to go to the hospital in Fairbanks at once. Several years later, we saw this old man and, raising his arm above his head, he said, “See? Good as ever. Never had any trouble and never did go to Fairbanks.”
The village of Nome, located on the shores of the Bering Sea, was threatened in January 1925 with a deadly diphtheria epidemic. The village needed one million units of antitoxin and, due to weather conditions, the only way possible to have it delivered was by dogsled. A relay team of twenty mushers and 150 sled dogs was organized, and the mail route from Nenana to Nome, a distance of 674 miles, was chosen as the fastest route to transport the serum. Also known as the “Great Race of Mercy,” the serum run was successfully completed in a record-breaking five and a half days.
In his book Eskimo Medicine Man, Dr. Otto George wrote about Foster’s role in the historic run. “[Foster] told me details of a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, to which he carried serum along with the mail. With the thermometer at 60 degrees below, or colder (the alcohol in the thermometer froze, and that should not occur until 72 below), Jones’s problem was to keep the serum from freezing. He modestly explained that he was only one of many who relayed the serum—thirty-five miles in his case—to Nome, and the man who was supposed to have the next-to-last leg of the journey passed his relief carrier (who was waiting his turn) and also made the last leg with the serum into Nome, to be acclaimed a hero.” Foster had a certificate designating him as a carrier of the serum to Nome.
Etta and Foster’s house on the Yukon River, purchased for $40 in the late 1920s.
REAL ESTATE WAS CHEAP. Our first little home was a four-roomed log cabin, warm in winter, cool in summer, very cozy, and attractive inside. The initial cost was $100. Later we bought a charming summer home just out of town on the banks of the Yukon, where we could have a garden and we could fish for salmon. Its cost was all of $40. A few years later someone wanted to buy it. The selling price was $40. Later we bought a larger house, a more pretentious place that boasted six rooms and bath on two floors. The price was $600. We lived there one summer and sold it for $1,000.
In March 1922, Foster petitioned for membership in Tanana’s Masonic Lodge, listing his occupation as “miner and prospector.” On July 16 of that same year, he was raised to Master Mason. The fraternity of Masons is one of community and charity service activities. Membership is sometimes composed of those living or working in a given town and/or sharing a particular interest or profession. Wives of Masons are eligible for membership in the auxiliary organization, Order of the Eastern Star, and on September 14, 1925, Etta became an active member in Tanana’s Midnight Sun Chapter Six.
4
Tanana, Tatitlek, and Old Harbor
1928–1932
After Vitus Bering led a Russian expedition to Alaska in 1741, the vast populations of sea otter, seal, and fox in the Aleutian Islands region were perceived as commodities that were available for the taking. As competing companies strove to dominate the fur business, Alaska’s indigenous islanders, the Aleuts, were exploited because of their legendary hunting abilities. Forced labor, massacres, captivity, disease, and starvation diminished the Aleutian Islands Native population by half.
Grigory Shelikov established a Russian settlement at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in 1784. Ten years later, a school was built, and Russian Orthodox missionaries arrived and began teaching Native children reading and writing in Russian. Local languages were also recognized, and eventually alphabets for these were developed. Literacy in Russian and the Native language became goals of the schools. Recognizing that the Natives had thrived under difficult circumstances for a very long time, the priests were pragmatic in their approach. Instead of attempting to abolish the Native culture, they lived their Christian lives by setting an example—simple, humble living while practicing their religious doctrine.
A monopoly in the Alaska fur trade was created when the Russian American Company was established in 1799. Schools continued under the company, and promising students were sometimes sent to Russia for further training. The sea otter, seal, and fox populations were not limitless, and the company imposed conservation measures. Nevertheless, the fur trade declined. Hunting expeditions could last from two to four years, and the cost was prohibitive. With decreasing monetary returns, Russia started to lose interest in Alaska. The Crimean War and other external pressures added to the concerns of the government. American whalers and fur dealers had started to make their presence felt in the territory, and on March 30, 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. Russia continued to subsidize church schools for Native children until 1917. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, all funding for Alaska missions was terminated.
The Nelson Act of 1905 established a segregated system in which schools for Native children would remain under the control of the Department of the Interior. The goals for Native schools were twofold: integrate Natives into the white culture, and preserve the Native culture. Students in these schools were taught the most rudimentary reading and math, but the emphasis was on domestic skills for girls and woodworking and mechanical trades for boys. The Native children were provided with an unsuitable patchwork of American textbooks.
Having observed this educational disparity, in 1928, Etta decided to change the focus of her teaching. On her application for appointment in the Alaska Indian Service, she was very specific. “I wish to be more actively associated with the Natives.” Her wish came true when her application was accepted and she was assigned to teach twenty-four Athabaskan students in Tanana.
Foster gained employment with the Alaska Indian Service in 1930. He listed his experience as, “Clerked in a drug store and studied under a pharmacist and physician” [his father]. His skills were listed as “drawing, carpentry, operating gas and steam engines, cooking, and washing clothes.” He also stated that he was qualified to teach “arithmetic, history, geography, hygiene, and first aid.”
Transfers within the Alaska Indian Service happened frequently for several reasons: the teachers requested a transfer; the teachers met the needs of a different Native village; new schools were built and teachers were hired; unsatisfactory performance by a teacher required a replacement; or, when teachers left the Alaska Indian Service, the vacated positions needed to be filled. In the 1930s, in addition to teaching certification, employees of the Alaska Indian Service were required to successfully pass a Civil Service examination. Those who didn’t qualify were dismissed, creating open teaching positions.
When transfers occurred, expenses for the move were subsidized in one of two ways. If the Alaska Indian Service made the recommendation, it was deemed “not for the convenience of the employee,” and the Alaska Indian Service covered the cost of the move. If an employee requested a transfer, the employee had to pay his or her own expenses.
In 1930, Foster was assigned to Kaltag, an Inupiat Eskimo village located 327 miles west of Fairbanks, while Etta was transferred to Tatitlek, twenty-one miles south of Valdez and 450 miles southeast of Kaltag. In a letter dated June 19, 1930, the Commissioner of Education stated, “This transfer is not for the convenience of the employee.” There was no post office in Kaltag until three years later, so correspondence between Etta and Foster during that year was infrequent at best.
Tatitlek is an Alutiiq Indian village
on Prince William Sound in Southcentral Alaska. In 1930 it had a Native population of sixty-two; Etta was the only white person in the village. Describing her new location, Etta wrote, “Tatitlek is a small fishing village between Valdez and Cordova, twenty-eight miles from Valdez, fifty-five miles from Cordova. The ground is wet and swampy at all times. No wells can be driven. The water supply comes from a spring on the hillside. The Natives