Everlasting: Adventures of an Alaskan Déné Girl: Everlasting and The Great River

By Bumppo

A spring flood sends a wall of water sweeping down The Great River in Alaska, devastating a small native village. Everlasting, a young Déné girl and her people survive but her father and uncle disappear down the river in their skin-covered canoe.

Everlasting leaves home to search for her father and uncle. With the help of wild Alaska animals she finds danger, adventure and friendship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publication Consultants
• Release date: Aug 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781594334016

Bumppo

Bumppo succumbed to the call of the North and to Alaska. After trapping in the Alaskan Interior near Fairbanks, Lured by the ocean, he moved to a protected cove across Kachemak Bay, moved into a log cabin, delivered his daughter in the log cabin, and restored a 1929 Bristol Bay sailboat into a commercial fishing boat. Bumppo and his wife raised their son and daughter by fishing for halibut, shrimp and crab, and growing, hunting and gathering 75% of their food. Eventually they moved their family to the fast-growing town of Homer, where Bumppo continued to fish and do carpentry. He acquired a coast guard captain's license and ran halibut charter and freight hauling boats. At the ripe old age of 50, Bumppo returned to college to get his teaching degree; he taught grades kindergarten through tenth in remote Native villages. Bumppo now lives with his life partner Lindianne, a writer and musician, on a self-reliant homestead in South Central Alaska.

Book preview

beaver!

Chapter 1

Everlasting and The Great River

Everlasting lived on The Great River. She’d been told that it flowed to the ocean but she’d never been more than a few miles from her small village and wasn’t even sure what the ocean was.

Everlasting lived with her mother and father, her older sister and three older brothers. Her father was strong and kind and her mother beautiful and warmhearted.

During the long, cold winter, she helped her mother around their home. The fire had to be tended, food had to be cooked and their warm winter fur clothes had to be mended.

Everlasting’s mother and sister were always patient with her. They didn’t scold if she dropped firewood when she tried to carry too much. They took out the stitches when she made them too loose in her doll’s parka and showed her how to make them tight and even.

Her brothers would play with her. They tossed her to each other and threw her in the air with their big arms but were never rough.

Her father told exciting stories at night. He had once followed the tracks of a wolverine for three days so that he could shoot it with his bow and arrow and bring home its special fur. This fur was used on the edge of a parka hood and wouldn’t build up frost.

Everlasting had many friends in her village and the adults were like aunts and uncles who carefully watched all the village children.

There were many dogs in her village as they were needed to pull dogsleds in winter. Some of the dogs were mean and Everlasting knew better than to go near them where they were tied up. Some of the dogs were friendly and wagged their tails with joy when they saw Everlasting. They knew she would pet them and sometimes bring them a treat to eat. She especially liked the puppies. Her favorite thing was to lie down with a litter of puppies as they crawled all over her and licked her with their soft, warm tongues.

On a spring day when the first geese had been sighted flying north in the sky, Everlasting’s father and his hunting and fishing partner, her mother’s brother, decided to go fishing. Their skin-covered canoe was still upside down on a pole rack where hungry dogs couldn’t chew on it. Winter’s ice had just broken up on The Great River, but large chunks still floated past the village in the strong current. The salmon that the family had caught, smoked and dried the previous summer was almost gone. The time for shooting moose and caribou was past; they were having their babies. Ducks and geese had not yet returned to the frozen lakes that dotted the tundra.

Everlasting’s father hoped that the pike fish with their jaws full of sharp teeth had moved into the shallow pools along the river to lay their eggs. Her uncle and father carried their small boat down to The Great River. They put their forked fish spears and their net, woven from spruce roots, in the boat. Everlasting’s mother gave them dried fish in case they got hungry.

Everlasting’s father and uncle hugged her goodbye and promised to bring home fresh fish for dinner. She waved from the riverbank as they carefully paddled their canoe around the blocks of ice bobbing in The Great River.

Upstream from Everlasting’s village, The Great River narrowed as it ran between steep bluffs. Blocks of ice had crowded together until they blocked the river. Behind the ice, the river rose higher and higher. A huge volume of water pushed against the ice dam until it finally broke apart. A wall of water and ice roared down The Great River. Trees ripped from the river banks and rocks tore from the canyon walls.

The people of Everlasting’s village heard a rumbling sound as water, ice, trees and rocks washed down the river. The older villagers knew the sound and told everyone, Run from the river! People grabbed the little children and helped the elders. They cut loose the tied-up dogs. They had no time to grab any possessions before the flood roared through the village.

The survivors climbed a small hill behind their village. When they counted the people they were thankful that no one was missing. But their sturdy log homes, their canoes and all their food and fishing and hunting tools were gone. Some children cried, but most were just happy they still had their families. Everyone went to work building temporary shelters from spruce branches and moss.

Farther down The Great River, the flood caught Everlasting’s father and uncle as they maneuvered their canoe around the ice floes. They heard the flood coming and paddled desperately towards