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The teachings of the shamans became part of the traditions observed by our Fathers and their families across many generations of time. Even when the families of our Fathers journeyed far from the eyes of others—and far from the presence of the shamans—they willingly and respectfully followed these practices. For they had witnessed the consequences of disobedience and believed them to be inescapable.
The traditions and taboos continued, because our Fathers and their families believed the shamans. And feared them. The families of our Fathers lived all throughout the valleys and mountains about Kotzebue, and along the rivers of our Kobuk country. Our people did not often settle in villages like we do today. They moved their families from season to season.
Each year they began their journeys in suvluravik tatqiq, the moon when rivers flow. As life returned to our land in the spring, our Fathers and their families left their winter settlements behind and made their camps close to creeks where the fish would first be found. If the storms of previous seasons and the flows of the rivers had been kind, the families could return to their chosen spring areas year after year. But if floodwaters had redrawn the paths of the rivers and streams, their settlements had to be made in places they did not know.
In these spring camps, the women worked hard to prepare the seines or fishing nets for the summer fishing season, while our Fathers hunted for geese, ducks and muskrats. Many times in the early spring the fish and birds were scarce, and the families of our Fathers could only survive on those things they could find, sometimes eating only young willow shoots that grew near the rivers.
Slowly the days became warm, the ice left the rivers, and our Fathers moved their camps to chosen summer fishing places. There they built huts of sod or of arched willow boughs covered with skins or bark. They made drying racks and a smokehouse, hoping for much fish and meat to feed them in the days of winter. When the summer camp was set, the men and older boys of the families left for the qakirut or annual summer hunt.
Our Fathers found great satisfaction in their summer hunt. Their search for caribou and Dall sheep took them deep into the mountains. Much of this time was spent sharing stories, and fixing or making new weapons while watching the land for the animals.
The skins of the caribou and sheep were used by our Fathers and their families for clothing and protection. They dried the meat for winter use, and made tools from the bones. Every part of the animal was well used; to do otherwise was considered disrespectful. Nothing that our Fathers took from the earth was ever misused or wasted.

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