In the morning Ms. Jones, Cathy and I caught the schools bus and rode into school. At 10:00 Cathy talked to the students about her work on the ice. I also presented, talking about Hartford High and the kinds of activities that we do there. I also showed the PolarTREC website and invited the students to interact with us on the ice.
Cathy Geiger Presenting to Students
After school Nancy, the village elder, honored Cathy and I by taking us to meet with two other village elders, Hannah and Annie. We had a nice talk and visit. They offered us some dried salmon and moose meat to eat. It was very good. After our visit we went to watch the crowning of the Spring Carnival Queen and her court. We arrived at the tribal meeting house with three elders (wicked cool!).
Spring Carnival Queen and Court
The girls were dressed in their ceremonial clothes, gave speeches, showed the judges samples of their beadwork and traditional handicrafts, and one of the girls sang "Amazing Grace".
Spring Carnival Queen
After the ceremony, Ms Jones, Cathy, and I went back to Ms Jones cabin, where we sat and talked. Basketball is an important sport in the villages. The high school teams fly to other villages to play games, and then if successful play in the state championships. The Fort Yukon Eagles have a proud tradition and have been very successful over the years.
During our stay Ms Jones had made us two wonderful dinners. One was moose meat and rice, the other was a salmon stew. Both meals were very good and all with a broken leg!
Robert doing dishes