Oral History Interview Control
Form
Name of Interviewee: Mr. Gerald F. Carlson
Name
of Interviewer: Brian Shoemaker
Date
of Interview: 16 November 2001
Place
of Interview: Carlson Home, Vancouver, WA
Number
of Tapes: 1 (2sides)
Restrictions:
No
Cataloged:
No
Transcribed: No
Abstract
of Contents: Mr. Carlson was
just finishing his BA in Sociology at Washington State University in Pullman, WA
in 1951 when he heard
About
the Alaska Native Services Office of the Department of Interior teaching program
for native children. He and his wife Donna both signed up and three days later
they were flying north to Alaska.
His
first year with the service he and his wife were assigned to a native boarding
school in White Mountain, Alaska – near Nome. He recounts their experiences
teaching grades K-12. There were some 300 Inuiat Eskimo children who boarded at
the school. They lived in a dormitory with 10 other teachers and a school nurse.
Mr. Carlson recounts the experiences, challenges and problems. He has remained
in touch with some of his former students from that time; following their lives
and careers.
The
second year with the Alaskan Native Services Office the Carlsons were assigned
to Little Diomede Island where they were the only teachers for all grades K –
12. He tells very engaging story of sailing on the MV North Star from the
Alaska mainland to Little Diomede and of having to unload all of their
belongings into an umiak (walrus skin canoe) and being taken ashore through a
rough surf. He describes Big Diomede, USSR, Little Diomede, USA and the Fairway
rock on the Bering Strait.
There
were 130 Inupiat on Little Diomede – 35 were students from K-8 in a one-room
schoolhouse. The schoolhouse served as the Carlson’s home – it was the only
square building on the island except for a small church built by the famous
Father Tom Cunningham. Their only contact with the outside world was with the
school’s short-wave radio. The Inupiat lived in stone igloos – very
primitive. Again he discusses the challenges of teaching. The MV North
Star visited the island twice each year – first when the ice broke up in
the Bering Strait and in late summer as it was heading south out of the Chukchi
Sea.
He
discusses the problems teaching. First he had to adapt to local needs – the
primary one was getting in 180 days of teaching before walrus migration began in
the spring. That was when everyone was needed to help with the annual walrus
hunt – therefore it was necessary to teach trough holidays and some weekends.
He reports that the kids really wanted to learn and that there were no
discipline problems. Beginning students had to be taught English because their
primary language was inupiat.
He
had many other duties that he had to learn on the job – like radio operator
(the only means of communication with the outside world) and surgeon since there
was no medical care. There were problems with alcohol with the adults (until it
was completely consumed) and the frightened children stayed in the school with
the Carlsons until the sprees were over. He describes seal hunts on the sea ice
and walrus hunts by umiak.
Donna
Carlson became pregnant and at the end of the school year the Carlsons elected
to leave in the fall of 1954. They describe sailing across the Bering Strait to
Cape Prince of whales in an umiak and from there flying to Nome and back to the
State of Washington
The
Carlsons returned to Little Diomede 40 years later in 1993 and noted the
changes. People lived in houses. There was a grammar school with six elementary
teachers as well as a high school with four teachers. There was telephone
service. Etc. Dramatic changes.
Gerry
Carlson has written a very humorous book, Two on the Rocks, about his
experiences on Little Diomede. A copy is appended to Carlson’s file. Those
interested in purchasing a copy may order Two on the Rocks by Gerald F.
Carlson, ISBN: 1-58721-680-9. Library of Congress card Number 66-25144