newsminer.com

Photo by John Wagner

Ask Raymond Paneak, 67, of Anaktuvuk Pass, when he started dancing, and he quickly replies, “All my life.”

Paneak cannot remember not dancing or beating a taut Eskimo drum. Among Paneak’s earliest memories are dancing and drumming in a canvas tent in the mid-1940s when the Nunamiut (inland Inupiat) were still nomadic.

“We must keep our culture and dancing in the village,” Paneak implored the largely Native crowd Saturday night, the final night of the Festival of Native Arts on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

“We must keep our language. It’s going away. We must not lose it,” he said when the Nunamiut dancers took the stage.

Only about a third of the Brooks Range community’s dance group was able to travel to Fairbanks for the performance, but they made up in enthusiasm for the two dozen still at home.

As the drums began tapping, 18-month-old Michael Hugo left his mother’s side and wandered to center stage, raising his arms and stamping his booted feet in rhythm with the drummers and circulating among the dancers as they took turns performing.

“He’s gonna learn to drum and dance like the other boys,” his proud mother, Nancy Ahgook, said afterward. “That’s the only way to learn. He already learned how to stomp his feet.”

As is the custom, when the group’s set neared its end, an invitation went out to the audience and the concert stage was soon crowded with dancers — the males emphatically gesturing with arm motions and stomping their feet in contrast to the females standing in place, gracefully swaying their arms and bodies.

So it went each night for each of the multiple dance groups from around the state — Inupiat, Yupik, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Athabascan — with performances followed by sharing music and dance with the audience.

The student coordinator for the 35th annual Festival of Native Arts was Brenda Congdon of Barrow, a UAF senior anthropology major who will graduate in May.

Each night of the three-day festival was dedicated to an individual.

Thursday, it was Susan McHenry, a UAF Alaska Native student adviser and counselor since 1972.

Friday, the late Marie Smith Jones from the Eyak Nation was remembered, and Saturday, the contributions of the late Rev. Chief David Salmon of the Athabascan Nation were recounted.

The Rev. Anna Frank, a protege of Salmon’s, shared some personal memories about the traditional chief and Episcopal priest who continued teaching until his death in Chalkyitsik in October at age 95.

In the late 1960s, Salmon was the first Native Athabascan to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Alaska, Frank said. With only one year of schooling, he was essentially self-taught and worked hard to achieve his goal of becoming a minister.

Frank recalled meeting Salmon once in a village. When it came time for the church service, he asked her and another female priest present if they had brought their vestments. They hadn’t.

“Did we get a scolding,” Frank said. “That was the last time I left my vestments at home. He said, ‘Always be ready to do the work of God.’”

Frank credits Salmon’s teachings and encouragement for her own ministy.

“If it wasn’t for Father Salmon who stepped forth, I would not be standing here,” she said.

Frank also inherited from Salmon the role of Archdeacon for the Diocese. An archdeacon is the eyes and ears for the bishop, she explained. “I was proud to accept that from David,” Frank said.

“David had many gifts and he will be missed. We especially miss his teaching.”