Audio
Darlene Ahkvaluk
Transcript
Sue: So I’m just curious what you know I mean thinking back to you know it seems to me that the first the first time that it something happened was when Lynn Cox swam across.
Darlene: Uh huh.
Sue: Were you here for that?
Darlene: Uh huh!
Sue: Would you what did what was your thought can you think back and remember whether you thought this was something crazy or or something new and exciting, or
Darlene: I think that uh when she first …. Found out this this lady’s going to come to our village, she wants to swim across. And we’re looking in between the islands and the current and the waters and we’re everybody was wondering what does this lady look like is she fat is she skinny is she athletic or anything? But when she came everybody looked at her, oh gee she’s gonna swim [unintelligible]
Sue: That’s recording. All those noises.
Darlene: Don’t make noise! [child: OK] Anyways, um, when she came, I didn’t personally get to meet her but everybody else you know got curious and we’re just looking at her, watching her, and watching her practice swim out here, just in the bathing suit, thought GEE, isn’t she get cold! [S laughs] Well we start have we didn’t have confidence she woild make it with the current. Everybody watch her practice swimming. All across here. And she’d go halfway and come back and uh then we start having confidence she can really make it! And um it was foggy that day she swam across and everybody wanted to follow! Everybody got in the boats and wanted to follow but they got stopped by the border guards.
Sue: [unintelligible]
Darlene: The boat came out. And shooed everybody away and told ’em they they couldn’t follow, just only the escort boat. So the only ones that got to go across was the escort boat. Not knowing there was relatives waiting across there!
Sue: Oh my god. Oh that’s so
Darlene: They made it across and they told everybody who they met, whose daughter, whose son, they met across there, waiting.
Sue: They were able to say that that happened? (??)
Darlene: Yeah!
Sue: Didn’t didn’t they um [coughs] end up putting having the ladies talk to Albert on the CB?
Darlene: I can’t remember what they did.
Sue: Cuz he speaks their language.
Darlene: Oh yeah I think they talked on the radio. And um
Sue: Well did you go out in the boats?
Darlene: No, it was too foggy and Charlie was just just about a year old. I couldn’t, I didn’t wanna go out there it’s too foggy and damp and wet.
Sue: Now your dad did your dad and mom go across?
Darlene: Yeah they wanted to go! But they they were in my brother-in-law’s and sister’s boat in Randy and Jeri’s boat, the whole family.
Sue: Uh huh
Darlene: in uh that boat Milligrock family were in that boat to go across but they got shooed away
Sue: Ach
Darlene: and told they had to turn back which really disgraced my mom and dad.
Sue: Oh.
Darlene: Anyway, the people that escorted them Lynn across they told who was at the beach. And that’s when Albert got to talk to em on the radio. And talk about peace and quiet not a peep just listening to each other talk was so neat.
Sue: Mm.
Darlene: And um the lady that he talked with said she’s gonna come here. She’s gonna find a way to come here. And the excitement of the boats coming. Lot of boats coming across one summer. There was so exciting. And then
Sue: Oh, the next summer?
Darlene: yeah and they came and and at first they were shy! To go to each other until finally somebody came forward I think Tommy Menadelook was the mayor then
Sue: Mhm
Darlene: And said, “Don’t be shy! This is America! United States! It’s Alaska! You’re not home over there! Here you could say anything, you could find your relatives!” I guess they had started saying last names and there I remember seeing it on a video cuz I was living in Nome.
Sue: Uh huh
Darlene: When they first came. I saw it all on video from my dad he had videotaped everything, and um he would say whose family is who.
Sue: Really.
Darlene: And they would meet with there was groups of relatives at the gym, like the Ahkvaluks were with their relatives.
Sue: Wow
Darlene: The Ozennas. The Soolooks. Iyapanas. The Milligrocks. In bunches. Catching up with each other. Who’s alive, who passed away.
Sue: How were they how were they able to communicate?
Darlene: They start they spoke our language.
Sue: They spoke the language enough?
Darlene: Yeah. The uh parents had made it made it so they could know the language here
Sue: Yeah
Darlene: So they wouldn’t be no barrier in case they got to come and visit.
Sue: Well now did your mom and dad did they ever go over to the other side,
Darlene: Um
Sue: before the border closed?
Darlene: In the winter when we first came here in the late mid-’70s late ’70s my dad would go across there
Sue: Really
Darlene: With the other men. And visit. And keep in touch with relatives that way.
Sue: Mm
Darlene: Cuz some people used to live there. So, when they really cut off the visitation, there was nothing. No more news on who’s still alive [S coughing] and who passed away and all that.
Sue: I know that when I was just over there, I forget who but some I know that some people asked about your dad
Darlene: Mhm
Sue: and I had to explain that he had just passed away.
Darlene: Uh huh.
Sue: So he’s certainly remembered over there.
Darlene: Yeah. Because um my dad had a brother there, an oldest brother.
Sue: Really!
Darlene: Yeah, and he looked just like Dwight. But chunkier.
Sue: That close!
Darlene: Uh huh
Sue: Wow!
Darlene: [To child] No Maggie. Don’t bother. Um, they told us what he had passed away I can’t remember what year he had passed away but they told us he had passed away but his children came across.
Sue: So they you got to meet with them here?
Darlene: Mhm.
Sue: Wow.
Darlene: And um, one his name is Afanassi who looks just like Stanley!
Sue: Ohh yes!
Darlene: Yeah
Sue: He was uh he’s a dancer
Darlene: Right
Sue: From Uelen. Uelen. Right?
Darlene: Mhm. Mhm. He look just like my nephew
Sue: And he’s rela, he’s related to, to you guys?
Darlene: Yeah, he’s my first cousin.
Sue: Now is he still alive?
Darlene: Yeah.
Sue: He is
Darlene: They [unintelligible] told he’s still
Sue: Wow.
Darlene: Um
Sue: Now, you never went across, did you? But I remember when we went over that first time by skin boat and Vernon went
Darlene: Uh huh
Sue: Didn’t you make a phone call over there?
Darlene: Yeah! I was worried, oh did you guys make it!
Sue: How did you make that phone call?
Darlene: I went through any string I could think of!
Sue: And you made it.
Darlene: Through the operator, I asked lots of questions. I call I just dial Alascom
Sue: You dialed Alas
Darlene: Dialed zero, got a operator, and said, I am calling from Diomede. My boyfriend and his cousins went across with a skin boat on an expedition, and we haven’t hear anything—how they’re doing or did they make it? Where are they staying? You know we have all these questions. And um I said just how do I get to call over there and they’re telling me all these things and I was writing em on a notepad everything. And they’re and I didn’t know they had a uh Russian interpreter in Anchorage! I didn’t know operators they got
Sue: Ohhhh!
Darlene: at Anchorage they have operators that speak a different language.
Sue: Mhm.
Darlene: To talk to the operator on the other side.
Sue: But didn’t that call, did you have to go like through Pittsburgh and
Darlene: Yeah I had to go through
Sue: Moscow, and all of that
Darlene: Yeah! Yeah!
Sue: So your phone call literally went around the world.
Darlene: Yeah. First had to go Pittsburgh, from Pittsburgh to Moscow. From Moscow I think it went to Provideniya. From Provideniya, I went to Lavrentia. From Lavrentia it went to up there. It made a real big circle!
Sue: Did you get a hold of Vern? Vernon?
Darlene: No, I just got a hold of some lady
Sue: Did she speak English, or
Darlene: No!
Sue: So you just got some Russian on the phone!
Darlene: Yeah! But the operator Alascom operator was so excited this phone call from Diomede went all the way around [S laughing] when you could just it’s just right across actually just like right across the street. You know. I thought this is crazy. Why do I have to go clear across the world just to try to find out how they’re doing over there!
Sue: It’s amazing. So what did you were you able to figure anything out once you got this Russian lady on the phone?
Darlene: The Alascom operator was so excited, he stayed on the line
Sue: Yeah
Darlene: And translated for me.
Sue: Oh you’re kidding! Really!
Darlene: Huh ah! I didn’t have to say anything.
Sue: So what did you ask, what did you figure out
Darlene: I told him to ask if you guys had made it across. Are you guys all right. When’s your next day to come across.
Sue: Are you ever coming home!
Darlene: Yeah, when are you guys coming home! And uh the the you know the translation guy was everybody’s all right, no need to worry, everybody’s catching up with their relatives, and they’re gonna go home next nice weather. I just whenever is that [laughs]. Oh man that next nice weather could be next month in my mind. Looking at Vernon’s mom watching me on the phone. [S laughs] I just said that they’re OK and they’re looking for their relatives and they’ll come home next nice weather. She said that could be two weeks to a month from now! [S laughs] I said I know! But it can get nice. It will get nice.
Sue: Well boy I tell ya those guys were so eager to come home after about one night there and all the cockroaches, they wanted to [D laughs] come home! So bad! But we and we left after four days and it was just too swelly we couldn’t get back.
Darlene: Yeah we got word you guys somebody called here
Sue: they—you’re kidding! Really?
Darlene: No! I think this uh
Sue: Luda?
Darlene: Yeah.
Sue: I bet.
Darlene: I became good friends with her over the telephone.
Sue: Yeah.
Darlene: And somebody that I had called I left ’em our number I told the operator to le-, give ’em our number. They called!
Sue: They called
Darlene: And said that you guys try to come home, but it was too swelly and you guys turned back. But they’ll try again the next nice weather. They actually called.
Sue: Wow. I wonder, she must have had to go the complete opposite direction that you did all the way around
Darlene: Yeah
Sue: And back again
Darlene: She did.
Sue: Wow.
Darlene: And uh that was so exciting.
Sue: Do you remember what it felt like when when the boats took off to go across to the other side, I mean and you saw them disappear around the south end of Little Diomede?
Darlene: I, I was thinking, gee they’re so lucky to go find their relatives!
Sue: Wow
Darlene: To let ’em know we’re ok and let us know they’re OK.
Sue: So you, you were always aware that there were people over there, Native people and relatives, and
Darlene: Uh huh. My dad told told us never forget we have relatives over there. When they do get a chance to come across, ask for them! Don’t just stand there and look at ’em. If any Siberian Eskimo come across whether it’s your relative or not, invite ’em in your home and feed ’em. Let em watch TV, let ’em watch movies. They love to watch TV! They don’t got TV over there.
Sue: So did a lot of people come visit at your dad’s house?
Darlene: I walk in one evening they were catching up with family news, everybody was talking. And communicating. This went on every day! There in the afternoon if my since my dad was on a city council I would need him to sign checks I would go in and get him to sign some checks, and they’d be talking!
Sue: Oh
Darlene: And communi-, just keep getting caught up on everything. And pictures, they brought pictures.
Sue: Did they.
Darlene: They did. And they uh point out who’s who.
Sue: What’s been for you personally the most important thing to have come out of the border reopening?
Darlene: To um get back with family ties.
Sue: Yeah.
Darlene: and meet more relatives. And catch up. And you know just keep the family try to keep it together, and keep up with each other, and knowing we are related with each other. It’s I think it’s the most important part is to try to keep in touch without losing it.
Sue: What would you like to see for the future concerning the border?
Darlene: Let it keep being visa free and hopefully they could get people to they could get money to hire customs in every village across there almost, or you know three or four custom agents separated amongst the villages so that person that custom agent can just [door squeaks open] go to the next village,
Sue: Mhm
Darlene: check them out so they can come across here, and I I’ve got the paperwork in my office, I was willing to do the customs stuff. And the people here were willing to help me. We were going to set up a table out, table right out the water plant to check ’em in. We were gonna have all the paperwork ready for them to sign and stamp right there.
Sue: Hmm!
Darlene: And I was willing to do it and other people were willing. Lot of people were willing to help. And asking what do I do right here and right here you know and I and the custom agents had come, I forgot his name. He came here one summer, he waited for the boats to come across.
Sue: Oh really. Is that when the whale boats came? The six whaleboats?
Darlene: Uh, no. Um, when they went to Kotzebue.
Sue: Uh huh.
Darlene: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
Sue: Yeah.
Darlene: And I was trained how to do that, and I showed other people…
Description
Darlene Ahkvaluk shares her memories of Lynn Cox's swim from Little Diomede to Big Diomede and reconnecting with relatives.
Copyright and Usage Info