tsucde on Facebook.
Judy Ferguson, a 47-year Big Delta resident, is the author of seven Alaska nonfiction books. See http://judysoutpost.com. In 2016, expect Windows to the Land, An Alaska Native Story Vol. II, the Iditarod and Alaska River Trails.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.