Family Ghosts 110
Ways to Sustain 113
Re-articulation 115
Manipulating Manifesting (Re)Generating Landscapes 116
[Only the beginning is true] 119
Ways to Skin a Fish: A Genealogical Survey 129
FAMILY GHOSTS
Michael I wrote you
a story I didn’t know
what you did
what we did
if I should dig
you up but
it didn’t feel right
you should remain so far
from the sea
it didn’t feel right
I couldn’t see you
Is this the shape these things should take?
I
FOX HUNTINGi
i Told by Stepan Prokopyev, Attu, August, 1909. Cylinders 25 and 26 (four minutes and forty-five seconds). Transcribed and translated into Eastern Aleut by Jochelson and Yachmenev with the help of Stepan Prokopyev, Umnak, 1910. Of the paired lines, the first is Attuan, the second Eastern Aleut. The written text differs in several spots from the cylinders. New York Public Library Manuscript 61.
ii Contamination (or copying mistake).
iii Some words missing
FAMILY HISTORY
RECORD OF GRADUATES AND RETURNED STUDENTS
U.S. INDIAN SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA.
NAME: Michael Chabitnoy
1. Are you married and if so to whom? Yes! To Lillian M. Zellers of Lebanon, Pa. [white]
2. What is your present address? Hershey, Pa
3. Where can I find you? Our aunt? Any relations?
4. What is your present occupation? Moulding chocolate
5. Tell [me] something of your present home. I have a nice home and has all conveniency in it.
6. What property in the way of land, stock, buildings, or money do you have? None.
7. What other positions have you held since leaving Carlisle? None
8. Why did you stay in Pennsylvania?
9. Why didn’t you stay with our aunt?
10. Tell me anything else of interest connected with your life:
11. Tell me anything:
FAMILY GHOSTS HISTORY
CARLISLE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL
DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL RECORD OF STUDENT
Degree of Indian Blood: Full
Well developed.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Father. Dead. Yes. Traumatized.
Mother. Dead. Yes. Heart Trouble. (bad heart.)
Brother. Dead. I. Whooping Cough.
Sister. Dead. I.?
(Aunt.)
Titiani.
Unga,
Alaska.
Living.? Condition of Health.?
There wasn’t an aunt.
There wasn’t an aunt
until five years later. March 16, 1907.
(At which point)
Michael Chabitnoy.
Tribe, Alaskan. Tribe, Aleut. Agency, Baptist Orphanage, Wood Island.
(otherwise listed Michael Shepednoy. Nation, Alent.)
was readmitted.
Michael Chepednoy. Nation, Alent.
returned to school without permission. June 21, 1905.
Conduct. very good.
April 10, 1909.
Student. Michael Chabitnoy. Nation, Aleut.
went on an outing and did not return.
JULY 26, 2015 [written around a grocery list]
[Side 1]
[Side 2]
Cause of Death: traumatized (?)
SHEBUTNOY (trans. Salmon-fisher)
(Michael) Chabitnoy. Aleut.
1886–1920.
Because they were “of the water.”
Because they were given Russian names.
He was born with hushed words.
Because his mother had a bad heart and his father was traumatized.
They took him from the sea.
Because he came to the school charitably, before.
Because there is only one photo, after.
They told the skeptics, yes, it can be done.
Because it could be done.
Because